Signing free agent Adrien Rabiot is not necessarily the best move for Arsenal by Martin
A lot is being made of the availability of PSG midfielder Adrien Rabiot and the fact that he will be a free agent in the summer, with a whole host of clubs interested in signing the undoubtedly classy player, including Arsenal.
But we should avoid falling into the trap of signing top class players on free transfers for no other reason than they are free.
For starters, if a player is available for free then the chances are his wages will be huge, and look at the massive salary we are already paying to Mesut Ozil, a salary that may be having an effect on the Arsenal transfer budget.
Secondly, Rabiot carries some significant baggage, this is a guy that refused to be a back up for the French World Cup team in 2018 because he reckoned he could not cope with the training methods. This is a guy that has his mum as his agent and that is never a good sign. This is a guy that has also had a horrendous fall out with PSG over his contract.
Do we really want to sign a player that would cripple our wage structure, allow his mum do dictate terms and who throws his dummy out of the pram when he does not get his own way?
Of course, some free transfers are beautiful, Sol Campbell anyone? but generally speaking, they are more trouble than they are worth and not always beneficial to the team.
No way must we ignore a player because he is available for free but at the same time neither should we jump all over a free transfer just because they are free either. If a player fits our profile, our strategy, and can play to our style then we should target that player regardless of whether he will come in for free or £30 Million, and that applies to Rabiot and any other so-called bargain opportunity.
Martin
BIG NO! Good player, terrible attitude. He and his mother will be big problems for us, they consider him so big that they probably think he is too big to play for arsenal. If we sign him on a free, i can guarantee he will only be looking to use us as a stepping stone to barcelona or real madrid. I only ever want players that feel excited and grateful to play for us.
Yes, we don’t need another diva. Rabiot is a good player and he is tall like Pogba/ Vieira, but he is slow and we already have similar player in Guendouzi
I’d prefer someone like Verratti, a technically gifted playmaker with excellent ball control skill that is able to dictate the tempo like Cazorla
Or a creative regista like Pirlo that can create through balls consistently. Xhaka should be our regista, but he has been playing more as DM instead
Yeah Rabiot would be a good fit for Arsenal, he’s played under Emery at PSG and I think he would slot into our French contingency and it would be good to have got one over Spurs and Manchester United.
will be a good addition for free, a proven player, the fact that he has worked under our coach before will make him settle in quickly. but his wages and attitude can be a stunning block, but apart from that i’ll love to see him in our shirt.
The article has already painted him in a negative light and it’s a shame media never tell us everything but what will rather be eye catching.Forget attitude, I won’t take him even for free.What kind of partner are Arsenal looking to sign for Torreira?With Ramsey leaving we need a box to box player of which recently some are suggesting Niles should play.I for one really regret the departure of Ismael Bennacer as I believe he had more ability than Xhaka,Guendouzi and might even be better than AMN.A shame he left for playing time but had he stayed he would be eventually found his way into the starting eleven because he’s better than some.Luckily for us it’s widely reported there’s a £12m clause we can activate and buy him back.Its wishful thinking because you get the feeling both of Xhaka and Guen will be here next season after Ramsey leaves.He’s one of the few youngsters who have left us and has shown that he actually had the ability.
Agree. Better use Maitland-Niles as a box-to-box CM, because he has the energy
I don’t know about Bennacer, but I don’t want Arsenal buy another midfielder since they already have many
KEV—Couldn’t agree more on your assessment
of Bennacer. Kid is an incredibly gifted and
hard working player that has grown immeasurably
in his short stint with Empoli in Siere A. Napoli
have already registered serious interest and the
number of top European teams intrigued by his
skill set is growing by the days. His skill set imho
exceeds both Guendouzi and AMN in the middle
of the pitch and his work rate and aggression is
Torreria esque. Arsenal should consider exercising the buy back option in his clause but sadly it
appears he will be another Gnabry that AFC
GIVES up on far to early in his career.
I would but that is due to what else we could do as a club, we could raise funds from the sale of Xhaka and although Rabiot may want to be financially rewarded for no transfer fee, I do think we could push for giving him a nice signing on bonus to keep the wage down lower than the reported £170k a week Barca was going to offer him.
Say, give him £100k a week and signing on bonus of £25 million, this would kinda represent about £200k a week wages over 5 years but his actual wage would only be £100k.
Easier to move on if we wish to sell him, he has been paid upfront by Arsenal so any wage increase in the sale will be beneficial for Rabiot. I bet we could get £25 million if we sold him after 12 months, meaning it wouldn’t really cost us anything to find out.
His mother could be an issue but Emery has worked with Rabiot and his mother being his agent already, if it doesn’t work out then sell him, if it works then great.
The funds from the sale of Xhaka could be used towards a better CB or RB than what we are looking at with current financial restrictions. Xhaka and Mustafi could fetch a combined £50 million, maybe more, that would be a massive chunk of the De Ligt fee.
Added bonus, how funny would it be watching Guendouzi and Rabiot battle for the hair of the season? ;P Elneny makes it a fuzzy trio XD
On a side note, how is it that we let mislintat go only for us to miss out on monchi and overmars, and now we are looking to promote from within? Even with this new regime, it seems we are still shit at making the right decisions at the top, really disappointing.
Arsenal look like a reactive and poorly run organization. It was stupid to let Mislintat leave in the first place; but seemingly having no plan B or even C for that matter smacks of incompetence.
Our approach seems to be “Two birds in the bush are better than the one we have in hand!”
A stroppy dummy thrower…..don’t like the sound of that
To be hornest, rabiot is a good player for arsenal he wil be a good buy for free for arsenal, he’s mum is doing whats best for him but instead of passion, she’s just been too emotional about the whole situation. AFC put themself on this mess in the 1st place with salary structure and who ever they end up signing is still gono cost more than free rabiot except u r going 4 the average players we already have, you ve to do d maths, u r giving ramsey 4 free, why not take another, rabiot 4 free, you can cash on this guy after 3yrs if u like but after giving him a 5 and a half yrs contract, its a no brainer
You people are just mentioning the sale of Xhaka like he’s one chamack or bendtner, the fact that that guy doesn’t directly contribute to goals doesn’t take away his importance in that arsenal team.
That guy keeps us in possession much more than we think, much more than guendouzi that some people appreciate more. He’s played a lot more than guendouzi, yes, but believe me when I tell you that guendouzi and torreira’s been dispossessed more than xhaka this season, despite touching the ball more than both of them individually. Jorginho’s the only midfielder in epl with more touches and passes than xhaka. All these stats are from premierleague.com, that’s epl’s official website, in case you want to confirm them.
if i recall it was wenger that initially wanted rabiot but instead settled for xhaka – can’t help seeing this is another red herring although there could be a closeness developed between the player and Unai having been acquainted with each other at PSG. But i am used to us bringing in more names of players that are previously unknowns much like has happened with guendouzi. Rabiot likely to end up in chelski or the north-west of england, likely suiters citeh…
although securing 3rd or 4th spot could well help things in terms of our current appeal: i’m just saying were he coming to play for us he’d have done it long time ago, so realistically i can’t see it happening now.
I agree with sammie on Xhaka, and on Rabiot, its a No for me, we are just getting our fan base,dressing room and staff united again ,i dont want some egocentric element that will come and destroy the harmonized lot.
He isnt the only one with talent
In the 2154 minutes he’s committed two errors leading to goals since the beginning of the season, that’s a far cry from “he commits an error every match” that some people claim. However, Torreira, guendouzi and iwobi have all committed an error leading to a goal this season. And as for being dispossessed, he’s lost the ball 15 times, guendouzi 27 times, Torreira 21 times.
As for his discipline, he’s got more yellow cards on the league more than our other players but as for red, he’s not been sent off this season, lacazette, torreira, guendouzi and sokratis, however…
Granit xhaka isn’t your Cazorla, yes, he’s not ur Kante, but he’s a very decent midfielder that’s very important to our team.
I like Xhaka I think he has definately improved this year and when paired with a more defensive midfielder he thrives. He’s also got a lot of leadership and fight and that is something seriously lacking in our team.
I’m all for getting Rabiot tho, a midfield 3 of Torreira, Xhakha and Rabiot will be next level
Box to Box has to be Joe Willock
We can’t afford to be picky.
We can’t afford Top players
We need to get the best players possible within our budget and that means getting some players on a free transfer
Rabiot is a good player
You could not play Rabiot and xhaka together as they are both left footers and similar in style.It would create an unbalanced midfield package my in pace.I get the impression that Emery rates Xhaka highly in which case he will pass on Rabiot.
Why is it that Ozil is literally the only player in the entire PL whose name is always prefaced by his salary? The implication of course being that he doesn’t deserve, but why then is the same not done for other players who earn even higher wages and who perform even worse on the pitch?
Just another example of this pathetic agenda that people seem to have against the man.
Wanted to add in here that Rabiot agent isn’t his mother anymore, I wanted to double check to see if his mother was still his agent and by reports he fired her for messing up the Barca deal and leaving him in such a poor place at PSG.