Arsenal “On Verge” of £10m Centre Back Signing
by Steven Constable on June 4th, 2009 264 words | 14 commentsWenger targets Belgian defender.
The Rumour
ARSENAL boss Arsene Wenger was last night on the verge of sealing a £10million deal for Ajax star Thomas Vermaelen.
The 21-cap Belgium centre-half, 23, is considered one of the top defenders in the Dutch Eredivisie.
And SunSport understands Gunners chiefs were trying to thrash out a deal with Ajax general manager Rik Van Der Boog.
An Ajax insider said: “It’s true. He’s a very good player and could certainly be a success at Arsenal.”
The Source: (The Sun)
This story is doing the rounds today and if it’s true then it’s not a bad move by the Gunners boss. The 23 year old centre back is a talented player who has become the mainstay of the Ajax backline in the past three years. Former Spurs boss Martin Jol took over at the Dutch giants last week and will not want to see the Belgian leave.
Arsene Wenger needs to freshen up his defence and seems very likely to offload William Gallas and Mikel Silvestre and may see Vermaelen as a player with the right combination of youth and experience. Even if the Arsenal boss loses the two players mentioned they will still have the solid Kolo Toure and youngster Johann Djourou to field as a centre back pairing and the north London club also has Phillipe Senderos returning from his season on loan at AC Milan.
The Likelihood
Vermaelen to Arsenal: Some sources are quoting this as a done deal and others say its not going to happen. I would opt for the later.
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loving arse fan - June 4th, 2009 at 11:18 am
yea baby just there arrarr arr arr
Vorian - June 4th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
This guy seems alot better than some of those other defenders wenger was interested in. Things have been very quite surrounding gallases future recently.
vince - June 4th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
haha aparantly arsene venger is on the wrong side of the board members at arsenal, so says tony adams, could he b another target of Perez?
pitah - June 4th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Gallas have stabilised now, to sell him it will be a loss. i preffer to dispose silvester to make some additional cash.
Why did you pair defenders both from priemier league. cocktail is always the best.
pitah - June 4th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
gallas is good and aggressive why think of selling him do you have a better replacement?
For Silvester, the faster he is offloaded the safer we are he vividly make unforgivable mistakes sell him cheaply.
remember to do away with Fabiaski too. If no bidders, you can him out to relegated clubs like newcastle.
the sarcastic prick! - June 4th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
pitah?
how much cash do u fink the sale of silvestre will cum 2? considering we brought him 4 like 240,000 n now hes a year older, i dont think hes gonna be the sale that will get us the transfer cash we need.
gallas has fallen out of favour with the rest of the team he cannot remain at arsenal n he will be sold for a substantially large amount to add to the transfer funds we need.
GOONER 1 - June 4th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Silvestre can go on a free. The way gooners feel i’m sure we’d offer him money just to come off our books.
A compensation payment prehaps, He’s been the thorn in my side all season.
Only good thing he done was score against Tottenham and we all love anyone who scores againt the Spuds in the Red and White Strip!
Poor Spuds - June 4th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Watevr…
it looks pretty disgusting wen u see man city can merrily spend 250 million while arsenal hav a paltry 13 million (of wich some of t money will go in order to secure a few players) … arsenal board should set their attitude right… i mean offering wenger just 13 million for t transfer window n asking him to win trophies is like insulting wenger…
thanks to t prof n his patience tat he’s been putting up with this shit all t time…
if it was some1 else then he wud hav started searchin for greener pastures already….
the board should start getting realistic n start thinkin abt winning trophies… but now it looks more like trophies r t least of their worries… every board member wants to make some good money n then let either kroenke or usmanov take over later…
thanks to wenger t situation is under control… but dunno for how long will t prof manage it… he’s had to sell his stars n settle for kids just because our arsenal board cudnt afford t right kinda money for both t transfer window as well as for securing our star players…
selling settled players like gallas n eboue (though i wont mention adebayor) n then filling their boots wit younger guys n asking them to perform better is not easy… Wenger’s t best manager ive ever seen… cos he manages so much wit so lil…
hope t board pull up their socks n giv him t money n t respect for all he’s done to t club so far…
Vorian - June 4th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Yeh good point spuds, thanks to your last statement I am beginning to understand why people are saying he is the best manager in the world; I mean I used to think wenger best? Arnt we forgetting fergie and capello, but your right he manages to do an awful lot with a bunch of kids, almost winning us the premiership a season ago.
mark Mc P - June 5th, 2009 at 12:30 am
arsenal must buy some quality players like alonso,hangeland maybe even yaya toure . We have been building for the future for the last 5 years its pritty sad.
Vorian - June 5th, 2009 at 9:54 am
And we never get better in the future because we always end up losing our players as soon as they come good, or they deamnd an outrageous payrise; why dont we just rename ourselves Europes Premier Football Academy.
the sarcastic prick! - June 5th, 2009 at 11:39 am
vorian: fear not my fellow gooner, if players leave so be it wenger is always capable of finding replacements that are equal if not better.
the sale of players is wot we do at arsenal, at the moment financially we have no choice, but in a few years wen the debt of our stadium is payed off and the club in financially stable u will see wenger begin to put the squad together that can be the best team on the planet.
Its a matter of time my friend, fear not. in wenger we trust
Vorian - June 6th, 2009 at 1:06 am
Well I have to admit I have already worked out when weve paid off our stadium, arsenal could have a transfer budget of 50m a year everywhere as long we get sell out performances.
Poor Spuds - June 6th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
the sarcastic prick! :
Well dude… t fear is not about arsenal under performing cuz we sell our stars every season… t problem is wen will wenger’s patience wit t board run thin…
he’s been putting up wit a lot of shit since t last 4 seasons… wat wit david dein leaving… t board r hanging on wit him cuz he can run a club into profit wit minimal resources… but they dont understand tat this wont last for long… if wenger packs his bags after his contract expires then arsenal board will be left to look like kids in a topless bar wit no clue as to wat to do next… if arsenal has become a great club its due to wenger… if arsenal wants to get titles without spending a penny.. only wenger can do it… all other great tacticians can come n go… but they wont be able to run a team wit such lil resources….
hope t board stop being greedy n give wenger a decent amount for this transfer window… cuz unlike most managers wenger thinks n buys… he doesnt buy n then think…