Good morning and welcome to yet another instalment of tedious speculation about Andrei Arshavin. Nope, scrap that. As far as I’m concerned the last word on the matter has come from the Arseblogger with his astute owl comparison. We will not be mentioning the Arsh-word until something actually happens apart from his agent sitting in London hotels claiming that “ten, fifteen, twenty-five” top clubs all want to buy his boy. Now, there’s quite a big difference between having 10 clubs interested and twenty-five, isn’t there. It’s also curious in that case that they only ever mention Arsenal as even vaguely interested (and Sp*rs, but let’s be realistic here). Anyway, I’ll draw a line under the whole sorry affair until Arsene says otherwise:
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That feels better, doesn’t it? In place of the Arsh-word I’d like to suggest a player who I would love to see Arsene bring in this January. I’ve hinted at it before, but I really do think that Juan Sebastian Veron would be worth a shot.
In his favour is that he’s experienced at the very highest level of European football, can still pass like no-one else in the world apart from possibly Cesc, is being seriously considered for captaincy of the Argentinian national team and was last week awarded the South American Footballer of the Year award for his superb performances for Estudiantes, suggesting there is a lot of skill and influence in the old dog yet.
I also think he’d be very cheap and could be interested in a loan deal. I’ve seen him making noises about going to Lazio, but Lazio don’t seem to keen, probably still annoyed at his departure in 2001. Still, the fact that he’s interested show’s he’s got the appetite to get back in the big time.
He’d bring us exactly the kind of guile and experience that we need so badlyfor our midfield in the short term. He’s obviously eligible for the Champions’ League, where he was never short of superb for United and I certainly don’t see how he could do any harm to our season.
Clearly, people will point to his failure at United and Chelsea. Of course he never produced as everyone expected him to, but I always felt the extent of his “failure” was overblown by the then unheard of transfer fee shelled out for him and the media’s desire to pillory Fergie as we stormed to the title in 2002. Arsenal play their football in a very different way to Chelsea and United and his sheer passing ability might see him fit into our style surprisingly well.
He is a player of rare class and natural ability. Might it not be worth having a Bischoffian “gamble” on him?
Very interested to hear your thoughts on the idea of Veron coming to Arsenal.
On to other stuff, and I always enjoy reading TribalFootball if only to laugh at their always bizarre angle on footballing developments. Yesterday they ran the headline: “FABIANSKI REVEALS ARSENAL KEEPER DREAM!” What a revelation. Who could ever have guessed that all this time he was hoping to get a game. Someone better tell Arsene, pronto.
The crowning glory, though, was this little jewel of an analysis of Sp*rs purchasing of Jermaine Defoe:
Tottenham have got the 26-year-old England star on the cheap. They will only pay around £6million for him as Portsmouth still owe them £7m from the original deal and on their other Spurs signings Younes Kaboul and Pedro Mendes.
It is an incredible piece of business by Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.
They’re right to use the word “incredible”. As in, incredibly foolish, incredibly profligate, incredibly expensive. However much you try and make the deal look “on the cheap”, it quite simply wasn’t. That £7 million which Tottenham “saved” was money they were owed, y’know, like it was going to belong to them pretty soon. You can’t just pretend it never existed.
Apparently Jermaine was charming enough to request £700,000 from Portsmouth as a “loyalty bonus”, which Tottenham kindly paid for them. Snivelling. Little. Gits.
Tags: Andrei Arshavin, Arsenal, Jermaine Defoe, Juan Sebastian Veron, Lukas Fabianski
January 8th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Veron are you mad….it would make more sense to have Vieira back and to have 2 ex mancs in the squad would be a big step back we are the club that give away our rejects to the rest of the premiership
January 8th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Veron, no.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
r u insain man? hw could u even tink of that? u sould be asking for the likes of miguel veloso insted of …… i cnt even mention his name, cos im disgusted. we need veloso in our team to help hold that midfield together, so when cesc gets back he can go into the opposein teams goal if he likes and it wudnt bother the team in any way.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
i see where your coming from…… considering the contribution he would give to his worth at the moment i would say why not !!!!………….. not a bad choice !!!….
January 8th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
great idea; thought of this as well over the weekend.
i believe he would be a good signing…most especially in the champions league. It would be a good idea to consider Riquelme as well…loan or 2 years contract
January 8th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Bonkers. Absolutely bonkers. He’s 104 years old, for a start, and he’s always been rubbish.
I’m cancelling my subscription.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
pls don’t of old veron cumin 2 arsenal god 4bid there are young defencive midfielder out there veloso, inler.yaya,&barry
January 8th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Veron??????? You idiot. I feel sorry for you.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Veron…………… OMG………….
I’d rather buy a player from Farnborough town!
Veron was officially one of the worst buys for the Premiership, not once.. but Twice!
Hang your head in shame LOL
January 8th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
worst buys….because of the fee both Chelsea and Man utd paid
we won’t be paying more than 5m for him.
Lorik Cana would be a good idea….very crazy player!! i dont want any skillful player in our team anymore!!
January 8th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Definitely a big fat NO to Veron. He is getting old and not sharp enough to play in the Premier League.
We could do with a player like D´Alessandro to cover Cesc and a big centre midfielder like Frings or Borowski to help in midfield.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
NJ…Frings is old as well!!!
January 8th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Veron?!!! are u kiddin me…why dont u throw quintone fortune and djemba in there too. The guy failed in Manure, Chelski, and Inter Milan and he hasn’t played for Argentina in years.. i’d know Maradona is back on crack if he even picks him into his team let alone making him captain..
January 8th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
okla…Old but fitter than Veron will ever be. I´ve seen Veron play many times this year for his club Estudiantes and he is struggling for breath after 60 minutes. Premier League matches would be too fast for him, just as they were when he was at ManU and Chelsea.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
oh k….havent seen him recently actually…
i just want a combative midfielder!! As much as i respect Wenger, he is too stubborn. 12m bid would have landed yaya during the summer!!
January 8th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Right. So not exactly the rush of enthusiasm I was hoping for. Never mind.
I have checked and I don’t think I’ve gone completely mad. Until I find otherwise or am sectioned, I will be defending my Veron shout to the hilt.
To those of you who say he was never any good: you can’t have been watching him very closely when he was at Parma and Lazio. Or in quite a few games for United. If you want to buy the media myth that he was just shite, then fine that’s up to you, and I’m not going to claim that he was a rip-roaring success, just that the near universal belief in his shiteness in this country is misguided and unfair.
To those who say he won’t be as good any more: that’s true, but at 33 the fact that he’s just won the South American award and is still in contention for Argentina suggests he’s far from useless. Zidane’s final years at Madrid and his performance in the last world cup, Larsson’s time at Barcelona, and Bergkamp’s never ending genius all show that players with technique-based games can be valuable assets to top teams well into their thirties.
Nor am I saying we should only buy Veron and nobody else and that he will solve all the team’s deficiencies by himself all at once. We’d probs still want a holding midfielder, a defender and a winger or two. The point with Veron is that he’d be cheap, would bring great experience to a team where the only veteran leader is insane(Gallas). He’d be a low risk gamble with very high potential rewards if he was to rediscover anything approaching the brilliance of which he is capable.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
South American football is a bit of a scrap heap and I really think Veron´s award and Maradona´s praise for him has clouded your judgment. All the best players in South America leave very young and the best tend to be golden oldies returning from European clubs like Veron or Ortega.
Yes, Veron is back in contention for Argentina but their slower style of play (similar to that of the Italian league) would be much better suited to his game.
No doubt he could pull the strings in a Champions League match but imagine him against teams like Stoke, Hull, Blackburn, Bolton etc. You can´t say he would be as effective. We need someone with more agility and better fitness imo.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
he is crap man and thats that
January 8th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Well Veron already tried to make a really big name for himself in England and it didn’t really work out as well as his time in Italy. The Argentinian game allows him to be comfortable and affords him time and space to operate. It is also one of the reasons Riquelme has managed to flourish at Boca. The English game is far too quick and aggressive for these types of players right now, especially as their careers are more on the downward spiral than the up and up. Veron at best would be a band-aid when really right now we need a body cast. A long term solution which can be implemented right now is necessary for Wenger to turn our fortunes around.
As far as the Spuds are concerned, I expect Bent to be seeing alot more of the dugout because Arry will undoubtedly try the big man, small man routine which worked for him at Pompey with Pavyluchenko and Defoe leading the line and only cameo appearances by Bent. Bent’s only saving grace is that Pavyluchenko is still to slow for the game right now and eventually the Russian will show himself to be somewhat more mediocre giving Bent the nod at a later date.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
I respectfully ask if you watched JSV when he played for United? He was more disappointing than Sheva at Chavski.
I agree with Jake, we need Veloso…
How about the rubbish today of 45 million from Barca for Cesc and RvP?
I wouldn’t sell Cesc alone for that much.
And call me crazy, but Almunia is fine. A new keeper should not be the priority.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
P-lam
The 45 million Cesc, RvP story is clearly bollocks. No cause for alarm. Cesc will probs be off to Spain at some stage in his career but I don’t think it will be this summer.
As for Almunia, and you saying that a new keeper shouldn’t be a priority – Wenger agrees with you, as he stated when asked about Shay Given last week.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Veron may not be good for the English game, but he would help in the Champions League. You aren’t playing the Stoke’s and Bolton’s of Europe.
His passing and eye would definitely help, especially against Italian team’s.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
i think we should bring inler or lorik kana or arshavin to emirates. 3 of them are very good in defensive and leadership as well..plz dont bring anymore kids in this team..we need at least 3 players with great experiences to fill what we lose from flamini,hleb and diarra…and i think dat we dont need players like denilson,walcott and song…they are all rubbish especially wallcott..!!he is/was not a wonderkid..
wonderkids=messi,fab,barazate,krkic….
for mr.wenger, everybody knows dat u have a MBA which we can say that u are good in financial but that is not a reason for not buying big players to emirate..plzz…all the money will not go to heaven together with u
lol…
January 8th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Veron? No. But Lorik Cana from Marseille would give us plenty of steel in midfield, let us attack from further up the pitch, and free up Cesc. Bit of a nutter, but not quite Roy Keane in that respect. He’d be my first choice.
January 8th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Agree with the above. Lorik Cana would be immense. I understand he is the current captain at Marseille too . . .
January 9th, 2009 at 7:11 am
arsenal fans in the uk should stop going to the stadium to support the club when playing and this will put seroius presure on wenger and the player to think in the same direction with the fans.
BUT NOT THE CLUB MAXIMISING THEIR PRIFITS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FANS.
February 5th, 2012 at 8:32 am
AnonymousAugust 4, 2004 at 10:07 amBeing a sedutnt you won’t be up yet!!! Latest news Viera bid now up to £23m. If he goes he will have shagged the Gunners, like Palios he must go. No one player is bigger than the TEAM. I also agree with your comments about Chelski, mind you if they were as good as shit they could gives us a closer run for the prem.Nice site – Ian, Sam & William