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cubeadvance

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Lucky

Lucky

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It's all on according to the player.

'In the coming days there will be more talks,' Vermaelen told Algemeen Dagblad. 'Moving to Arsenal is the right path for me. It is a great sporting challenge and I will also be financially better off. I think everything is going to be okay.'

Tony Adams doesn't seem too convinced though.

Adams, who has been scouting for Arsenal since being sacked as Portsmouth manager, referred to Vermaelen's height, at 5ft 11in, and said: 'I think he is a very good player, but I don't think he is ready for the Arsenal. I don't think the punters at Arsenal would like another small one.'

As long as he's not scared of heading the ball and doesn't mind getting stuck in, 5'11" isn't that small I suppose.

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carlito

carlito

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I will be really disappointed if we get Vermaelen. I haven't seen much of the guy, but I just can't see how he would be the best solution to our problems in defence.

Firstly he is 5'11. Don't get me wrong there have been plenty of centrebacks who have played at the top level of European football without being that tall, Cannavaro or Puyol are good recent examples. However, when you change the sample population from European football to the Premiership the list becomes very fucking short. It's a different game here, the centre forwards are far more physical and a decent percentage of the league relies on set pieces for the majority of their goals. The Spaniards, who enjoy best domestic league after the Premiership, wet themselves when they have to play an English team with a big centre forward, the journalists at Marca and Diario AS bring themselves to hysterical convulsions when deliberating how to deal with Drogba or Adebayor let alone Peter Girasol Crouch. We need more aerial presence, especially at set pieces, and I can't see how buying a player of Vermaelen's height is the best possible solution to that.

Secondly he plays in the Eredivisie. Let's be clear, the standard of football in the Eredivisie is pitiful and it's steadily getting worse. Players of any promise will ditch the league at the first opportunity, usually far before they are ready to play first team football in any of the stronger leagues around Europe a la Drenthe/Babel etc etc. This is a league where Mateja Kezman and Alfonso Alves were pretty much bagging a goal every game. Being among the best players in the Eredivisie means fuck all.

Thirdly, given that the Eredivisie is so woefully shit, you'd expect if he was a player of the calibre to slip straight into our first team, he would have done a pretty fine job of commanding the defense at Ajax. The stats would suggest otherwise. Ajax finished fourth conceeding 42 goals in 34 games, more alarmingly they conceeded 33 of those in their 17 away games - that's just under 2 goals a game!

Maybe Arsene knows something we don't, but it really is a stretch of the imagination to think that this guy will be able to come straight in to the team and make an impact on our defence. We've already got Djourou who may yet be a good centreback given time, I really don't fancy gambling on a buying a player who may or may not be able to cut it in the Prem.

In spite of all these stories, I just can't see this transfer happening but then again I thought the same thing about Silvestre....

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hauk

hauk

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He’s 6 ft 1 in, he’s captain of Ajax at 23, he plays for the Belgium international team and it looks like we might be signing a defender who isn’t a 15 year old French prospect, at the beginning of the transfer window no less!

I honestly can’t see what the problem is, I mean Ljungberg and Arshavin both came from lesser leagues and they turned out pretty good.

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Rev

Rev

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He’s 6 ft 1 in, he’s captain of Ajax at 23, he plays for the Belgium international team and it looks like we might be signing a defender who isn’t a 15 year old French prospect, at the beginning of the transfer window no less!

I honestly can’t see what the problem is, I mean Ljungberg and Arshavin both came from lesser leagues and they turned out pretty good.

Has he grown since Tony saw him?

But...I agree. He might not be the definitive answer, but he could easily be at the club for another decade, well, 7 years. But he's certainly good news. And his height is the only reasonable thing I've heard against him - blaming him for Ajax having a shit season seems especially harsh.

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BlinkyBear

BlinkyBear

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Has he grown since Tony saw him?

But...I agree. He might not be the definitive answer, but he could easily be at the club for another decade, well, 7 years. But he's certainly good news. And his height is the only reasonable thing I've heard against him - blaming him for Ajax having a shit season seems especially harsh.

Apparently so-there've been a few blog posts correcting his height today.

This one looks nailed on.

Who's next?!

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carlito

carlito

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He’s 6 ft 1 in, he’s captain of Ajax at 23, he plays for the Belgium international team and it looks like we might be signing a defender who isn’t a 15 year old French prospect, at the beginning of the transfer window no less!

I honestly can’t see what the problem is, I mean Ljungberg and Arshavin both came from lesser leagues and they turned out pretty good.

I'm not excited about the transfer because I really want a big, strong, tall defender and I feel that if we are going to pay over £10 mio on this guy I find it hard to believe that Arsene will shell out the same amount on another CB who fits that bill.

Let's be fair, with the scouts we've got, assuming we are actually going for this deal, it's highly unlikely he's shit. It's just physically he just doesn't appear to be the player I really wanted to see come into the team.

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BlinkyBear

BlinkyBear

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I'm not excited about the transfer because I really want a big, strong, tall defender and I feel that if we are going to pay over £10 mio on this guy I find it hard to believe that Arsene will shell out the same amount on another CB who fits that bill.

Let's be fair, with the scouts we've got, assuming we are actually going for this deal, it's highly unlikely he's shit. It's just physically he just doesn't appear to be the player I really wanted to see come into the team.

It you want a big, physical defender, we've currently got one on loan at Milan...

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Lucky

Lucky

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Maybe we're gonna go mad and buy Bassong, Vermaelen & Hangeland and get rid of Senderos, Toure and/or Gallas.

Doubt if we actually will, but the CB position is probably top of the list of things to sort out, even more so than the DCM.

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carlito

carlito

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Doubt if we actually will, but the CB position is probably top of the list of things to sort out, even more so than the DCM.

I was talking about this the other day with one of mates in the pub as we played the very serious and grown up game of "If you could pick any 3 players...Ok if you pick any 2 players....Ok if you could only have 1"

And I found it quite hard to call, because having a good CDM takes a lot of pressure off the CBs, but then if you've got really solid CBs you don't need such a resolutely defensive CDM. It's all a bit chicken and eggy.

Either way I want both.

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Daley

Daley

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Got to think we'd get a pretty good price for him. I'd be listening to their offers, if no-one else's.

I'd be curious to see what they offer too. What with Gibbs having a great start to his Arsenal career, Clichy having a mixed season by his standards, you never know...

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