So Who's Gonna Replace Vieira?
Story from football365.com...Jermaine Jenas is the favourite to replace Patrick Vieira at Arsenal, according to the papers.
With Gilberto Silva and the young pair of Cesc Fabregas and Mathieu Flamini the only central midfielders on Arsenal's books following the sale of Vieira, Arsene Wenger is already on the lookout for a replacement.
'A youngish signing seems inevitable as Wenger combines his drive for the present with an eye on the future', says The Guardian.
'Newcastle are expecting an offer from Arsenal for Jermaine Jenas,' the paper adds, with the Daily Mirror in agreement: 'It is Jenas, Newcastle's emerging England star, who tops the wanted list to replace Vieira.’
Such is Arsenal's determination to sign the England international that they 'will use Sol Campbell as bait to sign Jenas', reckons The Sun.
Campbell, though, is widely expected to take over from Vieira as the club’s captain.
Another leading candidate to replace Vieira is Lyons midfielder Mahamadou Diarra (pictured). However, the 24-year-old signed a two-year contract extension with the French champions last week.
Marseilles' 18-year-old Samir Nasri is another possibility, as is Julio Baptista, the Sevilla striker who began his career as a midfielder.
One option already available to Wenger is to use Kolo Toure as a midfielder again, although that seems unlikely.
Wenger has already urged the Highbury faithful to "trust" him. While history shows that few high-profile players sold by Wenger, such as Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit and Nicolas Anelka, progress after leaving Highbury, it also indicates that pre-guessing Wenger’s work in the transfer market is a risky endeavour.
Petit, for instance, was a left-back at Monaco before being converted into a midfielder by Wenger, while Vieira was a relatively unknown 19-year-old Frenchman with a dodgy knee languishing in the AC Milan reserves.
posted by NyssietheGooner at 12:34 PM
10 Comments:
Jenas would do a great job for arsenal but he will never ever be in the same mould as Vieira. If it means loosing campbell who is still a superb defender. I think we should fuck Jenas off and look at other options. Pizzaro at Udinese is one that I would like.
Who would have guessed that we would be complentating loosing campbell and Pires having already lost King Paddy. Things look a little bleak but if theres one manager you can count on to get things right its Arsene Wenger.
Quick note to the chelsea and Man Utd Scum Fans. Suck Cock the titles coming home to Highbury where it belongs
I wish people would stop mentioning Baptista as a replacement for Vieira. Though Baptista came to Seville as a holding midfielder, he proved much more lethal as powerful striker. Putting him back as a midfielder will be a step back in Baptista's progression as a footballer, and I'm quite sure Wenger agree with me on this point. On the other hand, there's no other player I'd like to see more in an Arsenal shirt than Baptista (or Torres or Ronaldinho) but then as a striker. I'm not convinced that Jenas will fill Vieira's boots properly either. No, Hleb and Gilberto in the middle with Fabregas and Flamini as back-up/rotation devices, and spent money to give Reyes, Pires and Ljungberg (and even Bentley and Quincy) competition on the wings...
13.7 Million for Vieira. 6 Million up front then 2 further payments at some point down the line. If you ask me Juventus have pulled of the transfer coup of the next few years.
Jenas is good but surely the man we need would be Xavi from Barcelona. Difficult to get but he ould fit in perfectly and he is shit hot.
I don't see Jenas coming. He doesn't have the same tenacity that is required.
Baptista will probably come because he is a low playing Striker, but that still won't fill the void, unless they buy Ballack.
If he was a year or two younger, I'd love Ballack, but he is 28. It would be a difficult call but he would add a new dimension and he is quality.
Well all this surely means that we'll be adding at least 2 more players to the squad. CM and striker seems the most obvious positions to fill, since Aliadiere has gone to celtic, Bergkamp is set to be a bit part player this season... and the hole left by the loss of Edu and Vieira needs to be filled. Hleb isn't either.
Up front, Robinho and Baptista have to be no.1 priority, whilst in midfield I'd love to see Ballack (in the last year of his contract), or Mascherano (who we were linked with a year ago).
Jenas has not impressed me much... if he wasn't English, we'd probably never have heard of him. Newcastle will want too much for him, and he's not half the player Vieira is.
Nasri would be a good one for the future, but unless we sign a pair of great players such as Ballack and Baptista, It's going to be second best for us again next year.
one word Kaka
Unlikely, but would be fucking perfect!
Ballack is the natural choice, and would be available at a knock-down price.
He'd be a great signing.
Xavi would also be fantastic, however not having Chelski's cash, we need to get players of his quality whilst they're still unknowns or take advantage of an ending contract.
Kaka would be perfect, but who besides Chelski could afford him even if Milan would sell?
Don´t forget that Hleb, Pires and Bergkamp can all play central midfield role. It will be just different from PV role.
I think Gil and Cesc will be our main CM partnership next season with Flamini and a new boy as back ups. Also remember Hleb can play as a attacking CM and Kolo can also do a job there in an emergency. I dont understand why we are looking at Jenas (if indeed we are) I think he's not good enough to lace Vieira's boots let alone replace him. Id prefer some Wengeresque young unknown rough diamond to make a big name at AFC. I also think the emergence of Cesc was what made Arsenal sell. Dont worry guys all we need is back up for CM. We played our best footie last season with Gil and Cesc in CM. All we need is another striker (Id like Baptista and its looking possible again) and a GK (Isaksson would be a perfect long term solution). Cmon Arsenal.
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