Sagna, Eboue, Gallas, Ljungberg and Martins - discuss
Posted by Arsenal News on 11, July 2007
Morning, I have just woken up as today I am doing a late shift at skysports.com - 16.00 until 00.00
Many thoughts have been whizzing round my head, I guess there are a few key areas that I wish to cover - Sagna, Eboue, Ljungberg, Martins and Gallas.
Okay first on the list is Sagna, with various sites reporting that he is due to sign, it does appear that his signature will be officially confirmed in the next 24 hours or so. The Sun has this photo - it seems pretty genuine. If they were going to do a photoshop job on it they would have made it look a lot slicker. I am pretty sure we can pencil his name in the players in section now. Unlike the Eduardo signing this one has gone on for quite a while and has been public knowledge. Most people, including me are a little confused at his capture. His main position is right-back, we have Hoyte and Eboue - who recently signed long-term deals and of course we have Gilbert - who returned from loan. Sagna can operate at left-back, which is definitely a bonus. Clichy is bound to get a knock/suspension at some point next season and I am not convinced Traore is ready yet. Gallas can of course slot in at left-back but discussion of the loud-mouth will come a bit later. So here lies the confusion, while Eboue will be off to the ACN, Hoyte can cover and Gilbert has shown real promise before. Some fans reckon that Eboue might be pushed up into right midfield, this would indeed tie in with the possible departure of Freddie but still I am not sure. Eboue does have an excellent cross on him and certainly can power forward. I don’t know really. It is all a bit confusing. Maybe with this weekend’s friendly coming up we might see where Wenger fancies playing Eboue. Does anyone have a link of where you can watch the game online (for free)? Sagna for around £6-7 million then. A good signing? I think it is a sensible one but not one we desperately needed. He is at a good age and is hugely rated in France. Only time will tell as to where he will fit into the squad.
Fiorentina are in London discussing a possible move for Freddie but reports suggest that they could well face competition from a few Premiership sides. The general consensus seems to be that if Freddie is willing to take a wage-cut then he will leave. He is on £90,000 a week with us and while I really love him, over the past two seasons he has not earned his money. I would be happy with the sale of Freddie as long as Arsene has a right winger lined up to replace him. I am concerned as right now for me we are desperately lacking in the winger department. Rosicky is excellent, Hleb up and down (I rate him though), Freddie looks set to leave and Walcott is only a temporary right-sided-midfielder. Our lack of width last season was a well discussed issue, I really am hoping once the Reyes situation is sorted out, a left footed wide man will come in - one with pace and the ability to beat people. If Freddie leaves it is imperative that we bring in a right sided midfielder too, might that man be Eboue? We shall see. There are rumours circulating that Liverpool are chasing Quaresma. Personally if he went to Anfield for a reasonable sum of money I would be gutted. He is shit-hot.
I am also of the belief that we could do with another striker. Currently we have - van Perise, Adebayor, Bendtner, Eduardo and Walcott (kind of, I still think he needs another season out wide). With Adebayor heading to the ACN and if van Persie gets a knock, we are a bit short. No-one knows how quickly Eduardo will adapt, while Bendtner has to make a huge step up. Martins is being banded about again, while I think he is a good player, we will still be stuck with the ACN issue all over again.
Onto Gallas then, I said in my previous blog how I am fed up of his comments. I meant it. He is a pain. He is not helping the side. Henry had a moan every now and then but he was with us for years and was a true legend. Gallas has only been with us for a season and did not even play particularly well. I think we could get decent amount of money for him, I am confident Djourou can step up to the plate too. Furthermore I am sure Arsene could pick up a sound defender (one that would not bring negativity to the club) to replace Gallas with the money received for him.
Okay rant over. We have been ’strongly’ linked with Yoan Gouffran, a young highly rated French striker. Reports suggest we will sign him for 2 mill and then loan him back out - great.
I am not panicking, I am more than aware there is looooads of time. As a fan though, when you have no clue what is going on in the background, sometimes it is easy to worry.
Just to summarise…
Players/positions to sign -
Reyes out - a left winger in
Freddie out - a right winger in
Gallas out - a centre-back in
A non-African striker in
11, July 2007 at 10:21 am
sagna and martins in the bag as it seems but there,s only one over player we need as a replacement for henry
and surpriseingly know one around europe has bided for him.his name is robinho working under wenger im shore
he will become the world greatest player.better than henry robinho needs to work under a manager like wenger
as wenger would bring out the best in him
11, July 2007 at 10:25 am
huntelaar !! i think we should buy him because the is no ACN worries and he is a clinical finisher. but also liverpoo are tryin to stoke our babel from under our noses. we should snap him up to as he can play upfront - we have enuff strikers already - so he can also play left / attacking midfield. huntellar babel sagna davies should do it, all pretty cheap too
11, July 2007 at 10:33 am
I still have a nagging feeling that eduardo was picked for the left wing position. But that would still leave us a striker (or two) short. And i would love to see robinho in the team, but i seriously doubt real will let him go, especially after his brilliant form in Copa. Anyways, in Wenger we trust…
Btw, http://www.myp2p.eu usually pick up most matches from around the globe. Worth a shot.
11, July 2007 at 10:36 am
Eboue has an excellent cross on him?!! When I was at the emirates game against villa he had so many attempts at crossing and nearly every one went over the crossbar. He couldnt cross to save his life. Perhaps he has improved since then but I dont recall him putting many good balls in throughout the season
11, July 2007 at 10:46 am
Eboues cross improved over the course of last season. He´s an interesting alternative to what we already have. His main strengths as a wide player are his pace and crosses. He has quite a good shot on him as well, so it could work out. However I believe we need a left sided player with pace and who is technically sound. I think we´ll see a left sided midfielder, Eboue to take over from Freddie and another striker who can deputies when the African legion departs for the ANC.
11, July 2007 at 11:10 am
If AW buys Martins and no wingers, maybe he’s thinking along the lines of a 4-1-2-3, a la Chelsea, with Gilberto in the Makalele role:
Da Silva–Adebayor–Van Persie
—–Fabregas—–Rosicky—–
———-Gilberto————
Clichy—Gallas–Toure—Sagna
———–Lehmann————
With back-up in the form of:
–Martins–Bendtner–Walcott–
——Denilson——Hleb——
————-Diaby————
Gilbert-Senderos-Djourou-Eboue
———–Fabianski———-
And lots of youngsters coming through for further backup?
I trust Arsene Wenger anyway, but I don’t like Gallas (or Eboue or Hleb) and I don’t rate Martins much. It’s good to see a bit of a shake up after the last two seasons.
Still, there are plenty of world class platers in the squad and I am looking forward to seeing Dudu fly…
11, July 2007 at 11:13 am
players.
11, July 2007 at 11:16 am
Eboue used to be terrible at crossing.
Then one game against man utd, henry scored a header from an AMAZING cross. Myself and my brother wondered where the hell that came from then realised it was eboue.
It happened again too!
Its like overnight someone taught him to cross. If you still think he cant cross you dont pay enough attention to our team. Go support chelski you’ll fit in there, where you can read about the team in HEAT and the front page of NOTW.
11, July 2007 at 11:33 am
Huntelaar for me. He is Drogba, plus Vanisteroy. Class heading ability and a box top finisher as well.
11, July 2007 at 11:35 am
I’m a world class plater. At least, my ex-girlfriend said so.
11, July 2007 at 11:39 am
Hope we sell Reyes, Freddie and Gallas, and get a good sum of money to buy two experienced players with muscles and heart for the club, one in midfield and one striker. And please, not Martins nor E’too, they both have bigger names than quality.
11, July 2007 at 11:41 am
we could have got babel 2 weeks ago for bout 6m.now pool are signing him for bout 13m..wich is alot of money.kinda remind me on what happened to dudek :/
if we bought dudu to play on the wing?why would we mess that up..if he scored more than 70 golas in a 100 games playing as a striker?
be sad to see freddy go…but his not the same anymore
eboue into right midfield?hmmm might be the reason we buying sagna
still believe we need 1 real world class winger
plz stay away from the africans…acn coming up
i did look at the photo in the sun…sagna nr 3..that looked fake.sure they did some work on it ..cause it doesnt look anywhere near the same shirt as the one dudu got…
11, July 2007 at 11:42 am
I dare say that Ebue is the best crosser in Arsenal! The ManUtd goal was just one of the many crosses he sent in. The problem is many of his efforts were squandered by the Adebayo’s of this world. REmember VanP’s wonder goal against Charlton? That was Ebue’s cross again. Its good to know that Dudu is a good header of the ball as well.I’ve always wanted to see him more as a winger because of his dribbles, power, pace and crossing ability. Deceptively wins space well. I dont rate him highly as a right back though.
11, July 2007 at 11:57 am
Quaresma is amazing! I would do anything to sign him - ANYTHING!!!!
11, July 2007 at 12:02 pm
well it is good that some players are coming in to arsenal and i am also happy with comments made by Gallas for one reason- end of Transfer window we could end up spending £40 mill and that is a lot of money. if the press and other clubs pick on that they could use that as a way of putting presure on our young team, so lets keep our spendings quite.
martins is a maluda we are unlikely to sign him, however we need another wide forward so Eduardo could play through the middle and do what he does best.
if that happens Hleb could move bak to AMC which will bring the best out of his game.
11, July 2007 at 12:09 pm
If you work for sky ,then maybe you might get the odd bif gossip coming out of the club, and if so the you shld tell us about it.
Sagna who is a very good player, who has not offically signed yet, has the transfer fee not been agreed yet ?
11, July 2007 at 12:10 pm
that sagna picture is fake, the premiership writing on the back of his shirt is not the same as the new writing, hence FAKE! :
11, July 2007 at 12:12 pm
Eboue was never a RB untill he joined Arsenal. He was a MF player. You can’t blame him if he is not exceptionally good in that position. AW decided to play him that position because of his pace and skill.
11, July 2007 at 12:20 pm
I’m really annoyed at hearing everyone say Freddy isn’t the same player he was a while back. He’s spent so much time nursing damn injuries. What do you all expect, him to play on crutches? Obviously if you spend so much time out injured, it will be hard to get back into the rhythm of the team as you need to get back into the regular training system after recovering and have to get match fit quickly as well as compete to gain back your spot taken away by someone else who plays in your position. My point is, people have been on his back for too long about him not being the same player when in reality it’s just because he’s been injured a lot lately.
That leads me to my other point. With all this talk about money being spent on players, haven’t you all noticed how many of our players get injured each season? I think enough attention isn’t being paid to our physiotherapy system. If we really want to challenge for the title in the upcoming season we not only need to increase the depth of the squad but also improve our physiotherapy system or no matter how many signings we make, we’ll still have as many injuries as a hospital.
11, July 2007 at 12:28 pm
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gA6Xg8YEfRE
All this talk of Freddie to Viola makes me more and more excited that we may see Bojinov following his seemingly frank dismissal from Juve and Tina……… Check out the link above……. he may not be polished or the finished article but the raw undeniable talent is there.
Temperament maybe questionable
Your thoughts????
11, July 2007 at 12:33 pm
It seems a lot of people are missing the point slightly, crossing isnt the be-all-and-end-all of wide midfield play. Positional sense is crucial. When you are a defender the game is often all in front of you and you often receive the ball either from tackling or passing facing play. For midfielders/attackers often the ball is received with the players back turned to play/opponents goal. If Eboue plays in midfield, will he have not only the positional sense but also intelligence to play it more efficiently? Even more crucially will he contribute enough goals form that position? All title winning sides have good goal scorers from midfield ala Pires and Ljunberg.
11, July 2007 at 12:34 pm
I’m not impressed with Bojinov. Have you seen his scoring record? Don’t let Football Manager fool you. He’s overrated.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/fo/profiles/70000000000000000000021152.html
11, July 2007 at 12:50 pm
Martins will be a big buy for Arsenal, he is a clinical finisher especially with his left feet! wow! you should have seen that goal against Tottenham last season, that left shot which Mr. Robinson just looked sailed inside the net, it was a hell of a goal! He is beetr that Eduardo who will still need to adapt to the premiership. Martins came to premiership last season and scored 11 goals, think about that guyz!
11, July 2007 at 1:48 pm
Gotta agree with the first comment from James. Robinho is only true heir-apparent to Thierry in world football today, and he is indeed being misused considerably at Real Madrid. Without question, he can become the World Footballer of the Year under Wenger’s astute tutelage. Reyes is the key to unlocking that door to him. If AW can get it right, it would be a transfer for the ages and a coup the likes of which we have never seen, totally nullifying anything ManU have done thus far in the transfer market. If I were Wenger, I would first exhaust this option b4 I even think about the Martins idea! At certain times in life, there are opportunities that one cannot pass up. This is one of them. Do your thing AW!
11, July 2007 at 2:07 pm
on the martins issue, i heard a few weeks ago that he received death threats while being at home in africa and the player himself hinted that he might quit international football because of the situation in his homeland
11, July 2007 at 3:22 pm
I’d like Robinho to come in some swap deal plus cash for Reyes, but I doubt this could happen. He’s been huge for Brazil in the copa america so far and the new Real Madrid coach supposedly teaches the teams he trains to play entertaining football, which would suit Robinho.
On the other hand Wenger and Arsenal are big names and if Robinho is somehow led to believe he’s wanted as Henry’s replacement i.e. that he would be THE big player of the team (in a league where skillfull players like C.Ronaldo and Tevez play and fared well) then his ego might be tempted. Plus Gilberto, Eduardo and Denilson are Brazilian fellows who could help him settle. We can’t do anything about the rain and the opening hours though and we know some from Spain don’t like it
11, July 2007 at 3:30 pm
Eboue will make a great RM! He is fast and has a good shot on him. As for strikers, Martins is good, but if vpersie and eduardo are on form will he be satisfied with sitting on the bench? Personally i think babel would be a better buy, he can play midfield aswell and hes also very young.
11, July 2007 at 3:35 pm
Id like robinho to come, but i cant see it happening. He will grow into a great player, but he could be even better if Wenger is there to help, but i still cant see him playing english football.
11, July 2007 at 3:36 pm
Eboue to right of midfield makes absolute sense as his skill sets would seem to indicate - good dribbler with excellent pace whose preference or tendency is to hug the right touchline. Nevermind that his crossing is miles better than earlier in his career. In fact, I will go so far as to say that he may be the best crosser of the ball at the club right now.If you have any doubts, watch his progression from game to game since his first inclusion into the first team. His strengths are not that of a conventional rightback.If that is AW plan, he is spot on and further confirms his eagle eye for developing talent.
11, July 2007 at 3:42 pm
Who will be in the starting XI though, hleb or eboue? Hlebs an amazing player, but he is nowhere near as fast at eboue, he cant cross as well, and he didnt score enough last season. Itll be interesting to see who gets in the starting XI.
11, July 2007 at 11:58 pm
[...] Sagna, Eboue, Gallas, Ljungberg and Martins - discuss Morning, I have just woken up as today I am doing a late shift at skysports.com - 16.00 until 00.00 Many thoughts have […] [...]
12, July 2007 at 6:21 am
[...] Sagna, Eboue, Gallas, Ljungberg and Martins - discuss [...]
12, July 2007 at 12:37 pm
besides wings don`t you think its time we got a decent goalkeeper lehamnn is a blabber mouth and is arragant the whole arsenal defence hates him he always puts them down criticises them and pushes them. Last season Lehmann nearly got in afight with toure and gallas. And i think it is time wenger relaxed on buying all these french and afrikan players
12, July 2007 at 1:01 pm
Lehman’s reflexes are beginning to fail him…remember the away PSV goal that literally knocked us out of the CL. I hope the new guy can adapt fast and be first choice keeper………
12, July 2007 at 2:16 pm
Bacary whoa oa
Bacary whoa oa oa oa
His Mum’s from Senegal
He plays for Arsenal……
12, July 2007 at 2:37 pm
i think martins is a great player, he can use both foot better on the left though, has great shooting power and great pace that can catch any defence on a counter. AW really needs to buy martins
12, July 2007 at 2:39 pm
Martins is a very good player better than eduado, martins is good on both foot but better on the left have great pace and great shooting power
12, July 2007 at 3:00 pm
If we sign another forward (Martins or Robinho) does that mean we will play a 4-3-3?
———–Jens————–
—————————–
Sagna–Toure–Gallas–Clichy
—————————–
-Fabregas–Gilberto–Rosicky-
—————————–
–v. Persie———Eduardo–
—————————–
———–Martins———–
As much as I would love that formation and the chances we would create, there would be very little width. Something we lacked greatly last season.
What do u guys think will be our line-up next season?
12, July 2007 at 9:48 pm
……..lehmann……..
.sagna.toure.gallas.clichy.
.eboue.fabregas.gilberto.rosicky.
….v persie….eduardo….
13, July 2007 at 1:41 am
go for trabelsi!!!
13, July 2007 at 4:05 am
Okay so who’s next on Wenger’s shopping list? I hope it’s not Gouffran. There’s nothing special about that guy. I hope Robinho’s next.
13, July 2007 at 10:50 am
£ 7.5 mill for a right back that you allready got cover for seems a bit daft. And belive me this bakara is nothing special. Is wenger right to be spending money like that
13, July 2007 at 2:07 pm
It is Bacary actually and he is considered to be one of the best right-backs in France. Sagnol’s successor in-fact. Plus chances are Eboue will move into midfield.
13, July 2007 at 3:09 pm
Sagna is a great right-back - Arsene Wenger wouldn’t have signed him if he wasn’t.
13, July 2007 at 6:33 pm
Most reports from Auxxere are saying they cant belive that Arsenal were prepaired to pay that sort of money for sagna, because over the last 2 season he has been truely truely average. he is slower than he looks, with poor distrubution. Are you sure Wenger knows what he is doing.
13, July 2007 at 11:56 pm
I’m hearing word we’re linked to a young Argentine player from Rosario Central called Angel Di Maria. He looks very impressive from what I’ve seen. Very pace and has a strong shot and isn’t afraid to shoot from distance. He seems to be what our left wing needs at the moment. I’ve heard that Grimandi is in Argentina looking to work out a deal with his club. Does that mean that Grimandi is our new Director of Football? Anyway, check out Di Maria here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw1kLqIldMA
14, July 2007 at 12:33 am
Hi! It’s very interesting forum. There are two search systems:
Main Search pjtch.by.ru
mult.pjtch.by.ru
Medical Search bez.pjtch.by.ru
med.pjtch.by.ru
14, July 2007 at 8:00 am
hey site operator…as you may of guessed Im a new arsenal fan again since Eduardo Da SIlva joined the squad. The reason I say again is because i lost interest in the team when Davor Suker left…
anyway, my question is….Will eduardo da silva be included in the starting line up for the friendly match between arsenal and barnet??
The reason I ask is because many Croatian portals and news sites said the he will not play in that game….supposibly wenger only announced the following players for the match against barnet:
Toure, Manuel Almunij, Gael Clichy, Mathieu Flamini, Denilson, The Walcott, Robin van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor
I hope you, or anyone who sees this responds on this comment post.
Thank you
14, July 2007 at 8:05 am
Optamistic - you’re just a sh*t stirrer. Sagna is so average he was named best player in his position in the French first division last season.
14, July 2007 at 9:00 am
Eduardo Da Silva will not play against barnet because he stll didnt get his work permit
14, July 2007 at 1:15 pm
I hope I’m not the only one here who thinks Optamistic is an absolute twat who doesn’t know anything about football. And he’s probably a spud in disguise.
Anyway, Sagna is a very good player. I live in France, so I’ve seen him play regularly, and he’s a better defender than Eboue or Hoyte. He’s also very strong and a good tackler, which means he’ll adapt quickly to the physical side of english football.
He also seems to be have a good spirit, and gives 100% at every game.
So even though it’s a bit strange to buy a third right back, I reckon he’ll become an important player in the years to come.
Now I’d like to see another striker coming in (I’d prefer Huntelaar to Martins who despite saying he was born in 1984 is actually in his late twenties), or/and a real winger (Drenthe or Quaresma).
14, July 2007 at 7:01 pm
Again wenger ws asked after the game “are you fully comitted to Arsenal” you have to say the Answer was a resounding NO!. Are you Arsenal fans sure wenger is the right man to carry you forward? seems to me his minds on another challange. managing Real Madrid maybe?
14, July 2007 at 7:19 pm
with fabrigas off in the january window
16, July 2007 at 3:19 pm
Optamistic, you talk some shit. Rodrigo Palacio will sign for 15M from Boca Juniors - im glad because he has real quality.
16, July 2007 at 3:19 pm
Optamistic, you talk some shit. Rodrigo Palacio will sign for 15M from Boca Juniors - im glad because he has real quality.
18, July 2007 at 6:29 pm
passenal & sam the dog-steve gooner & I(king gooner)are well awarwe of “optapissdick” & his shit stiring-he is a closet spud with manure tendencys-he comes on to our sites to try & obtain some intellectual discussion- obviously unavailable on the other neanderthal inbred sites pertaining to be football blogs.just ignore…..
15, August 2007 at 7:09 am
Yahweh’s New Covenant Assembly
Thank you for your post!
25, September 2007 at 5:06 pm
25, September 2007 at 5:07 pm
thx sagna,persie,toure,n`fabregas…..love u wenger
30, October 2007 at 9:12 am
Fabregas skill is equal with Zidane..
30, October 2007 at 10:47 pm
You don’t really need or want that lifestyle, it might hurt y’all slowly more…….Just tell him you
don’t wanna repeat something your not too proud of z7uas.
26, November 2007 at 1:12 pm
cqkgjytmwg cqkgjytmwg cqkgjytmwgcqkgjytmwg
cqkgjytmwgcqkgjytmwgcqkgjytmwg cqkgjytmwg