Arsenal fans are used to transfer dealings taking forever, but that is usually for players coming in, not going out to other clubs. But this appears to be the case with Joel Campbell.
We all had high hopes for the Costa Rican international when he arrived as a shock signing four years ago, but he has failed to impress Arsene Wenger and his eagerness to actually play football has seen him go out on loan every single season of his Arsenal career.
He has now played for a season each at Lorient, Real Betis and Olympiakos, and last season he made a January move to Villarreal where, despite playing 15 League games he did not score his only goal for the club until May. He has badly failed to live up to the early expectations, with just 18 goals in 122 senior appearances over these four years, and he certainly has no future at the Emirates.
But Wenger seems to be loathe to let him go for less than a reported £7m valuation, and has so far rebuffed bids from Besiktas, Benfica, Real Sociedad and now Palermo, who have been negotiating for the last three weeks without getting Wenger to budge on the price.
The Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini even flew to London to try and break the deadlock with Wenger, but he has now given up on getting his man. He said: “Arsenal aren’t moving from their initial positions and Campbell is unattainable as of now.
“If some margins open up for a negotiation then all for the better, otherwise we can’t do anything.”
The reports say that the Italians have offered £3.5m for Campbell, which would mean a significant profit on our original outlay for a certified flop. Why doesn’t Wenger just take the money and run? I know I would….
Joel Campbell is not good enough… he should go…
he was a flop at the World Cup….
I agree, he has turned out to be nothing more than a flop. But to be fair to him he never really got the chance to get in the first team.but I guess that’s cuz Wenger thinks he’s a flop.if we are not going to sign anyone we might use him at some stage.
it’s greediness…pure greediness..no way campbell will ever get into our first team with our other promising young stars on loan. let this boy go pls, don’t be an hindrance to him, its not as if wenger will play him, he’s just being a greedy man. and for someone his calibre, its appalling and makes no sense
No doubt that if it were the other way around, they’d want the 7 mil possibly more. I never really heard of Italian clubs selling promising players for cheap. Even if the boy was coming from France they would want more than 3.5 mil. I don’t care either way but if Wenger was trying to do deals with some of these clubs in the past and they were trying to make him pay through the nose well then it is only right to treat people as you have been treated yourself. Look at how liv work, and then they go out with extra cash for signings. I think you should at least think about the situation before having a go at the boss, and is it our boss who is setting the prices, I don’t know but people are too quick to have a go when it comes to money and Arsene.
I reckon they want to sell him and try to recoup the costs- he’s on £40k pw since 2011 which is £2m pa and how many goals has he scored for us? Another example of paying ridiculous money to unproven talent.
Look at Walcott, he only played him at CF prior to him signing a new contract and he plainly prefers Giroud, Ramsey and Ox to him so I agree he’s there as back up.
£140k pw is £7.3m pa plus I’m sure he got a contract renewal fee and he will get loyalty bonuses. The same will happen if we ever sell him- unless he demands a transfer he’ll get a chunk of the transfer fee. Payments like these would have been given to him every time he signed a new contract.
I’m not anti Walcott, I’m just thinking a ridiculous amount of money has been paid for a pretty poor return and this idea of paying players big money in the hope we can sell them later at a profit is flawed when you take inflated wages and bonuses into account. If he plays well we want to keep him so selling on price is irrelevant but if he plays badly or doesn’t play then his price goes down in which case all the inflated salary and bonuses are nonsense.
It’s logic like this that left us with Bendtner on the books for years on silly money and what did we sell him for ?
And how’s Sanogo getting on these days?
Cut the crap and go buy quality from the start.
@FT…..don’t know what u are saying…… Don’t u compare Bendtner or sanogo to walcott…… He’s by far a better option compared to those two…… We both know that Wenger with his inferiority complex….. Would go with his favourites over what the team really needs ….infact it’s killing the rhythm
the actual question should have been …….. “SHOULDN’T WE SIGN A ST and A DM?”…….. We have loaned and loaned and Loaned…… Infact , Arsenal have loned the highest number of players so far (don’t care if they are all Un21’s or 1st team players) ……. But it’s high time we looked into the eye of the vortex and do what’s best for the PRESENT!
I pity Wenger,What will he tell the media come may without the title,next season…To infinite!
Unless we get benzema and a WC DM .then only we have a chance to win the title.
…And we will get both – CF and DM.
Case close
How sure are you?who are we getting?
Don’t sell him for 3.5 mill. That’s too low. just loan him out to a PL club. I’m sure Watford, bournmouth could use a player like him. He’s got some potential they could develop.
Arsenal is still the ONL epl club not to buy an outfield player #strengthening is for the weak
Arsenal is still the ONLY epl club not to buy an outfield player #strengthening is for the weak
Arsenal is the only epl club to snatch a world class keeper from a rival.
who made a stupid mistakes¡¡¡¡
Not all will make. Few will be called, minute few will make it.
@Admin,
I wish to know the winner of last week’s JustArsenal T-Shirt. Thanks.
sorry! The shirt’s reserved…….. NOBODY won…….. Nobody mentioned a Delaney own goaL ……. L()L
Hi John, I put the result on the thread. I thought you had won again but yep_its_me was 3 minutes closer…
Hard luck this time mate…
@Admin,
Okay, thanks. I thought as much, just wanted to be sure since I did not see where the winner was declared.
Hmmm… Hard luck truly
I see Joel Campbell is labelled as a flop.hmmm well he was at the wrong place at the right time.What a pity.I know you will eventually come back to prove people wrong i know for sure.You have world class potential and i believe you will get there in the right team and finding some consistency.Thank you for your time here.I wish you all the best.I know you will get there.
our greatest transfer is for de transfer to be over.
He should be free transfer with immediate effect…
What a waste of wages
to be honest in our hearts,,,,Giroud n Le coq won’t win us de league.
Abumeyang is available where is wenger!
I believe both Campbell and Flamini will be leaving and 2 players will join to lift our squad. CF and DM, I think Wenger would have been interested in Pedro he had been in the market for a winger.
Three years and peeps are still debating over a certain cf in the team
Not spoken on here for a long time n not a fan of benzema but the news seems to be true
agent alexis
Dont believe anyone especially if we r involved.. Its thumb rule here.
So frustrating….
I used to think teams uses their most effective players as a weapon…Ox and Walcott on the bench while Ramsey plays every minutes??? That, i will never understand.
3.5 m is too low by all standards really.
The real reason Pedro chose Chelsea: Van Gaal is a weirdo
This Benzema story is starting to make sense. it’s on BBC gossip just like pedro’s to chelsea, and Otamendi to city http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/gossip/ and Skybet have officially closed betting on the transfer.
Real want reus and I think they are moving really fast to wrap up the deal as he is not selected for dormund’s game this week and he is not injured.
Besides, Acc to Agent Alexis, Emannuele and Jienny Lizarazo Arsenal could announce Benzema in 48 hours. and I saw early in the morning some Man utd fans on a french forum congratulate us gonners fans for signing Benzema. I really think it’s a matter of time. COYG
Arsen thinks his team is okay, no one should expect any additions. Arsen knows best right?
Has anyone seen that twitter page Agent Alexis? That dude is hell-bent on Benz coming to AFC lol I don’t trust none of these twitter pages but this guys rep is going to get ripped if the deal doesn’t happen.
He also claims that Real want Reus And Lewandowski, which would be the type of thing RM do but I can only really see 1 of them going, if any!
I wonder if this is where All Guns Blazing has picked up the news? It’s like they’re in competition to see who can spread the Benz news most lol
Players like Sanogo, Silva and Campbell should just get off the payroll asap. They obviously have nothing to contribute with.
Oh, and Welbeck too. Send him to Villa on a loan for the rest of his contract with us.