Jorginho has become the latest new Arsenal player to take the jump from Stamford Bridge to North London.
As Chelsea fans have been quick to point out, history shows that they often get the better of the arrangements, often sending us talent past their peak of powers. Meanwhile Anelka, Fabregas and Giroud all won trophies going in the opposite direction.
My own opinion is the 31 years olds move across the English Capital benefits all parties.
Chelsea free up room in midfield and funds for a man who would be a free agent in the summer, the player gets to stay in the City his family is settled in with a fresh challenge, and we add to our squad much needed experience.
The youngest squad in the division now how another proven winner to confide in.
Even having him around training can only improve the mentality of the group.
12 million to add much-needed knowhow to the team is worth it.
Let’s explore the so-called curse that exists when Chelsea players become Gunners.
William Gallas
Given the saga that involved Ashley Cole’s transfer to Chelsea, getting 5 million and one of the best centre backs in the Prem seemed the best out of a bad situation.
It quickly became clear that the defender lacked the leadership qualities a young dressing room clearly needed.
When Clichy conceded a last minute penalty at Birmingham, instead of putting an arm around the shoulder of peers already shell shocked by Eduardo breaking his leg, Gallas formed a one man sit down protest .
This led to the Frenchman having the captaincy removed.
In his defence, Gallas arrived from a different environment.
The culture at Chelsea was run like a machine by Jose Mourinho with senior pros in all departments.
He moved to a younger place of work where Mr Wenger was putting trust in youth.
Diarra
Signed from Chelsea months before his contract expired and seemed a perfect fit for a youthful squad.
Form of Flamini meant game time was limited, and both London clubs were left wondering ‘what if’ once he got consistent first team football at Portsmouth.
Lifted the FA Cup at Pompey which led to an 18 million move to Real Madrid, where he won La Liga and then Ligue 1 in France .
Represented France at two Euros.
Benayoun
It took an 8-2 humiliation at Old Trafford to force us to do business in the transfer market, one of which was a loan deal for Benayoun.
A very underrated signing.
At a time when Arsenal needed some experience, the Israeli gave the Gunners just what they needed.
He didn’t start every week but was a player Mr Wenger could trust when needed.
On and off the pitch Benayoun helped a youthful squad.
Cech
Part of the reason Jose Mourinho fell out with his employers (again) at Chelsea was them allowing Cech to move to Arsenal so his family could remain in London.
The keeper won the Golden Glove in his first season at the Emirates, the closest we have come from being Champions since it last happened in 2004.
It was sad to see the last season before he retired, Unai Emery trying to teach him to play out from the back with the ball at his feet.
It seemed almost unfair to be teaching a 37 year old to be learning a new style to learn.
Awkwardly his last game of his career (at the time) was conceding 4 goals in the Europa League Final against his old club Chelsea, who he would be working for months later.
Luiz
David conceded more penalties and red cards in two years in North London then he did in 6 years at the Bridge.
Error prone yet two best games for us were in the semi Final and Final of FA Cup.
So played a part in our history which no one can take away.
Willian
Arsenal were willing to offer William a longer deal then Chelsea were prepared too.
Later would describe his 12 months in North London as the worst of his career.
This coincided with the Gunners worst League position in 25 years where William registered one goal and one assist (his stats at Fulham are already better).
To be fair, he was willing to rip up contract to leave, whereas some of his peers would have sat on the bench basking in their lucrative contract.
Has never publicly said what were his issues in North London were related to.
Will Jorginho be a success ?
Dan Smith
Watch the amusing and informative Deadline Day Podcast (Good or Bad?) from the famous Dublin Arsenal – Plus previewing the weekend’s game against Everton
Please enjoy, watch and subscribe to JustArsenalVids
I know that Fabregas was an Arsenal player who transferred to Barcelona where he originally joined Arsenal. But it was at Barca that he transferred to Chelsea. And what of Nicholas Aneilka? Did he directly transferred from Arsenal to Chelsea? Or he first transferred from Arsenal to another club before he joined Chelsea?
He went to Madrid from Arsenal
I really enjoyed Benayoun. Was a good player for us. Breezed on the pitch and had the technique to back it up
I quite liked Benayoun too never really let the team down.I struggle to think of any other ex Chelsea player that has impressed at Arsenal and I can go back to Colin Pates and John Hollins.
A bit different now.
As I understand Chelsea already have or will soon soon have more quality players, than they are allowed to register in various competitions. Never mind FFP.
So there could be right players to get going forward.
All honesty, i wouldn’t mind Havertz. I think he’d flourish in our system
There will certainly be some quality players available that could help many a team. The problem will be their salaries as so many of them – Havertz, Pulisic, CHO, Loftus-Cheek etc — are on big money (120 – 150k pw). I suspect many will be at Chelsea until they can leave on a free. The two exceptions who will probably bring in good money as they are young and on reasonable salaries are Mount and Gallagher. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Jorginho Looks promising, having said that Arteta wanted him long before, but unforeseen circumstances kept him delayed. So this time around all seems to be in place. Hoping that is a cue going forward to be a blessing in disguise for the Arsenal team.
Again, then we had Mr. Wenger who kept making wrong choices time after time either though arrogance or due to age (nothing to be ashamed of as I’m not ashamed of mine) and Mikel who keeps learning and evolving. From 20th to 5th, and from 5th to 1st after 19 games with a wafer thin cost effective squad in modern day football (forget the era of a two horse race), only a magician can do that. Willian went off without drama , without “honoring the contract” or maybe that did not apply to him as he was not Papa’s signing! If Mikel could train Xhaka, Martinelli, Saka, Ode, Ben or could plan the futures for Saliba, Folarin, Nelson, then bring any player willing to work with him, keeping ego aside, he would make the player successful. I’m excited about the future.
To me, Jorginho is a Xhaka type player
(What I mean is: they are better paired with another midfielder who majorly takes-on the defensive duties while they contribute a lil to that)
But I like that he tries to tackle & block though he’s feather light and easily brushed aside by attacking opponents
His strong sides are “on/with the ball” but Chelsea been needing him to do major “off the ball” duties and he doesn’t shy from it
And that’s what we’ll be asking of him too
Success or not? Judged as Flop, Disappointment, As advertised, Success, Overwhelming success
Gallas: As you say was the best we could get in that situation and was a decent CB just not a leader as we discovered. Think his sulk is overplayed in the downfall of that very talented team that year. Injuries, poor decisions by referees and arsenal don’t like it up em (leading to injuries) played a larger role. Success or just maybe given his reputation as advertised but at his age as advertised is success just.
Diarra I’d forgotten about tbh, he was weird case as player overall outside Arsenal and hard to pin down in this manner. Technical disqualification.
Benayoun: I agree. He came in exceeded expectations for awhile and then reverted to expectation. As advertised overall. Sidenote Arteta’s arrival at the same time was the big catalyst for our continued top 4 presence after and he did start most weeks with the experience help.
Cech: He gets an unfair rap mostly for the Europa League finish and the agent Cech jibes from Chelsea. Overall a decent keeper. His rating depends on whether you bought the media critique that he’d bring X more points per season because our GKs were useless. If you consider the careers those two GKs have had since and Cechs age it’s hard to believe the media narrative. As advertised, if you were influenced by media then disappointing.
Luiz: Again gets an unfair rap. There was a reason he got his contract extended a year whilst we paid off other defenders to leave who had been there longer and were younger because we only had enough money to buy Gabriel. Think he was slightly unlucky with some of his reds/pens in the 1st place and the overall team has to be factored in. Also a pundit did a number on him before his PSG move nevermind return to Chelsea then Arsenal. As advertised.
Willian: Honestly don’t understand what went wrong. Think wrong place, wrong time. Have other opinions on specifics but don’t have enough information behind the scenes to state them with any confidence. Fact he tore up his contract spoke to the man and made him a low cost issue. Flop but not a costly one.
Don’t think we’ve ever done that badly out of Chelsea to be honest, no overwhelming ones but those would be rare between same league rivals.
In Jorginho, think he make a lot of sense and is severely underated much like Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, James miller and even perhaps our own Granit Xhaka. Players fans love to hate but who can play the game to a very high level. Honestly the best example is Gilberto the “weak link” of that great Arsenal team and until Partey nobody ever stopped crying for a Gilberto even when forgetting his name.