Hmm, I don't know. I suppose it might depend on which season the footage is taken from. He's only 23 but has been around for a while. He didn't have any problem with his first touch in his final season at Dortmund. He's more German than Spanish in his technique though if that makes any sense.

Ricky1985 wrote:

Watching some YouTube clips of him the other day, I got the impression that he was a little awkward at times, a little unbalanced, struggled with his first touch a little here and there. Not the sort of fluid, agile style that you'd normally associate with someone regularly described as technically excellent.

Is that wide of the mark?

A fair assessment.

Ricky1985 wrote:

Captain wrote:

Hope this happens, Sahin is a monster footballer.

I've not seen all that much of him (shock horror!), what makes him so good?

If you take Arteta from last season and add some speed and a bit better vision and execution of the final pass then you have Sahin. He's pretty much what Fabregas would have become if Wenger didn't shift him to no.10.

Haven't wanted a signing to get done this badly since the Vidal rumors cropped up.

Makes perfect sense, Klaus.

High praise that, Cap. You feel he'd need to be partnered with Song, or can he get stuck in as well?

Not sure. At Dortmund he had Bender with him who is a different sort of defensive midfielder to Song; somewhere halfway between Arteta and Song perhaps.

I want a bender

What should happen is that Wenger tells Song to sit and not go past the halfway line. He can play the occasional long floater to Giroud, but otherwise give the ball to Mikel and Sahin.

I think Arteta will play the deepest and Sahin the furthest up though.

Oh we got him in already? goody!

I'm very sure that Wenger once named him the best player in his age group a few years ago. We were linked to him so much when he was around 18. That's the only reason i've kept an eye on him whenever his team was playing. He reminds me of Cesc alot and we should really sign him outright instead of this loan bullshit that's being talked about. Arteta isn't getting any younger and him+Ramsey+Wilshere could fight it out.

There hasn't been anything new added to this rumour since Arsene denied we'd signed him? (that was about five days ago now).
One signing at a time I guess.
If Cazorla gets sorted within the next day or so then we'll probably see some activity on this.

If we do get him he'd be a very versatile option for midfield?

He's gone america now, so I imagine he'll complete that tour before anyone signs him; believe it ends on monday.

He's not that versatile, he would play where Arteta does or, with another change, in place of Song.

This is just speculation on my part but after reading about Caroll and West Ham, I was just thinking about something.

What if we told Real Madrid to put in a loan with an option to buy for 25 million pounds? Madrid knowing how tight our board is would probably think it's a meaningless gesture as we won't pay it.

If Sahin has a monster season for us, we simply cough up the cash and keep him and leave Madrid scratching their heads. If he doesn't perform that well we send him back.

That would be a legally binding contract that neither team would want.

Right. Wonder if signing him would mean another loan spell for Coquelin?

Looking at it another way; if Sahin was on the market for £25m when he left Dortmund, we wouldn't have even given the deal a sideways glance.

Okay maybe 25 million was a tad too high.

15 perhaps?

Even though I don't think Madrid would let him go for as little as that.

squallkid wrote:

Even though I don't think Madrid would let him go for as little as that.

He only cost them around £5-6m depending on who you listen to. That would represent a great return on their investment.

y va marquer wrote:

Right. Wonder if signing him would mean another loan spell for Coquelin?

He's primarily been Song's understudy so don't think it would affect him, but overall I don't know and, honestly, don't really care.

I reckon a specific buy out clause for him is secondary to his attitude and reasons for coming to us (if he does come).