Arsenal Poised for £10m Sale; Arsene to Spend
Posted by Steve Fales | Posted in English Premier League, World Soccer | Posted: July 21, 2009 at 5:00 am
28
Arsenal are on the verge of agreeing a £10m fee that will send Kolo Toure to Manchester City. This would mean Arsenal’s second player moving to the Eastlands in less than a week, generating around £35m for the gunners. Manchester City have apparently gone off the idea of purchasing Joleon Lescott from Everton, after the Toffees valuated him at £30m. City then turned their attention to the out of favor Toure, who looks to be demoted to the bench this season upon Thomas Vermaelen’s arrival to the Emirates. It is also a minor thing to note that, were Arsenal to sell Toure, the gunners would only have two players (Song, Eboue) who would be active in the African Cup of Nations, which is scheduled in February of 2010. As opposed to squads like Chelsea who will be without a few of their regulars. Arsenal would do well to get £10m for the slowing Toure, that is, if Arsene were guaranteed to spend it.
Wenger, on the other hand, has come out with his typical “I can spend if I want” statements, and I believe him. But I’m not curious as to whether he can spend the money, I’m just curious as to why he actually thinks the squad is strong enough in central midfield to ignore the £35m he’s generated in the past 5 days.
I just look back to the Champions League semi-final this past spring, to remember just how dominated Arsenal was. While the defense was injury riddled and we were without some key players, you’ll notice our top choice central midfielders were all healthy. Yet United bossed Arsenal from the kickoff through the entire 180 minutes. It could have been a fluke, an aberration, as Arsenal earned 4 points off them in the league, but why take that chance? Melo’s gone, Inler seems destined to end his career with Udinese, and Matuidi just doesn’t excite me. Were Arsenal to snatch Cana or maybe even Yaya (also to be involved in the African Cup of Nations), I’d be fully expectant of silverware this season, but for now, I just don’t know.
Lets do the math, Wenger apparently had £13m to spend at the beginning of the transfer window. Reportedly, Vermaelen came in for £11m, Arsenal sold Adebayor for a cool £25m and if you were to tack Toure on for £10m, that brings us to a warchest of £37m, or £24m to spend while still turning a profit for the summer. Just spend 12-15 of it, please Arsene? Lastly, after watching the first half of the Barnet friendly, I can’t help but think that Gallas and Vermaelen look to be very similar defenders, which, while immensly talented, leads me to believe Vermaelen is better suited to be Gallas’ eventual replacement rather than his partner in the center of defence. Maybe it’ll take Arsene one more year to realize he needs some size in the squad, but until we hear otherwise, he’ll roll the dice for another season. As if to say ‘Lets see what comes out on the other end…’
Loading ...
good post. I agree with you there, although I reckon £10m is the least we should expect for Toure. Dont forget this is City, not some random other club. If they want him they can pay top dollar. I mean if we keep Toure then its no bad thing – I still think he is a good player. But then those Hangeland rumours wont go away and maybe senderos will be the makeweight in that deal to sweeten it for Hodgson.
I like song, but I just cant see him being the bed rock of a title winning team. I think he is well capable of playing backup to a new DM. Inler would still be my pick. When song goes off for 6 weeks we need a better option than Denilson.
If we could get Hangeland and Inler, I would feel pretty happy about things. I think Nik B can handle being first choice centre forward but he needs to stay away from injury.
very good article i cant agree more! While purchasing a strkier would be nice its not crucial – but a strong DM is!! However i dont agree with selling Kolo he is our true captain and plays with heart.he is experienced.I would buy Chamkh (not great but good cover for Eduardo) for £7m plus Silvestre (who is useless);buy Hangeland for £7m plus Senderos (that will give us needed height+experience);then buy a DM (Cana,Frings,Cattermole,Scott Parker,Yaya,de Rossi all great)
we need wesley sneijder,huntelaar cost 35m sell senderos 7-10m we have gallas,vermaelen,toure,song,djourou so we have plenty of centre backs. rosicky,fab,sneijder,wallcott midfield is fab midfield and van persie,arshavin,bendtner,huntelaar as 4 top strikers. job done p.s the dutch always fit in the arsenal way of play
And your source for the Toure sale is?
Surely not ANR???
In which case it must be untrue!!!
it’s interesting that the author mentions that Arsenals midfield was dominated in the cup semi’s last season, but very little is made of the fact that Denilson didn’t play any of those matches, and in the matches Denilson did play in the league against the same opposition we did much better, is it a coincidence
I have to say, I think that at times Kolo is the most guilty of poor positioning and ball watching from crosses.
I cannot believe that we will not buy some size for CM and in my opinion we should probably replace both Kolo and Gallas (certainly pairing Verm and gallas doesn’t seem to be the answer to our problems).
I fear that we will not make any notable signings this summer and this will certainly send out a clear message that Arsenal Football Club are in a far worse financial position than anyone realises. I hope I am wrong!
If we sell Toure to City we MUST get Micah Richards as part of the deal. Then we’d have cover at right and centre back.
He’s a big guy, good in the air and as a bonus is an Arsenal fan!
I think we could get away with not buying another striker or centre back, but the one player we definately cannot do without is a Defensive Midfielder!
Wenger should spend some of his Ade money on someone who is experienced in that position and can free up Cesc to do his thing.
Its very simple….AW please dont let us down again this season after waiting for so long………….Please Ade has gone, dont try to sell any other person… why because the problem Arsenal faces every season is inexperince and inability to have a good replacement when the 1st choice is injured….Please keep the present team, they are matured now, just add more in case of injury……..RECOMMENDED PLAYERS are : Chamack (7M)Or Huntelaar 15M , Cana 5M and hangland 10M…………with 25M to 30M we can get his playes for Gods sake
Another thing is that we have a lot of luxury players and not enough bite. Diaby is a classic example of a player who will never be a first team regular but could be sold for £8m at least. Senderos must also be sold this summer, Eboue could be sold for £7m. I think you could sell these three for £20m ish, with which you buy two experienced players and the team and squad are better off than last year!
couldn’t agree more with GOOnerP the three players he mentions are all surplus to requirements but i feel that senderos always gave his all but was unlucky in that his slip ups usually led to a goal
I agree get Micah Richards as part of the deal then convert him to Holding midfield rold big strong just what we need
People seem to forget were in the champs league & reached the semi finals the last few season which generates alot of money plus our stadium was filled nearly every game with ticket prices not beinng cheap I must add & arsene wagner has hardly spent any money in the last 5 seasons So to say we havent got any money to spend is just rediclous someone is being tight. We have money to spend & should spend it on a goalkeeper, DM, CB & a forward such as Jussi Jaaskelainen, flamini, hangland & huntelaar. these players will slove all our problems & bring us intent success
please don’t sell kolo he is experience player that why don’t sell wenger please you want only to sell you don’t know how to buy
it seems to me that finally this season arsenal fans are starting to question ‘the professor’ (more like secondary school teacher as the players end up getting good and being sold) in his transfer dealings. if i were an arsenal fan, i would have been voicing my concern long long ago. it must be frustrating to know that you come within grasp of major honors each year but fall short due to lack of experience and depth. the squad has been crying out for a strong, experienced central midfielder for ages (for starters). you had flamini but he left after he had a good season. and so far this season you lost a player who netted 40-plus goals the past 2 seasons and no replacement is on the way? maybe eduardo and rvp can fill his boots, but i doubt both will get thru the season injury-free.
and just wondering but arsenal do turn quite a nice profit, filling up the stadium with the most expensive tickets etc, but it doesn’t seem to go into transfers..(arsene came out earlier this summer and said he didnt have that much money to spend, albeit before ade left) so where does it all go? all of it to the debt?
selling ade is selling our 4th place ,selling toure is selling our 7th place .keep toure get one DM and can get the 5th place .The 4th place is already gone with ade.never we get it back .it’s b/c of the fans Arsene sold our 4th place/ade/.Why you fans hate the best stricker in the world?I’m sure ade will show who he is?
wenger is a cunning fox.. remember he said on arsenal.com he’s looking to buy barry last season but went for alonso instead, this yr he did the same with chamakh. so i hope he’s going for huntelaar. and please, 1 more DM will do, how bout hitlzersberger?? he’ll not cost that much – strong, experienced, great shots… pls hurry arsene, in arsene we trust
Chris don’t get too excited, you’re out of your element here as a United fan. Ferguson can buy a player for upwards of 15 mil and nobody bats an eye, even though things seem to be slowing down now. Wenger has a budget, because Arsenal don’t turn as much revenue as United, so that Arsenal can manage their debt. Nobody’s questioning the professors abilities at all. Its just frustration, like when people were frustrated cos they thought he wasted 11 mil on some guy from Juventus, Thierry something…
a visit to le-grove paints a different picture.. or check some of these comments – ‘ you don’t know how to buy’ or ‘pls hurry arsene’ or ‘pls don’t let us down again this season’
just because i’m an united fan doesn’t mean im ‘out of my element’ – the comment is my opinion – i dont understand how im out of my element here – it’s not like im clueless as to what’s going on at rival clubs. are you not frustrated at the fact that your team’s failures these past few seasons have been evident for all to see but not appropriately addressed? it just seemed that to me, some fans are more frustrated than usual. that’s all my comment meant to say (i couldnt hold back with a dig at wenger). and im not advocating wenger take a cue from real/city and splurge on 3 or 4 players or anything – it’s just that you need a few strong experienced players (with their heads on straight) and you’ve needed it for a few years but nothing’s been coming…
and i dont see how the batting an eye comment applies here at all…
however i’m writing an article ‘if i were an arsenal fan’ which should be up tomorrow so look out for that.
The sell of kolo toure would be a good sell but if i waz arsene wenger i would milk it from they can buy Roque Santa cruz for 18mill and they really need a defender althought kolo wouldnt be the best buy cause he lacks concetration and areial strenght but because of the africa cup nations i would sell him and get bassong,cahill or the fulham dude because of their previous premiership as for the holding player song is the guy for the job he is only 20 and showed great qualties end of last year but i fear arsene might use him as a cb which is a bad idead because he is clumsy but lorik cana would be a great buy because of song going to cup of nations, diaby is great player who az any other player has bin hit by injuries in his first few years in the league perfectly understable!! and eboue should be kept he z gt energy and is gud player 2 have on the bench az he can play rb and STRIKER is needed and if god listens to my prayers it would be CLASS jan hunterlaar he z a clinical finisher and a patneship between him and persie who has alrdy played wid him in the national team would b unbelievble
I understand that arsenal fans are upset, that’s exactly what i said, frustration. But the reason I say your out of your element with this particular topic is because Arsenal have a different set of standards from the other three in the big four. While we may not like it, we cannot keep up financially, therefore finishing without a premier league or an FA Cup (League Cup isn’t worth anything) in the last 4 seasons has to be tolerated so that we can rebuild a winning team our own way. With another manager, wed fall to 6th or 7th if not worse.
I’m not saying you don’t deserve an opinion I’m just saying Wenger shouldn’t be criticized, he’s doing what’s best for the club.
“I would have been voicing my concern long ago” People have been ‘voicing their concern’ for 3 years.
“and so far this season you lost a player who netted 40-plus goals the past 2 seasons and no replacement is on the way” 30 of the 40+ came from a career year, and he was selfish, there’s nothing Arsene can do about that (see Cristiano). And we sold him 4 days ago, with more than a month left in the window. There are plenty of reasons to believe we will bring in another striker.
Let’s not forget Chris, Man Utd sold van Nistelrooy who was scoring 35+ goals a season around 2006 and did not really replace him leading to your club being poor in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.
exactly – isn’t that a warning sign for arsenal maybe?
Wenger: “I can spend if I want”
I am fed up with this, seriously! ENOUGH EGO! We MUST spend for a DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER and Hangeland, come ooooon!!
van Nistelrooy left in 2006, United have won the Premier League every season since his departure. United didn’t win a Premier League in any of van Nistlerooy’s last three seasons with the club.
Hopefully this is a warning sign to Arsenal…
shit i was thinking when beckham left the club… (as was that guy) – i just saw the years. to be fair ruud was gone one most of 2005/05 due to injury but you’re right.
this strays from the point though. – well see what happens in the rest of the window…and next season.
also i’m wondering what your source is for the ‘arsene to spend’ is? from what ive read, he’s said he can ’spend if i want’ or whatever.
hey chris! think it’s fine for you to comment on arsenal’spredicament and of course you aren’t an idiot just because you support utd. entitled to your opinion, mate. in fact i agree with what you’ve said about us.
i’m also not an idiot and am equally interested in rival teams.
what an unfortunate series of events its been for utd! falling from top dog in europe probably to nowhere near almost as a result of one game and one spanish take over at real. and then….the genius of replacing ronaldo (dangerous scoring tosser) and tevez (dangerous goal maker) with…michael owen. he has done nothing whatsoever against us in recent times – unlike other two. good luck with that..his best days ended about three to five years ago with serious injury that reduced speed. do you think walcott would get in arsenal team if he wasn’t that fast? no chance.
there is simply no point in berbatof and wayne will never score more than 15/year. it should be really obvious to everyone involved in football that great player as he is he sure aint a centre forward.
without ronaldo in particular it is highly unlikely you would have won much in the last few years.
now we’ll see who’s vying for fourth..
haha yea, we’ll see what happens. should be another interesting season.