If there is one thing that nearly all Arsenal fans agree on, it is that we haven’t managed to bring in a worthy successor to the Spanish magician Santi Cazorla, who may well have kicked his last ball for the Arsenal after missing most of the last two seasons.
Now it is being reported by Sky News (so it must be true!) that Barcelona have offered the 24 year-old Brazilian Rafinha to the Gunners for a knock down price of just €30million euros after having joined the Catalan giants when he was just a 13 year-old nipper. Admittedly he did spend a year on loan at Celta Vigo, and has spent a lot of time in the treatment room, but he has managed to make 48 appearances for the Spanish giants, not to mention 84 games for the B team
Considering that he was the backup for Neymar it is no surprise that he didn’t get many games, only playing 16 times in the last campaign. Surely he has too good a player to sit on the bench, and he now wants to look for more regular first team football – and I see no reason why he couldn’t get it at Arsenal.
That just seem very cheap for a player of his calibre, and I only hope that Barcelona are only offering him in the hope that Wenger will open up to talking about Hector Bellerin….
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He is not Santi in fact he’s no where near shouldn’t we set our sights higher
Hard to believe that he would be offered at a cut rate price exclusively to Arsenal. It’s either a bogus story or half a story that is missing the strings attached.
And a bit part player of Barca for 30m is not cut price, usually big clubs offer players means they mailed 10 or more different clubs about availability, Arsenal being one of them. Real was offering around Kovacic before Morata sell, he is much better
Barca are trying to buy Courinho (Sky Sources) for 70Mil so trying to fund that I reckon… But the “fact” that it was offered to Arsenal there has to be a twist! I have a feeling Bellerz may be involved in this… I hope not!
When his Barca DNA kicks in, they know he will go crawling back like the other little sh1te did.
It’s a sweetener for not reporting Barcelona for their tapping up on Bellerin lol
French media are reporting that Sanchez was spotted checking into a Hotel in Paris’s eighth district… Whatever that means? ?? is that where the cheap hairy ho’s are at ? ?
Yup, Sanchez is In Paris and the news is spreading fast, if true, I got to give the French media another thumbs up for their quickness and reliability with giving out. transfer news.
“Alexis Sanchez is currently at the Royal Monceau, a Parisian hotel in the 8th arrondissement,” Paris United tweeted.
“Alexis inquired of some Arsenal team-mates about the city of Paris and Ligue 1.”
French broadcaster Canal Supporters has backed up the claims and insist the Chilean is in Paris to finalise his move with PSG sporting director Antero Henrique.
“Canal Supporters is able to confirm this info. Alexis finalises his contract with Henrique,” they tweeted.
what gets me fats is some fans are happier getting 35m from PSG than 70-80m from utd/city
where will we get a WC player for 35m ?
Agreed , sell to highest bidder and get an adequate replacement.
Sanchez is not the be all and end all.
From what I have read, PSG are the ones willing to offer £70 mil, where has this £70 mil offer from City or UTD been reported? I can’t find any. Closest I found on google was fans saying Alexis was worth at least £70 mil from city if they paid £50 mil for Walker…
Then that leads me to wonder what fans you are talking about? o.O
reports are saying PSG will pay 70mn .. and we have only hears offers at 40-50mn from Citeh… so youve got it wrong way round..
Much better for Sanchez to he sold outside PL and 70mn for him in last year of contract is a steal !
Use that straight away for Lemar plus Carvalho / Matic if required though would prefer focus on Van Dijk.. still not sure why we didnt buy him direct from Celtic
Until David Ornstein confirms this I am not going to believe anything.
If he was Neymar’s backup, then how on earth is he an ideal replacement for Santi? Neymar is a wide forward, Santi is a central midfielder, two completely different positions. I even thought Rafinha was a wide forward before I read the article, going on what I’ve seen, and heard about him.
He’s not the answer, or even the right position! We need a quality DM/CM that has been playing regularly. No more potential!!! No more injury-prone players!!!
He can play RB,LB,RW and CM.The guy is very very good technically.For an attacker he’s also very good defensively.This is another player Barca will regret selling to us.Also it’s unlike he’ll be going back there soon because of his age.This is the age where he should be going back there and not coming instead.We must get him now and then focus on a CM.I would also like Jakub Janko because he defends and attacks very well.
Hmmmmm…….. I wonder why are Barcelona being so nice
1. It s obvious they like us
2. Love doing business with us as partners
3. Shipping him here for development
4. We are a holding facility and they will give us something extra a little later
HE is a decent player and actually quite similar to Cazorla is stature and skill wise, he actually loves getting involved in the tackle, now that i think of it reminds me of Wilshere and like Wilshere gets injured but not as serious.
Would not be a bad buy, but serves as a present for future demands. He is basically trying to get his spot in the Barcelona 11, but several players are ahead of him, moving to arsenal would do magic for his career. He is not a Spanish nationality but Brazilian. One individual in his position in the national team for Brazil is Coutinho, so let us invite to over
Cazorla is good but injury prone. Wilshere is worse. Ramsey very inconsistent.
If there’s any truth in the Rafinha’s news, then Wenger should quickly do the deal. His record proves his not injury prone.
Rafinha isn’t all that! His stats are quite bad. Goretzka all day long!
Correct me I’m wrong, but doesn’t Sanchez need a permission from Arsenal to talk to other clubs?
Sanchez may or may not be in Paris. But one thing is for certain.. . . he is not there to agree with PSG over a new contract. PSG cannot meet with Alexis unless the Arsenal have given permission to do so. This permission would not have been granted unless PSG and Arsenal have already agreed on a transfer. There is no agreement on transfer fee so this meeting between Alexis and PSG is NOT a true story. Lastly, yesterday this same “news” organisation was saying that Sanchez doesn’t want to go to PSG because he doesn’t want to move to Paris and that he is settled in London and wants to stay there.
Does anyone remeber the Ashley Cole transfer and the meeting in a hotel with Mourhino. That also went on without Arsenal’s ‘permission’
Who is to say that he doesn’t have permission. Let’s not forget that Wenger said RVP would not be sold or TH14 or Cesc. He’s a liar, get used to it.
Wenger may well have not wantes to sell those players but Gazidis could have been told by the Silent One to nake the club money ! I doubt we will ever know unless Wenger reveals all in a book in 10 years time !
Sanchez cannot negotiate anything with any club without Arsenal’s permission.
He currently does not have Wenger’s blessings to leave.
For me Rafinha cannot suit Carzola replacement i will go for Goretzka instead!!
an injury prone barca bench warmer a replacement for santi? common tell me something else
How exactly is Rafinha a like for like replacement for Cazorla?!
Anyways, about Alexis… PSG transfer is the best possible outcome… if he is set on moving and Arsenal think it’s best to let him. Then he must wrap things up quickly so Arsenal can move on to their targets quickly.
Priority No 1 is get a “complete” CM player .. Matic would be a dream too.
Then they should complete Lemar/Mahrez
Wenger does not like keeping unhappy players ,and now since PSG is not a direct rival ,Wenger should let Sanchez go. Get the money and use it to get a replacement who wants to play for our great Club. Arsenal under Wenger has a good reputation of giving young players latitude to play and develop further . Get young players that are hungry for success and allow Sanchez to pursue his millions from any club that is not a direct rival.
Sanchez is not indispensable !
I hope Wenger tries to get Goretzka
He can play box 2 box, DM and CAM
He is very good defensively.
Tackles well
Good passer
He is tall so good with headers
He’s not just tall but physically strong too
I don’t think he is a Cazorla BUT
I think he is excellent all rounder and only 22.
Not sure about transfer fee but £30 million could do it
He looks better than Brozovic anyway, who doesn’t like to tackle. He is also much shorter and isn’t great with headers
Again Goretzka is very strong overall
I know nothing about this guy but If Barcelona offers a player lol, I would be worried.
I think clubs usually want to keep talented players
If we don’t get a top defensive Midfielder like Carvalho, Gueye etc then we should at least get a player who is strong defensively like Goretzka
I think Lemar and Goretzka would do it. We would not need any more for the starting 11. Anything above that would be strengthening our bench which is always welcome though
Gueye? How long has he been in the league? A good season and now he’s ideal?
Funny how fast we’re able to write off Coquelin. Dude’s heart and soul is Arsenal. He might not be very gifted technically but he does the job of a DM, and does so well – hardly loses the ball and he even has the ability to dribble (once being an AM). Xhaka is a better passer no doubt, but I’ll go with Coq and a top CM all day, over Xhaka (poor tackles, very rigid and immobile – honestly, I don’t think we NEED Xhaka. But for his price tag, he might not even start matches). The pairing of Coq and Santi in midfield was the best we’d had in a while. Which of ’em had a stronger performance against Bayern? Easy!
I’ve always stressed on the fact that some support will be more helpful to some players, we’re too quick to put players on the “sell” list. Don’t forget even Hazard had a terrible season.
COYG
I think Rafinha is a very good player but his persistent injury problems are very concerning. Cazorla, Wilshere, Ramsey and to a lesser extent Coquelin have all had a lot of injuries. We need a top quality central midfielder that is going to stand up and be counted in the big games.
I was just about to bring up his injury problems that the media seemingly overlooks. I have watched him play for Barcelona and trust me he is WAY behind his brother thiago alacantra in terms of development. He is not what we need – we need fit, top class players not more treatment table tea party guests for Jack Wilshere. ffs they might as well call us the Arsehospital if he comes here.
When i said seemingly in my last response i meant conveniently….
Now of him and xhank who can go on bench
Rafinha no thank you, would rather stick with what we have than go for this flop not good enough for arsenal…as for Leon from schalke everyone thinks he’s the answer to our problems but he isn’t, he is in the Mould of Ramsey and granit nothing like cazorla he can tackle, decent passing,and runs late into the box but doesn’t have the dribbling ability flair or the quick pass that launches an attack straight away, he s a lot like xhaka and has late runs like Ramsey but won’t drastically improve the starting eleven…if I had to choose between any player to fill the void I would go Keita, verrati, tiago, modric, koke, rabbiot, Kross, seri, hamsik,maybe Renato Sanchez on loan with option to buy etc…the point is they have to have the ability to create something from nothing, an unpredictable source in the middle of the park!! a guy like that will get the best out of ozil, and our attacking force!
The psg owner and Henrique were in London yesterday and today sanchez in Paris and rumours I’m seeing are 60 to 70m for sanchez.
If we could sell him abroad for money like this as I recently predicted I might add I’d be delighted!
Sad to see him go but keeping a player of his temperament another year and losing free would be madness. The sanchez is going nowhere stories were 1 to keep pl teams at bay whilst Wenger got on the phone to psg. 2. Give sanchez the impression that we are now doing him a favor giving his childhood dream of cl football lol
Goretzka.
Kolasinac schalke link and ozil persuade him to come if they’ll sell?
If Wenger believed Sanchez was out the door. We would have done the Mahrez deal by now.
Suggests to me Wenger will carry out his statement and keep Sanchez
I don’t think mahrez is a good replacement of Sanchez. If psg want our man, they should give us draxler.
Plz…not the draxler rumours again! Lol!