Arsene Wenger has made it clear all summer that he needs to cut down his ‘heavy’ squad with quite a few big names obviously surplus to requirements. To be honest I didn’t expect Gabriel Paulista to be the first out the door as we seem to be short of defenders at the moment, but with Arsene Wenger having experimented with the Brazilian in various positions he has now decided to cash in by sending him back to La Liga.
Gabriel arrived in Valencia airport on Thursday and the Valencia are expected to announce the deal ahead of their season opening game against Las Palmas on Saturday. He has to have his medical first before confirmation but he is expected to sign a three-year deal after the two clubs agreed a fee of around £10m.
The Official Valencia Twitter account announced his arrival last night……
#ULTIMAHORA
Gabriel Paulista ya está en Valencia. Dice que estará listo en una semana y que podría debutar ante el Real Madrid (2 jornada) pic.twitter.com/r3xv6ODtDb— DeportesCOPEValencia (@DepCOPEValencia) August 17, 2017
Gabriel is more than happy to return to work under his former manager Marcelino, who managed the Brazilian at Villarreal before he joined Arsenal in 2015. “I am very happy, I have spoken to Marcelino several times and I understand how he works,” Gabriel said, as quoted by Marca.
So we have one unexpected exit, and there are now more hopefully concluding soon, and Wenger can start buying again…..
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He had a good attitude and always gave his best. I wish him all the best.
Remember when he first got here ?
I called him lil’ Lucio . Absolute no nonsense old school defender.
Benched alot injuries , his time here was a failed one . So much promise and I believe we messed it up
Wish u well gabs
Ten million for a good 26 year old central defender is very cheap in today’s market. His price is just 1/6 of Virgil Van Dyke’s, but his capabilities are not far from Virgil Van Dyke.
I hope Arsenal will not sell the backup players under ten millions. Because they need to buy at least two high quality players to improve their performance, and the total cost will surely be above 100 millions.
So far then our spend is around 29m still 71m left ?
If we are not adding the Add On payment now but in the future then what about previous Add Ons?
Then there are player bonuses for signing a contract, do we know how much Sead and Lacazette got for this?
Do clubs keep part of the wages to one side? £200k a week = £10.4million in wages for Lacazette for the year, £52 million over 5 years.
It is easy to inflate numbers but are they accurate?
His attitude could never be criticised.Unfortunately his footballing brain could be!!..He was yet another transfer mistake made by a combination of Arsenal’s woeful scouting network and Wenger’s decision making.
Hopefully his departure will run alongside those of Jenkinson,Debuchy,Gibbs….All of whom serve no purpose other than to cost upwards of £150,000 a week in wages.
As usual Arsenal’s transfer policy, it seems, can only proceed in first gear….As they appear to be incapable of both selling players and lining up incoming players at the same time.For a side crying out for a player like Matuidi I can’t work out why no effort was made to buy him for a price below £20m…which would seem to be a bargain in today’s market.Presumably Wenger thought he was too old and wouldn’t have any re-sale value!!
You can add Perez and Chambers to that list as well.
You can add Joel Campbell his talent is being wasted likewise chuba Akpom
Maybe Gabriel had to go but he should not be first. Jenkins on, Gibbs and Debuchy should have been ahead of him in the sales dept. Scezceny and Gabriel for £10,M each, Arsenal must be Poundland.
I read an article today saying how Dick Law is still trying to resolve the Perez deal, might be a loan with option to buy after now…
Seriously, that guy is a freaking joke!
I have been complaining about Gazidis and Law in transfers for years now and people still blindly point at Wenger, Wenger wasn’t hired to replace Dein!!!
Gazidis was hired 08
Law was hired 09
Look at the transfers since then, incoming and outgoing, you will see a clear change in transfer policy.
Do you know Man City got Barcas old transfer guy to get their transfers done?
We hired Gazidis from ‘soccer’ in the states, USA do sports differently to the EU so we had a novice come in!
I want improvement at AFC and while I will recognise that Wenger makes tactical errors, I feel we need to blame the right person for transfers otherwise we will not get the change we need, someone competent in the CEO role and someone who can get the job (transfer) done working for him (someone better than Dick Law).
Wenger should be focused on training, picking the right team, player development… not talking to CEO/DoF/SD of another club for player X, we have a CEO for that stuff and he has Law to help him.
He fails and Wenger gets the blame, not bad for Gazidis who was one of the main ones who wanted Wenger out.
It is frustrating to watch.
I am upset at AFC reputation in transfers but I have looked at who does what at AFC instead of blaming the figurehead, I wish more so called fans would do the same, learn about the club they supposingly love.
Wait, but isn’t Wenger who doesn’t want a Director of Football?
He was a nice guy while he was with us. Good character. I remembered what he did to “nutter ” Costa at the bridge. Now that he is gone, I hope Wenger knows something we don’t cos I don’t see a squad that is an improvement compared to that of last season yet.
With the possible departures of Gabriel, Chambers, Gibbs, Debuchy and Jenkinson you would hope the acquisition of a world class CB is on the cards.
Ill be more than slightly worried if the departures in defence keep coming and there is no sign of anyone else coming in.
As usual no clear strategy of buying and selling player’s the whole thing is a complete farce,we can’t attract player’s because let’s face it players talk to each other when they are about to move to another club and the vibes are not good for arsenal with wenger in charge of recruitment it seems to me they see arsenal as not being able to improve player’s under arsene wenger sometimes it’s not about the money
didn’t realise he couldnt spend, so frustrating being a gooner, every year fed the same bullsh*t. 100mill to spend 200 mill to spend.
STOP DAWDLING WENGER, GET ON WITH IT OR CLOSE THE DOOR ON YOUR WAY OUT.
Sanchez should be sold, i don’t care who to just get the money and run same with ozil and ox if they don’t agree new contracts.
Buy draxler/mahrez for roughly 40m
mahrez for that price is a bargain considering he was pfa player of the year a year ago.
why aren’t we in for van dijk?
Everton (EVERTON for gods sake) have shown ambition for higher spots in the prem. Why aren’t we?
Saying with sanchez we can get champs league didn’t work out too well last year so for me that arguement is null and void.
Yes he is a good player but going forward isn’t our problem, its our defense and has been for a long time.
If wenger keeps them on, when he eventually goes its gonna be a massive reinvestment to get the team up to par with the big clubs or we slip down to upper mid table constantly.
Too many failed players who have never cut the mustard yet sit on 100k a week happily.
Selling a central defender when we started the season with no recognizable one is bad management if we don’t get a replacement.
the big sell off needs to happen.
Debuchy – get rid
jenkinson – get rid
bellerin – if barca want him get the money, hasnt defended well for a long time and a source of weakness for us.
wilshere – never fulfilled potential, stop being sentimental, theres no room for sentimentality in football anymore.
cazorla – great player, just as with wilshere always injured
ramsey – needs to play like he does for wales week in week out if not next season upgrade
welbeck – cant see what he offers and lacazette/giroud looks way better, lots of injuries, dont forget man u didnt want him in the first place.
walcott – really needs to up his game and be consistent.
campbell – never really got his chance, was potential but wengers too stubborn.
Lucas – again not sure whats gone on here and looks to be on his way
asano – what was this signing.
look at our squad, there is not alot to get excited about and the cover in some positions is very weak. look at it compared to the big teams. Even spurs squad looks better than ours (which i hate)
Yes i already know your replies will be “get rid of the entire squad that’s a great idea” but why have we assembled mediocre players and sat twiddling our thumbs while deals are done for good prices (blaise matuidi for 18m to juve is a BARGAIN).
same old story and its getting very boring, “we have a warchest (season tickets sell) oh maybe we dont”.
I think with europa league and other teams strengthening we will be a long way off. We either need to have serious backing and investment or in a few years I can see us fighting for 6th and 7th
Yup let’s just sell everyone and get relegated.
i think wneger is managing to lower our hopes every year
If you read it I knew you were gonna say that 😉
My point is we have assembled mediocrity. Nothing about our squad looks exciting.
Remind me please, who is Asano and where is he.
If you read the reports then the common thing about them was that AFC had around £100 million to spend and up to from player sales, some media said £200 million while others said around £250 million.
£100 million is around the ticket sales for last season, about the same as transfers have been the past few years, go have a look for yourself.
£100 million + £20 million is £120 million.
Lacazette cost upfront, about £46 million. £74 million left.
This has not taken into account of add ons from previous transfers.
This has not taken into account signing bonuses.
This has not taken into account that the £100 million MEDIA REPORT could be inaccurate.
Point is not to trust the media just cause they say it, look into it and find stuff to support/dismiss reports, look for yourself. We have history to help us. If we look right back at AFC when Wenger 1st joined and go through history to present day, looking at personal changes and how the club has acted as a whole then you see patterns forming. I actually went back more as I respect David Dein for what he helped AFC achieve and was curious to his effect on the club and it proved to be enlightening.
time to select the wheat and the weeds
Do we ever learn ,the season is over even before it started ,we are dithering, those are some of the anger rantings from the fans and I don’t know if this season will be different ,starting strongly is key if we start losing ground early it will be difficult to redeem ourselves, Next Stoke, Liverpool, Chelsea, westbrom. Bogey teams ahead if you ask me
One thing that I have realised with Arsene Wenger’s signing is that if he likes a player even if he plays like sh*t , he will keep getting new contracts no matter what. This approach is running us to ground.Players are not selected and played based on their performance but their sentimental values.Are arsenal a football club or some kind of charity for some overpriced football players?
Wenger has gone crazy many years ago. Every year we dream of signing 4-5 world class players and getting rid of deadwood but these things never happen. He says that he cannot find quality in the market to strengthen the team but other teams do and win big trophies. Wenger makes us think that Emirates Cup, FA Cup or 4th Place are big achievements. Anyway, COYG!
Wenger claims Martial is not for sale
Martial joins Man Utd
Wenger claims Monaco not gonna sell Lemar this season
Lemar join Man Utd ???
Wenger should go out now and signing world class defender an attacking midfielder.the current arsenal team I not sparkilngly.
gabriel out means right now we have:
squad size : 33 homegrown: 16 Non homegrown: 17
U21& Homegrown: 3 (Niles, Nelson and Iwobi) last season for iwobi
so we have 30 out of a limit of 25.
players who wont be in 25 man squad are
Joel Campbell
Chuba Akpom
Carl Jenkinson
Mathieu Debuchy
and chambers is most likely going to c.palace so we are pretty much set in squad trimming, now if we buy a player he will take someone place e.g buying seri means replacing elneny, draxler for perez.
Not every player has to be registered in the 25 man squad.
I fear this reasoning of too many players to sign someone is to hide the fact we do not have enough funds, we need to sell not to cut the squad down but to raise funds.
Cutting the squad down for wage reasons is important but loans can cover partial wages and if AFC show the appearance of not needing to sell if they can loan then they have a stronger hand in negotiations and asking for more for our players.
Seems very Gazidis like IMO…
Wenger was happy to let Barca have TH14 for the price of Darren Bent, appears to want to force Alexis, Ozil and Ox into running out their contract but not happy to take a couple million hit on Perez? Doesn’t seem logical, seems like 2 different opinions.
true we can have 1,2 players with average wages not registered as we sure have the financial clout but having 5 players who will play no part in our season is a waste especially if we consider that our board is a profit-based organisation.
our atrocious management of wages has lead us to having a high wage bill while still requiring new world class players. last season was 200m while suggardaddies like man c and chelsea had 225 and 218. see we are close to them in wages but not in overall quality.
i personally dont give a shit about players transfer fee and wages as long as they are good but its good to keep track of some info.
OT- Why does welbeck always fall over while taking a shot? ?
That’s like asking how many roads does a man walk down before he can be called a man, it’s blowing in the wind my friend.
I have the feeling we will now ship out 5/6 players and bring nobody else in. Excuses like, inflated prices and not enough top quality players are available will come out from Arsene’s mouth.
Basically we will sell players to make up the money we paid out for Lacazette. = zero net spend #Business
I hope we sign some more players ???
Haha is arsenal really serious?
I’m hopeful. If we’re selling a defender plus a few more then he has to buy one or two defenders. Doesn’t he?
I hope so.
I know we are impatient to see signings, but could we hold down on the negativity until after the window closed.
Wenger made two statements that keep echoing in my head.
“the last weeks of the transfer window will be busy”
” focus cutting down the squad size before any more in”
So base on these two statements we will have to wait and see
What Gabriel needed to become a very good defender, is to have a Tony Adams next to him. Keown’s game was a little like Gabs, aggressive, quick, and likes to get out there quickly and make a crunching tackle. But Keown learned from the best – Gabriel was beginning to learn from a pass-paster. And someone mentioned the other day, sometimes you have to look at the entire team defensively, not just defenders, if it’s wide open play then there is only so much that a defender can do to look solid. Holding might have second season blues if he begins to forget all about that fine defensive training he was taught at Bolton. Terry would have been for Gallas, a little like, what Adams was for Keown.
Gabriel could make one half of a great pairing if he can find the right place. Good luck to him, he’s a trier, and as my nanny would say, that’s half the battle.
Wenger is useless, dont pin your hopes high for this season! He is a retarded old French criossant thats crusting away!
As for Arsenal, the board should step in and get rod of the dead-wood in the squad:
Ospina
Jenkinson
Debuchy
Gibbs
El-Neny
Wilshere
J Campbell
Walcott
Welbeck
Akpom
None of the above will make it as top footballers anywhere else! Waste of money and a dent in Stans pockets lol
Easy dude……..Wenger has two years to do his job…….let him do his job……..I wanted a new coach……but we still have Wenger ………..the players are also in the team to do their jobs……….so let’s support this team………and the players……….
Yikes……the pessimism on this topic is deafening and palpable……….it is only the first game…….and we won……with the next game yet to be played……..who knows who will emerge as the best of the Arsenal team…….and the best player of the EPL…….we can’t buy everyone……..and we definitely can’t sell everyone……….I am sad to see Gabriel leave…….and at the same time waiting for replacement from within……not buy……I believe in this team…..they are capable of winning the EPL league title……let’s support them……….
with arsene tins gets worst everyday, i can only imagine. we started the season with no recognised CD now we just sold d only realiable and manageable backup to Mustarfi and Koncielny while stile housing the likes of Jenko, Gibbs, Debuchy and Chambers with Mertesaker at d end of journey…… if Gab can be sold for 10m then all the above mentioned should go for less so why is Arsene holding for more for Gibbs. its a pity my mind tells me to quit Arsenal till after Wenger’s era but my heart will not allow me…. i guess am stucked and am resolve to suffer for atleast another 2years