Arsene Wenger has never been shy about bringing ex-Arsenal players back to the Emirates many years after seeing them move on, especially if they are available on a free transfer. Wenger said last year that with the ever-increasing transfer fees and wage demands, he thought there would be more and players running down their contracts and using the Bosman rules.
According to many reports from Turkey, one of Wenger’s biggest targets to bring in this summer is the ex-Arsenal academy product Oguzhan Ozyakup, who left us for Besiktas at the age of 20 having only made two appearances in the League Cup for the Gunners.
The Dutch-born midfielder has grown in Turkey and was made the captain of Besiktas and has led them to two consecutive Super Lig titles and is aiming for the hat-trick this season, but it would appear that he has decided that it is now time to move on gain after five years in Istanbul.
The 25 year-old is now also a seasoned international with Turkey and very highly respected, and if we can get him back at the club on a free transfer it could be an extremely good bit of business for Arsenal, and Ozyakup himself could get a very nice signing on fee. After having spent four years as a youth at Arsenal he would take very little time to settle back into life in London and could be a very useful addition to the squad.
Who thinks this would be a good signing for Arsenal?
Admin
For a second I got my hopes up thinking ‘maybe he’s a DM’ then checked, he isn’t. Life back to normal then.
I’ve just worked it out.Wenger has this cunning plan.We play TWO up top in Laca and Auba then NINE midfielders.No need for a defence (which we haven’t got anyway).No need for a GK and certainly no need for the CDM we all thought we needed.Le Professor had it right after all.
WENGER IN
Thumbs up 🙂
And I thought the headline was referring to Alex Song!
that’s what i thought
Same here
Unfortunately until Wenger moves on I am not interested in transfers into the club as I just see another player who will be played out of position or will have coaching that never improves a player.
I know its sad but we have fallen so far we just are not competitive anymore let alone exciting and I need a need manager to motivate me now! My first game was in 1962 and a season ticket holder for 40 years and watch every game one way or another but I feel completely deflated with our team now. I saw headlines about how professional we were last thursday night but I just saw a weak Arsenal team who essentially scored 3 lucky goals against an even weaker opposition.
TC there were some supporters saying that top four wasn’t good enough but now we are fighting for Europa league place,
i do believe we have a great bunch of players but we just don’t have passionate leaders in the team or on the side line, we need a goal keeper also one or two top players,
i would welcome Arteta as our new manager just because he understands Tiki Taka football playing for Arsenal and also it would help with not changing the whole team and players under a new manager and start from Zero, Arteta has been working well for Pep who is the king of tiki taka, my firs choice would be Pep but obviously we cannot have him,
Tas – your right and I would take Arteta as someone young with the latest ideas. I also have that the hope the players are not as average as they appear to be – take the defence for example. To replace the defence is not feasible in the short term and way to expensive. So in my opinion a change of manager is the least expensive option because as Wenegr did when he first came maybe a new younger manager can elevate the current players. I hope so or otherwise we are entering the era that Liverpool have endured the last 25 years or so. They slipped and found it very difficult to get back to the desired competive level – Arsenal have this possible route written all over them at the moment.
TC- when we play well we relay play well its a real real pleasure to watch such great passing and great football but unfortunately its only against teams that give us time on the ball and we suck against teams that hustle us
TC, As a fellow old supporter(since 1958) I too have never been so unhappy , angry and feeling conned at how this arrogant manager is so called managing our club. He is an educated , supposedly intelligent man AND YET, he is flatly refusing to see what every other well regarded pundit, including many well respected ex-Gunner players and virtually all our fans can clearly see. The fundamental fault line in the club of there being no deterrent to vapid and lifeless performances by many players. This last 18 months the prime example has been the dreadful Xhaka whom no one I have ever spoke to rates at all. Wenger never drops him. Prior to Xhaka the most listless, regularly hiding player on the pitch was the ghastly Walcott BUT we have many others; Bellerin, Iwobi being just two have definitely do have talent but have zero real will to win and who are generally completely ineffective. Wenger is alone among top clubs managers in allowing and condoning failure. All football fans can clearly see this major faultline BUT NOTHING IS EVER DONE TO CHANGE IT . Wenger just refuses to consider defence as a vital part of a winning team and so our defence and the pivotal CDM position has been sub standard for many years past. He is betraying us fans and that is why I stopped attending last season. When he is sacked , I will resume again but not until then.
“Wenger just refuses to consider defence as a vital part of a winning team”
That why Wenger wanted a CB in Jan but Gazidis, Sven and Huss spent all window long trying to penny pinch as much as they could on the Auba deal?
I will admit Wenger can not train the beastly CB we need, we need to buy that beastly CB.
Wenger did build the def that helped AFC go unbeaten and they had the best def record in the table as well.
Wenger needs a beastly CB bought for him, he also needs a top DM bought for him… This is transfers and we all know how Wenger is not part of that anymore.
“I too have never been so unhappy , angry and feeling conned at how this arrogant manager is so called managing our club”
Shows the stupid.
I feel more anger towards the old board for not supporting Dein in wanting to invest in AFC, for basically forcing him out and got greedy, aim towards a payday from selling their shares.
They became very short sighted and we have been paying the price ever since, Gazidis has only started to act like a CEO of a big club and act like he has a pair in between his legs. Too many years he has made good on AFC books by selling top players for UCL money while we was over £100 million behind UTD in annual sponsorship deals.
Credit where it is due though, Gazidis has started to take action and he is doing what appears to be a good job. Got some well respected people in along with the new shirt deal, considering we dropped out of UCL and dropping still, I think he has done great.
It took Wenger going over Gazidis head and keeping his job to make Gazidis step up, so the improvement in Gazidis is indirectly Wengers fault.
Maybe your old age is getting to you and you need to see a medical professional, having difficulty recognising reality… Your well being could be at risk and I wouldn’t want anything happen to a fellow AFC supporter.
Midkemma isn’t it enough to put forward your quite well reasoned response to jon fox without using emotive words such as “stupid”, referring to old age and suggesting people see medical professionals. You weaken your argument when you stoop to ageism, as with age often comes wealth of experience and wisdom. Surely we can defer to Voltaire and agree to disagree in a respectful way.
Max Meyer and Stephan de Vrij are available on a Bosman in the summer. That’s DM and CB for free!!
Is Max Meyer a CDM ?
Why do we need players who are on a free? It’s not like we are skint. We need a new manager, it’s coming hopefully sooner rather than later, we have the back room staff in place. I actually believe ( hope ) with all the changes back of house the board have finally realised Wenger can’t even make them money anymore, never mind manage a team to glory ( not Mickey Mouse cup, no money there ) We were great and can still be great. When I first heard Arteta some months back, I was like No way, more I think about it, more it don’t seem to bad, Peps not the worse to learn from. Arteta manager, with Leman as assistant, Bergkamp has to be somewhere and Henry on board, I would give it a go. I can’t wait for them words Arsenal are champions again.
COYG
Billy
If those players was tied into a few years contract then they would be £30-£50 million pound players, maybe more with the recent inflation.
De Vrij is a top defender and Man UTD are rumored to be going for him, Lazio have already said that they have pulled their latest offer after talks broke down. I wouldn’t be surprised if UTD do end up with him and they try to palm off one of their outcasts on us, upgrade for free and get some money in from the guy they replace.
If we can get him and he is free… Why shouldn’t we consider him? We need a CB or 2.
Why do you care about pricetag of free?
Shouldn’t you be more concerned with the quality of player? TH14 went for around the same price as Darren Bent but there was a world of difference between them. Price doesn’t dictate quality.