There seems to be a bit of a stand off developing between the Arsenal transfer target Julian Draxler and his current club Wolfsburg, set off this week by comments from the German Bundesliga club declaring that their player is not for sale and will not be sold this summer.
The highly rated young attacking star has taken these comments well and has issued his own, pretty much accusing the club, it’s head coach Dieter Hecking and the sporting director Klaus Allofs of going back on a verbal agreement made when Draxler signed for them last summer, as reported by the Evening Standard.
The Germany international said, “I have expressed myself clearly to [Wolfsburg head coach] Dieter Hecking after the Euros that I want to leave Wolfsburg. The coach has known for over three weeks. I am astonished that for weeks the communication to me has been through the media. I expected otherwise.
“Two days after [Germany’s Euro 2016] semi-final exit, I have said to him how I see the whole situation and what I want, namely to leave the club. I am back in Germany now and the talking to me is in the media – not to me in person.
“We had a verbal agreement when I joined in August 2015 that I could leave the club if the possibility arose,” Draxler added. “With Hecking as well as Allofs.
“It was clear that Wolfsburg had good prospects but that it should also be a springboard. It was always clear between all parties that I would like to go to a top international club if the chance came. It was discussed that we speak reasonably with one another if other clubs showed interest.”
So does this mean that Draxler is aware of some interest in him coming from what he regards as a top international club? If so then I very much doubt he is talking about the transfer bid reported by The Mirror from our Premier League rivals Everton. Ronald Koeman and The Toffees may want him but they have no European football to offer, whereas the Gunners with our annual place in the Champions League certainly count as a top club.
So is Draxler’s anger at Wolfsburg down to his awareness that Arsenal want to sign him and his desire to join his international teammate (who he just happened to spend some of the summer holiday with) Mesut Ozil and play for the Arsenal?
Bob.
Clicked!
No, it doesn’t. Besides, Draxler was never mentioning Arsenal as one of his future clubs. Juventus is where he wants to go. If he will go, that is.
According to David Ornstein’s (BBC correspondent) shocking report, we are not in contention to sign Julian draxler…..infact we have registered no concrete interest in him nor mahrez but are slightly bent on signing a striker and CB
so …close up that chapter and archive the drax files!
In other news….. Kaveh Solhekol still of SKY says Arsenal and Lyon are still at negotiation over the signing of Lacazette
God knows what’s really going on behind the scene….. Cuz i don’t!
Don’t worry mate, there’s not much going on behind the non-existent scenes! ? ?
Kaveh Solhekol
✔@SkyKaveh
Arsenal working hard to sign Lyon forward Alexandre Lacazette. Two clubs still in talks to agree a fee
11:34 PM – 4 Aug 2016
And just incase no one saw this one which I Copy and pasted a few articles ago! ?
⬇
David Ornstein
✔@bbcsport_david
#AFC interested in signing Valencia defender Mustafi. No bid yet + others inc#CFC keen. Also want a striker but not pursuing Mahrez/Draxler
7:30 PM – 4 Aug 2016
We don’t need another winger. We already have Sanchez, Ox, Iwobi, Campbell, Gnabry, Walcott? I don’t see any credibility in the Mahrez/Draxler rumours unless we decide to start selling some of these wingers. Personally – sell Walcott and allow the bloke to try and progress his career somewhere else (that’s if anyone is willing to pay his expected over inflated price tag). I feel Campbell has a lot to offer the team as a back-up to either flank. I pray this year – is the year that the Ox finally cements that RW/RM position and makes it his own. I also think the Ox should have a go competing with Sanchez for that LW/LM role, as he so dangerous with his runs and that powerful right foot of his that he might start to get some goals and assists cutting inside on his preferred foot. I’m no master tactician or some stubborn know-it-all but that’s just an idea.
or
you can say f**k it and buy Draxler/Mahrez 🙂
we can get by without a winger, I agree. Or maybe my expectations are just lowered. Either way, a solution can be found in squad unlike ST or CB positions. I don’t expect Ox to step up unfortunately. More likely he’ll get injured. Walcott is finished, it’s really up to Iwobi/ Gnabry to step up. I’d like to see Campbell start cause he was great last season but Wenger seems to hate him, so idk what’s up with that. But if we could pull off Mustafi/Lacazette/Xhaka in one window I’d actually feel good about the squad. Not saying we’re winning the league, cause I think the problem is mentally just as much as lack of talented players, but I don’t think we’d be scraping for 4th, and hopefully be in title race until the end. And maybe finally get past R16?
Trouble is Ox, Gnabry, Campbell and especially Walcott are not very good are they ?
ARSENAL’s TOP PRIORITY IS A STRIKER……
NO BIDS FOR DRAXLER….
HOLDING MAY JUST BE OUR NEW CB…
Don’t HoLd ur Breath!!!
Avoid Disappointment!!!
Strikers wins you games. Defenders wins you a title. Priority is changed now. CB is a must. ST is needed. All others are desirables. Sit tight, enjoy the holiday and don’t forget to buy the away kit. It looks the money. If I were a betting man I’d probably bet on the fact that Holding will play against Liverpool. But that I am not so, well …
Agree with everyone else.
We have 19 wingers so do
not need Draxler 50 mil
or Mahrez 40 mill.
Lacazette 30m is a mediocre striker
because no one else is in for him.
A CB is needed. Whether that is 23 mill Mustafi
or another 2 mill Holding I don’t mind.
Chambers can be 4th CB+3rd RB.
nobody else was in for Sanchez when we bought him. Nobody else was in for Xhaka when we bought him. Nobody else was in for Ozil when we bought him. Most of our transfers we aren’t in competition with other teams, so you have no point. If you think this team right now can win anything you’re crazy. Giroud has had 4 years to prove he’s good enough, time for a change upfront.
That’s simply not true!!!
Sanchez – Liverpool
Xhaka – I genuinely don’t think people understand how good of a player we’ve got here, how rare a player with his skillset is and how dominant he was in the Bundesliga… People take the media links as the only thing to go by but a lot happens behind the scenes. Elneny we supposedly followed for a very long time before we pulled the trigger on his move. Xhaka has talked of our extended interest for a long time. Schneiderlin was recommended to Southampton by Wenger and if the reliable ITK Arsenal people were anything to go by the deal was there to be had, pretty much all Wenger had to do was say yes, but he took too long and United came in for a lot higher and massive wages. My point being that despite the deal being wrapped up quickly (for Arsenal standards), that really doesn’t mean no other club was chasing or in for him…
Ozil – United had a late dip for him as well
Far out… The people who take the 99% of the media as gospel when 99% of it is absolute BS is beyond comprehension.. How can you fail to see that not every club broadcasts there intentions to the gutter press??
Mou also wanted to land Ozil at Chelsea.
I take it you’re counting Mertesacker and Cech as wingers to keep up with your ridiculous player evaluations David?
Well def get another CB because Wenger wants a ‘leader’ at the back. Kos is great – but not a leader
I agree with others that Cambell is our winger solution if Wenger only play him. And good backup in Iwobi who shows real promise – and Ox
But boy-oh-boy we need a striker. And we all knew that before Wellbeck got injured.
It’s soooo frustrating
“Kos the boss” is telling you about his leadership at the back. He’s now our second captain after Cazorla. He’s need an equal companion there. Gabriel should learn much in his second year, and I think he will. Mustafi will strengthen us.
The Liverpool game.
is just one of 50 games
we play this season.
By game 2 we will be back
up to full strength so we will be fine.
Why do we care he is going to end up with Bayern Munich or Barcelona anyways we was never going to sign him!
This Draxler has that bandy legs ‘RVP’ swagger about him and its funny how no one is mentioning his loyalty to Wolfsburg, after just ONE season at the club! ?
Who to say that he wouldn’t want to leave Arsenal after just one season? ? especially if Munich, Barcelona or Real Madrid came knocking! ?
Of course we did!! Right before we signed Ozil we bid 38 odd mil for him which would have broken our transfer record at the time… It was a very publicized potential deal and Draxler was even caught on film with a fan saying I’m coming to Arsenal.
Why? Because Metro said so? Never heard this from #ArsenalOfficial
I remember Wenger baulking at Draxler’s £25million valuation, back then ?? Maybe that 38 odd mil was in rubles or something like that? ? ?
Haha yeah #Arsenaloffical usually publicizes all our bids including the rejected ones??
Wtf are you talking about?? If Arsenal is your only source then the only thing you’re really allowed to discuss is done deals?
Ibrahimovic said Arsenal didn’t contact him last summer
Even VARDY said Wenger never contacted him
That is very odd. It shows Wenger may just have bid but wasn’t serious. Maybe Vardy could have come if he had spoken to Wenger
So who knows what Wenger is doing and it looks like he isn’t serious
I hope I am wrong. I’ll gladly admit being wrong as I LOVE this club and want to win trophies
I am still praying for Mustafi, Mahrez and Lacazette
Given Ibrahimovic and Wenger relation and especially the moment in his career (34 yrs old) the fact that he did not join Arsenal is hardly a surprise. He may be good at MU, who knows but again, is not our problem anymore.
Vardy is lying and shifting the weight somewhere else. When Arsenal activated his clause Vardy & Hodgson said no transfer talk during the Euros. Which our club dully respected. I mean, is pretty hard to contact someone when that someone is not answering your call. Once it was clear that England is the laughing stock of Europe Vardy got his contract increased, end of story.
Now, where do I start with our media induced targets. I will try to be blunt, direct and as fair as I can.
Mustafi. OK, who is this Mustafi and how did we come to it? Well, blame Mert and our connection to Ben Yedder. We leave Ben Yedder alone, they are going to negotiate. That’s what media says anyway. But who is Mustafi? If you all recall, he is a totally unknown quantity until Yoggi called him under the flag. Had an extremely poor season at Valencia (seriously? 48 goals conceded in one season is really poor in EPL, basically out of Europe, I know WHU had 51 conceeded but if MU hadn’t won the FA Cup they’d be probably out). Whoever said Evans is a better bet than Mustafi was bang on the money. Why not going for him? Well, after WBA signed him for 6 mil we go pay 16 mil? Very Wenger unlike.
Mahrez. Well, who wouldn’t want Mahrez? Right? But then again, who is linking us with Mahrez? It comes out of nowhere just few weeks ago simply because media have no clue who we talk with. And fans begin to hyperventilate and dream of EPL and UCL. Mahrez, Leicester, Arsenal, not even his agent said a thing about this. Just the media probably tipped by the agent to gain some more cash. Again, If I would be a betting man I would say Mahrez will stay put or in any case not joining Arsenal.
Lacazette. This guy is just bang average and you all know it but refuse to admit it because our only striker is Giroud. If Gignac makes the France squad when Benzema is not available I think this is just saying it all. Yes, he is faster than Giroud but does he scores more (btw, 7 of his last season goals were penalties) ? Lacazette is just a Theo Walcott with less speed but better first touch. Just as unidimensional as our guy. Worth 40 million? Probably, in this market but I wouldn’t pay it.
If we really have 100 million to spend on transfers I would use 80 million to sign a fscking damn striker (fsck Higuain while we are at it). I will go gun ho for someone who deserves this 80 million (probably only Lewandowski) and for the rest I would buy an 30+ defender preferably with EPL experience. There are plenty of targets fitting this profile. There you have it, in a nutshell. My gut feeling is saying we are not after any of these (maybe Lacazette but this would be a last second call, I am not sure Wenger rates him so high anyway). In the mean time, pray we get at least 5 points from the first three games. If that’s the case, the distance would be only 4 points from a potential 9 pts leader. Lots of things to go for after that. Relax, don’t be Paul Ashworth chasing an 18 yrs old title drought. If you do, that will indeed happen. Flexx.
Was all this #Arsenalofficial mate??
Stop using caughtoffside as your reference!!
Just my 0.02 cents and bits from the tabloids (Metro, DM etc). Basically whatever passes here as credible source.
About Vardy I agreed. AW was made no shit about it. You couldn’t trigger Vardy’s buy out clause without launching formal bid to Leicester. Hodgson blocked Arsenal’s approach for the shake of England, and Vardy in the guard of Leicester, chose his comfortable zone after the laughing stocked happen. End of story.
Anyway, I disagreed about Lacazette. Gignac selected by DD because his similar type to Giroud “hold up play” (with worst finishing skills). Lac was defeated by Griezmman, Martial, and Kingsley Coman for the role of winger/second striker position. With 21 goals he’s stood second as top scorer under Zlatan(38) but above Cavani(19). With the feed of Ozil alone, he’ll score more. That’s all we need, a better finisher than Giroud.
Not sure I agree either. Why get Gignac when you already have Giroud? These guys are identical hold up type of target man. If anything, as a coach, you need options, options, options. Martial season wasn’t stellar either, Lacazette outscored him, right? Coman is AT BEST a substitute behind the legends and is not a striker anyway. Griezmann is what they call a pocket flying winger. Small, fast, anonymous until he bites you ruthlessly. Martial and Coman are both faster than Giroud & Gignac, surely one of them could have been dropped for Lacazette. Remember, we try to improve on Giroud and not looking for someone just as average. Oh, and btw, without penalties Lacazette would be at 14 goals. Arsenal gets as much as 2 penalties a season. Not sure how this would work out.
wow i actually agree with Bud somethings not right in another dimension