More from Veland:

Is he worth the money?
Not in my opinion.

Is he better than Musacchio?
No.

How good is this Paulista? Will he adapt to the PL?
I'll be surprised if he strengthens Arsenal. Villarreal's third best centreback in my opinion. Been micromanaged by Marcelinho since his arrival.

He looks mint from what I can make out. Pace is so crucial in today's game

He seems rash and a player who can rack up cards and penalties pretty fast. On the plus side, that youtube vid makes him look pretty good; big, strong, fast, good in the air, can pass the ball, and fire in his belly.

looks like this is our january defender. not surprised it's on the cheaper side, don't think we have much cash left in the budget after the summer

€20m isn't exactly on the cheaper side though.

Rex wrote:

€20m isn't exactly on the cheaper side though.

guardian reported we're negotiating for an initial fee of 6m-10m pounds. not exactly breaking the bank if we get him at that price

Wengs just said it's 50/50. Done deal in other words.

Oh, so we actually are signing him? I can't be arsed reading the last 3 pages, anyone wanna give me a tl;dr on gabby as a player?

Irish gunner wrote:

Oh, so we actually are signing him? I can't be arsed reading the last 3 pages, anyone wanna give me a tl;dr on gabby as a player?

Fast, strong, rash - like Koscielny, but not as good. Villarreal fans seem to think they get a very good price for him, as he's their third best cb. He's taken big steps this season, so I'm guessing Wenger thinks he will continue on that path. Also guessing that we don't try to buy their best cb (Musacchio) because he's only 1,80m tall. We will pay the release clause (€20m) if we get a work permit, as he's never been capped for Brazil. When Wenger said 50/50, I think it's the work permit he's talking about.

All Wenger quotes about Gabby:
[size=small][font=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Talks are progressing quite well."
[/font]
[/size]
[size=small][font=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Can we find an agreement? I don't know. We are slowly progressing and there is a chance."[/font]
[/size]

[size=small][font=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"It is €20m, which is £15m. We are ready to pay the price we think right for a good player. If we think it is the right price, we will pay."[/font]

[/size]
[size=small][font=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"I don't understand the logic of this [work permit] rule," Wenger said. "If the player we want needs a work permit, we will defend [try and get] it now. We don't want to do it in the summer. We are short now."
[/font]
[/size]
[size=small][font=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"We go in front of a commission and they tell us, ok, yes or no. We accept and respect that. Are the rules right or not? That can be discussed."[/font]

[/size]
[size=small][font=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"The logic that the availability of the work permit is the amount of money you spend, that is not how it should be. It should be linked to the quality of the player."[/font]

[/size]
[size=small][font=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"The 75 percent [of international games] rule can also be questioned. It is much more difficult to make 75 percent of games for Brazil than it is Luxembourg. It is difficult to make a rule to satisfy everybody."[/font][/size]

Judging from Wenger's tone in the presser, I think he is very confident he will get this done at a price lower than 15m pounds. Probably 10m+ addons sort of deal.

I really don't know this guy, and its very hard to judge him from just that youtube vid. There are probably better defenders out there but at least we are getting someone in.

Yeah, don't really know what to make of this move, he is a bit of an unknown quantity.

It's really hard to get an established first team central defender in January though.

He's being brought in as 3rd/4th choice which makes me nervous. Wenger's got a decent record with defenders but not when they are bought in as cover. See: Squillaci, Cygan, Squillaci et al.

Hopefully the fact that he's younger than the above and on an upward curve will help.

Well he's a defender, thats a start. Apart from that I guess we'll all just have to wait and see.

I still don't understand how Wenger expects to get him a work permit, because he is not even close to fulfilling the criteria. Perhaps he is gambling that since the rules will be relaxed in the summer, and he would then qualify, that we will get some leeway.

There is special appeal process run by the FA that will allow him to get a work permit.  Leicester signed Kramaric and he wasn't eligible either for a work permit under the 75% of international games rule.  Some people on Twitter reckon the work permit reason is partially why Wenger confirmed our interest in the signing, to build a higher profile for the player thus making it easier to sign the player.  We wouldn't make it public if we didn't believe we could get a work permit.

I think from this summer any signing above £10m will be automatically eligible for a work permit.  That is an important step because there is some great talent in South America that the English clubs can't get to because of the work permit restrictions.  That and that dodgy 3rd party ownership but FIFA is working on that as well right now.  Some more work permit thing here http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/fa-intends-to-close-work-permit-loophole-to-protect-english-talent-9976354.html

General Mirth wrote:

He's being brought in as 3rd/4th choice which makes me nervous. Wenger's got a decent record with defenders but not when they are bought in as cover. See: Squillaci, Cygan, Squillaci et al.

Hopefully the fact that he's younger than the above and on an upward curve will help.

With the exception of maybe Santos our last few purchases at the back haven't been too bad in the last few years.  Obviously our scouts saw something in Koscielny and look how he has developed.  

The way Per has been playing this season you'd think there would be plenty of opportunities for Paulista to get into the starting eleven.

I feel reassured that the bloke will be quality if he signs since his talent is being assessed by the geezers that dish out the work permits

Orbinho ‏@Orbinho 46m46 minutes ago
Gabriel Paulista 61% aerial duel success rate in La Liga. In PL Mertesacker 67%, Chambers 57%, Koscielny 47% (54% in 2013-14). Debuchy this season 75%.

Orbinho @Orbinho · 1h 1 hour ago
Only Laporte (67) has made more interceptions than Gabriel Paulista (66) in La Liga this season.

Very much a Brazilian CB.

He was very good in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Looks like keown left under a sun lamp for a week.

Sky Sports News wrote:

Gabriel himself is the second best in @LaLiga for interceptions made. More here: http://bit.ly/1Jdc5HH #SSNHQ

I don't think this guy is being brought in as a back-up defender in the Squillaci sense. If there is a deal close to the £15m reported, he should be serious competition like Vermaelen.

Can't stand / take value from video compilations of defenders

MistaT wrote:

Can't stand / take value from video compilations of defenders

Fixed.

Klaus wrote:

The way Per has been playing this season you'd think there would be plenty of opportunities for Paulista to get into the starting eleven.

If he is a similar player to Kos I wonder how they would play together. Vermaelen + Koscielny unfortunately didn't work very well together.

Think it's the correct decision to buy a defender similar to Kos, as you can play one of Kos/Gab and one of Chambers/Mertesacker. Though I will admit it's more tempting to just play Kos and the new guy.. If he's good, of course.

JazzG wrote:
Klaus wrote:

The way Per has been playing this season you'd think there would be plenty of opportunities for Paulista to get into the starting eleven.

If he is a similar player to Kos I wonder how they would play together.  Vermaelen + Koscielny unfortunately didn't work very well together.

I thought Vermaelen and Koscielny worked pretty well together for the last year or so; easily as good as Mertesacker and Kos anyway. The main problem was that Vermaelen could never stay fit for long enough to stake a claim in the team.

It's not particularly difficult to play like Per in any case. Any player could work it out, as we've seen with Boateng and Germany. What's difficult is playing like Kos. You can't gain his attributes just by positioning yourself better on the field.

I like the look of him I must say, proactive defender with pace.

Me too. He's rapid so it's gonna take something special to beat him one on one

6'2" as well. Ideal height for a CB.

Wenger says deal virtually done during yesterday's Q&A. Asked if fee and contract agreed, he smiled and said they are left with "obstacle that is hard to control". (work permit)

Will be eligible for UCL.

In the press conference he said that it was a 50 percent chance they would get the deal done.