looks like we might have picked up a new defender, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/4025681.stm
It will be interesting to see how he does. Always good to see we are going after some defenders. Hope we can pick up one more solid player.
Does anyone have any intel on Eboue? I know he traveled with the squad during the pre-season - perhaps Rick recalls watching him play?
Especially if he has any sort of playing fluidity with Kolo from playing together with the Ivory Coast national team (I'm assuming they have played together).
Hopefully he'll develop into a good player, but I'd still like to see us pick up an experienced centre back in January if possible.
I posted on the Belgium boards asking for more info. From the stats I've found, he's not a big guy (just under 6ft, 150 pounds). Perhaps Wenger sees him more as a RB and will continue looking for a CB.
Ralph is a midfielder by trade, converted into RB by Wenger. I've never heard of him playing CB in his career. IMHO, he doesn't have the size/strength/quality in the air to play CB.
I hope you guys have enough players to take the field on the 12th, because otherwise you'd have to forfeit. And that would be terrible, and might even make me cry.
Arsenal sign Ivory Coast defender Eboue: http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-arsenaleboue&prov=reuters&type=lgns
Hope this is true. That way it will be an easy decision as to the name and number sewn on to the "last year at Highbury" kit I plan on purchasing.
Nice to see a new defender. BBC is reporting that Gilberto could be out for the season now: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/3696440.stm "Wenger added: "It is not ideal. Fabregas played on Saturday, on Tuesday (for Spain's under-21s) and he'll play tomorrow, Wednesday and on Sunday - and he's only 17." Thought the end was very interesting. Do we have enough depth in the midfield if Gilberto is out for the season or should Arsene focus on picking up a midfielder? Tough choices these days. Seems like the injury bug has hit Arsenal hard.
For anyone who is interested, some intel on Eboue from the "Tomo" on the Belgium boards... Quote: Originally Posted by splara10 Belgium Board: Greetings from the Arsenal Board. I'm curious if any of you have any information about Emmanuel Eboue from Beveren. Seems that Mr. Wenger has decided to bring Eboue to Arsenal in January, and I'd love to know more about him. I know he is versatile and can play at RB, CB or even in midfield. Any other thoughts on his ability? Technical skill, pace, one/two feet, height, etc? Was he a regular Beveren starter? Anything would be most appreciated. Thanks. Greetings, splara 10, Emmanuel Eboue is a very good player who should become a regular starter for Arsenal after a while. He can play the positions you mentioned but in the first place he is a RB. He is very offensive, might be compared to Ashley Cole in style and is one of the strongholders of Beveren. He is young though and will still need to improve to play for Arsenal. He's very technical and will fit well into a team that dominates (like Arsenal). I believe he is two-footed, but his best foot ofcourse is his right one. He has a reasonable shot and a good cross. Together with Marco Ne he already had a trial at Arsenal this summer. Only bad thing might be his pace. The whole Beveren team scores bad in this part of the game. Anyway, enjoy his play...
Just curious, do you have anyone in mind? Also, would this player push to be a starter, or just be a backup to Campbell/Toure? If he's a starter, whose spot do you think he should take? And if he's a backup, but experienced, do you think he'll have the temperment to play only on occasion, or will he complain about the lack of playing time? I'm not trying to be sarcastic about this, but, see, this is the problem with backup players. We all want and expect them to be good enough to fit seamlessly into the starting lineup. But if they weren't flawed in some way, then they'd probably start somewhere else, if not at Arsenal. Cygan was a very good defender at Lille. Nobody seems to want to acknowledge this, but it's the truth. But rust and a lack of confidence have probably caused him to regress, and he's probably not playing as well now as he was a few years ago. We always want a quality backup in case of injury, but a quick look at the rest of the teams in the league shows that, with the exception of Chelsea, no one else really has a spare center back who could fit right in at a top-flight club. And, once again, it's a matter of money. I mean, Carvalho seems to be doing a great job at Chelsea, but for 19 million-plus pounds, I'd sure hope so. So either he or Terry or Gallas sit on the bench or play out of position every week. They can afford to do it that way, but we sure can't.
Cote D'Ivoire.....the footie defender hidden treasure location. Arsene is great at finding amazing talents in unexpected places.
i been thinking about this off the top of my head i can only think of two players who Arsene has signed from other EPL teams - Campbell (nice nice) and Jeffers (punch in the face boy) this is off the top of my head so i may be very very very wrong
I totally understand what you are saying, but if arsenal had the money i would support a move for an experienced world class CB like Chivu or Mexes to partner (and perhaps eventually replace) Sol. Kolo is great but is still young enough to be a backup/utility player for a while. The problem is i dont think we have the cash and that is why Wenger is bringing through the youngsters.
I hear exactly what you're saying and for me, it would be ideal to buy an experienced central defender to go in alongside Campbell and slide Toure over to right-back. While I think Lauren has come on a lot in the position over the last 6-12 months, I'm still not totally convinced by him. Lauren would be a good utility player to provide cover down the right hand side and even in cetral midfield too. I don't watch enough of the French league to judge Cygan's time there, but what I do know is that the Premiership is faster and more physical than most other leagues in the world and he just seems to never have adjusted to it. His lack of pace is there for all to see and there's nothing he can do about that, but a 6'5'' defender should never be dominated physically and in the air the way he is. Added to that he takes up extremely poor starting positions, which result in him moving backwards to head the ball away most of the time instead of moving onto the ball and there are too many deficiencies, both technically and physically to make up for. At his age, he's not likely to get any better. The only (realistically available) name I have at the moment is Boumsong from Rangers. He seems to have all the attributes needed to be a top class defender and the only surprise about Newcastle's interest at the moment is that no-one from the Premiership bought him before he went north of the border in the first place. I would imagine though, that with Wenger's scouting network, epscially in France, he just doesn't rate him highly enough. A Cannavarro or Nesta would be brilliant, but they're not available and would be prohibitively expensive anyway.