Act quickly? This is the Arsenal my friend.
Josep Drmic
To be fair we did tie up the Podolski & Giroud deals quite quickly!
If the player knows Arsenal is interested and still chooses Leverkusen without hearing what we have to offer - then he isn't the player we need.
Ibra knows we are interested but chose Ajax too.
His agent was pissed off that we insisted on a trial. Zlatan has said that when he was at our training complex and the trial came up, he said something along the lines of 'give me a pair of boots and I will go out there right now'. His agent called bullshit on it, and we decided not to pursue it without the trial.
I know the story came out that he rejected a trial but the real story was that Wenger wasn't there to watch the start if his trial so he felt Wenger wasn't intrested and left.
In retrospect zlatan changed the story to say he refused a trial.
The only relevant part of that story is that Malmö wouldn't have sold him to us. The sporting director at that club, Hasse Borg, did everything he could to engineer a move to Ajax instead because they were willing to pay £8 million for a scrawny kid who played in the Swedish second division. That was a lot of money back in 2001.
Okay, maybe Ibra's case is a little different, but point is a player can have the right to be conservative and choose for a safer option before opting to jump to a bigger club when he is ready. There are so many instances where a player just go straight to a big club and struggled.
Many clubs were interested in Ronaldo and Ronaldinho for instances, they chose PSV and PSG respectively first.
if anything, it shows maturity and judgment in the player. too many players are dumb kids who let their agents determine their future, and the agent gives fuck all about him, they just want to use him to get paid.
Well, I don't think Drmic falls in the category of Ronaldo and Ronaldinho at all. Those two were coming from Brazil trying to get a foothold in Europe. Drmic is a starter in a major European league already.
In fact, I think it is closer to the truth to compare Drmic to the point where Ronaldo and Ronaldinho were at when they decided to leave PSV and PSG respectively. If Drmic chooses Leverkusen now, I see it as a lack of ambition and a lack of belief in his own abilities. If that is the case, then he was never the player for us.
13 days later
Matthaus still insisting Drmic will join, would be a very good signing to compliment another striker for us.
At 4m we've not got much to lose. Would it mean the end of Giroud?
I doubt that. Giroud makes him look like Robin van Persie though if that youtube video is anything to go by.
Hopefully he's going to be Bendtner's replacement.
German paper Express saying Drmic to Leverkusen is pretty much a done deal
Some outrageous stuff in that video.
"I am kind of journalist"
Lothar Matthäus
Didn't bother reading the drivel above it.
Nice stuff there, but the miss after the pirouette was kinda funny.
He plays for Switzerland right? Let's see if Dr. Mickey is any good in Brazil.
9 days later
Apparently Leverkusen have signed Drmic.
That's Lothar's 'kind of journalism' career over then.
Lothar y u lie?
After those comments reading some German fans saying him and Fjortoft are seen as a bit of a joke in Germany when it comes to transfer news.
Well Fjortoft mentioned Leverkusen were interested in light off Matthaus's comments
Confirmed by Leverkusen's official twitter, 5 year contract:
Time to lock this.
JazzG wrote:
After those comments reading some German fans saying him and Fjortoft are seen as a bit of a joke in Germany when it comes to transfer news.
It was Fjørtoft who mentioned Leverkusen, so can't imagine why?
I think they are talking about him generally
Wenger had better sign a top forward now or im gonna be majorly pissed.
It feels like too often in the past i-dont-know-how-many years we've missed opportunites like this one. We do fine in every other area of the pitch but im starting to doubt Wenger's vision of our strikeforce. Obviously hope he shuts me up this summer.
How can not signing a talented kid make you 'majorly pissed'? Drmic or not - he was never going to be the answer to our striker woes anyway.
That's not really what i said. I will be majorly pissed because of years of not signing a single striker that excites me.
But anyway, i dont subscribe to the idea that we need a world renowned, proven striker. I don't watch/read many Ferguson interviews but i did hear him say something once that i liked "give a young man a chance and he will surprise you" . Or something like that.
ludovic van zis wrote:That's not really what i said. I will be majorly pissed because of years of not signing a single striker that excites me.
But anyway, i dont subscribe to the idea that we need a world renowned, proven striker. I don't watch/read many Ferguson interviews but i did hear him say something once that i liked "give a young man a chance and he will surprise you" . Or something like that.
Rex wrote:How can not signing a talented kid make you 'majorly pissed'? Drmic or not - he was never going to be the answer to our striker woes anyway.
Potential to be one of those that Wenger will come out and say in future "oh we could have signed him."
We can't very well be signing every talented player though, can we? Barkley looks a top talent, but I can't for the life of me see where he would fit in here. How about Zaha? Should we sign him too? How about all the talented players we have had over the years who didn't go on to stardom? Truth is, it is very difficult to predict how a player will turn out. From what I have seen of Drmic, he doesn't look like a special talent either. If we are looking for a talented youngster in Germany who can be had, and has that 'wow' factor, then we should look to buy Firmino. Now there is a player who looks special! Despite that, it is difficult to say for certain how good he will become.
Personally, I was never sold on Drmic. Giroud is adequate back up along with Sanogo IMO. We need a proper class player to start for us next season, and Drmic is not that player IMO.
You have a point, but to me there are some players that are pretty obvious to be able to go up to the top of their game. I am not saying it is Drmic though, but we needed a striker, there ain't many available in the market and if we don't sign a single striker then we can come back here and moan.
Wenger probably thinks we have Sanogo and Akpom as young striker and can't fit him in. Fair enough in that sense if we signs a top striker.