Cool. I feel like they’re as good at selling as we are bad

Certainly a good prospect. Was watching a decent YouTube vid and he uses he frame well and though he seems to go to ground quite often, he seems to be successful when doing so. Also very capable when it comes to intercepting

@claud The stench around the club really isn't great for creating hype or player retention. Everyone has been pretty eager to leave unless their on 2-3x the salary they should be.

Hopefully we'll get a bit of a shift if we can start turning our performances around and getting good players on reasonable contracts so they have better sale value.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Decent, he knows when he gets his body between them and the ball they've no hope of out muscling him. Jusy means he doesn't have to over commit in these encounters.

Teams wanting to hit us on the break will have to out pace AMN Saliba Gabriel tierney and potentially partey.

Reminds me slightly of Van Dijk 1v1.

Uses his strength, plays on the front foot, stops moves early, quick.

Guy has close contacts with Gabriel's agent. Sounds believable?

Probably extra gutting for them as their captain will be doing porridge

[size=small][/size]

Looks good together 

Clrnc wrote:

[size=small][/size]

Looks good together 

The new Bould and Adams!

Those compilations were shit, but he looks like a quick and strong defender.

Yeah, he has the attributes and the potential but the Premier League will be a shock initially. He will compete and win duels but will need to improve a lot on every other aspect.

I’ve changed my mind. Just seen highlights vid of Lille vs PSG last season.

At the end of the game he exchanged jerseys with Neymar.

There could be no better endorsement. He’s great.

Lille lost 3-0.

Rohit wrote:

Yeah, he has the attributes and the potential but the Premier League will be a shock initially. He will compete and win duels but will need to improve a lot on every other aspect.

Agreed, Gabriel needs to improve to get to the level we want to be as a team.

The reason why I like him, is that he seems to relish 1v1 situations. Not only strong but quick, and I think that is something which catches out defenders a lot in the premier league. It is where Gabriel shouldn’t take long to adapt to.

In France there are a lot of direct, physical and quick attackers, and he seemed to handle them very well. 

flobaba wrote:

I’ve changed my mind. Just seen highlights vid of Lille vs PSG last season.

At the end of the game he exchanged jerseys with Neymar.

There could be no better endorsement. He’s great.

Lille lost 3-0.

Lille also beat the same PSG 5-1 later on in the season and Gabriel himself even scored

#glasshalffull

Little write up froma gooner based in lille who's seen him play live. This guy tweeted that arsenal should go for him in may last year

1.What can Gabriel bring to Arsenal – how big of an upgrade is he to what we have?

SamW: Gabriel has power and athleticism, and he’s also very dominant in the air. More importantly, and that’s been widely reported, he’s left footed. We only have one left footed center back, who’s just arrived and who we don’t really know much about, but Gabriel is definitely a younger and better version of Pablo Mari. I’ve seen quite a few Arsenal fans asking for us to sign Tyrone Mings from Villa: Gabriel is actually quite similar to him in terms of playing style, but better on the ball.

2. What are Gabriel’s biggest strengths and what are some areas for him to work on?

SamW: Let me tell you first that I’ve actually seen Gabriel play in the flesh several times, as I live in Lille and go to matches there regularly. He’s always looked very powerful to me and massive physically. He has that real presence that makes you notice him immediately. He’s a dominant center back, doesn’t give much space to the striker. Good left foot, decent vision, loves to play long balls like David Luiz which Arteta will like, quite clever when it comes to passing the ball out of defence. Rarely goes to ground. He can play in a back 4 or on the left side of a back 3. As I said the other day on twitter, I actually saw him play DM against Saint-Etienne last season, and he didn’t look out of place at all, which shows how good on the ball he can be. He never played there again as it was only because Lille had several injuries in midfield, but it was interesting to see. Like most young center backs though, he needs to work on his concentration, even though he doesn’t make many mistakes, he can sometimes get caught napping a bit. He’s played nearly every game alongside José Fonte, very experienced CB, which probably helped him a lot. Hopefully David Luiz can have a similar role with him.

3. The Athletic reported that the scouting department’s No.1 recommendation was Upamecano, how does Gabriel compare to Dayot and if you were given a choice, whom would you take out of the two?

SamW: Very difficult question. For me they are very close in terms of levels, so picking Gabriel is easy in view of his price. But both are terrific prospects. I’ve actually seen much more of Gabriel so I might be biased here as I watch a lot of Ligue 1 and only occasional Bundesliga games. The thing with Upamecano, as much as I like him, is that there’s something a bit chaotic about him, which is precisely what we don’t want in this Arsenal defence. Gabriel is also taller than Upamecano, which is an advantage in my opinion, especially in the PL. Finally, the fact Gabriel is left footed is a massive bonus, especially as it’s very clear Arteta was looking for a left footed center back.

4. Lille President Gerard Lopez in an interview with Sky a few days back claimed that Gabriel ‘is among the top five dominant central defenders in Europe right now’ – how does he compare with the elite defenders in Ligue 1 and in Europe in your opinion?

SamW: For me the two most promising young center backs in Ligue 1 last season were Saliba and Gabriel (honestly!). It’s amazing that they’re both ours now. Other stand out performers were Fofana (from Saint-Etienne like Saliba), Disasi from Reims (linked to us) and Kamara from Marseille (but often played DM). It’s worth remembering though that Gabriel only started playing at the top level during the second part of the 2018/19 season, replacing the injured Soumaoro at the heart of Lille’s defence. Before that, he’d been on loan to Troyes, where he only played a few games, and Dinamo Zagreb, where he only played once! Since then though, he’s been ever present in a very solid Lille team but he’s still very young and not that experienced. That’s why it’s hard to put him in the « elite » bracket but, like Saliba, I’m convinced he’ll soon be there.

5. Do you think he can seamlessly adapt to the Premier league or does he require a lot of time?

SamW: I think he’ll adapt pretty quickly, because he has the physical attributes to be dominant in such a league. He’s good in the air and likes a tussle, so I’m pretty confident he’ll enjoy it in England. Difficult to know whether Arteta will start him straight away or not though, and same can be said about Saliba.

6. For this price range (reported €30M), is he the best available option for you?

SamW: Definitely. It’s an absolute steal. I’m very surprised Lille aren’t asking for more money.

7. What do you think about a potential Saliba-Gabriel pairing?

SamW: It’s mouthwatering. We’ll finally have two physically dominant center backs, one right footed, the other left footed, so it’s perfect. Both modern, athletic center backs, good on the ball. I’m not sure that’ll be our first choice partnership right from the start but I reckon it will be by december, and what’s great is that our central defence is now sorted for years to come. Both played most of their games with a senior figure alongside them (Perrin for Saliba, José Fonte for Gabriel) so Arteta will probably play David Luiz with one of the two to start with. An other option would be a back 3 of Saliba-David Luiz-Gabriel which could work really well.

I'm concerned by a Saliba-Gabriel's ability in the build up but Arteta will have prioritised that so hopefully I'm wrong.

The ambivalence on this board is a bit frustrating. What exactly is it you guys want? I guarantee if we were pushing all out for Aouar and Gabriel was nailed on for Napoli, y'all would be bitching that we weren't "in for him."

Do you actually disagree with what is being said or are you just upset with how it's being said?

Wait and see is the most reasonable response to a young CB coming from Ligue 1.

Give us a chance Coombs its not even official yet and we aren't a load of twitter teens.

Gazza M wrote:

Little write up froma gooner based in lille who's seen him play live. This guy tweeted that arsenal should go for him in may last year

I’ve seen quite a few Arsenal fans asking for us to sign Tyrone Mings from Villa: Gabriel is actually quite similar to him in terms of playing style, but better on the ball.

I do like the sound of this. I think that's a player type we've been missing. No one around to boss it physically since Kos left.

I like that the main reason we looked at him appears to be the fact that he's left-footed. Little details, very important.

If he’s got L’Equipe’s endorsement, that’s great in my books. Can’t ask for much more really. I’m not a scout, so I’m hoping Cagigao and co did their jobs before they left.

Tbh I don't think either of them will stick around if we don't get CL / play them regularly. Bar injuries I can see Saliba going to Madrid pretty soon.

That’s the spirit!

I think they’re both on 5 year contracts. If other teams come calling, we have a lot of power.
Long deals with Saliba, Gabriel, Tierney, Saka can only be good for building the asset base. If we don’t win, we can sell them each for £50m+ down the line. We need more players like this. Good work by Raul, Edu, Jonkers et al here.

as long as they aren't going to the biggest clubs on a free transfer i'm good with them leaving. it would mean their time here was successful on at least an individual level. if our central defenders are getting that kind of interest then we're probably a very good defensive team.

We can’t really do more than what we have done.

Signed a ultra promising Right center back a year early, something we never did previously.

Signed a left center back who dominated this season and made Ligue 1 team of the season.

Signed a quality LB last season.

Apart from RB, what more can we do?

All of them are at a great age as well. Hopefully they can learn and grow together, and execute over time what the manager wants from them.

Now we need to sort out the midfield, as a lot of blame has gone to our defence over the years, but they have had zero protection. That becomes the priority now.

ohboy!!! wrote:

We can’t really do more than what we have done.

Signed a ultra promising Right center back a year early, something we never did previously.

Signed a left center back who dominated this season and made Ligue 1 team of the season.

Signed a quality LB last season.

Apart from RB, what more can we do?

All of them are at a great age as well. Hopefully they can learn and grow together, and execute over time what the manager wants from them.

Now we need to sort out the midfield, as a lot of blame has gone to our defence over the years, but they have had zero protection. That becomes the priority now.

Well said, but if we don't sign Partey and another number 10 it would be going to waste again

Think Partey will get done eventually if he wants to come here. Don't think we'll get another midfielder if Ceballos stays though, unfortunately.

Also, Gabriel is possibly a great talent, but I think we need to brace ourselves for a Kos-like development curve. Hopefully the fans won't get on his back if he takes time to adapt,and maybe we should only play one of these new guys at the same time.

I will kill for someone if its a Kos-like development. Kos was brilliant from his very first appearance at Anfield.

Anyway, it's funny but I always say Gabriel is like a stronger Koscielny. Very similar styles

Kos had a tough first 3 months. Lots of bad decisions tracking players, silly fouls and cards. And then he settled and all was gravy

I disagree that Kos was brilliant from his first appearance. He was decent and you could see that the potential was there, but he made many mistakes (to be fair he didn't ever totally get rid of that, but they got fewer with experience). In fact, I think only absolute peak Kos can be described as brilliant.

Clrnc wrote:

I will kill for someone if its a Kos-like development. Kos was brilliant from his very first appearance at Anfield.

Kos was one of my favourite players but that's not true, his first season was a mixed bag.

He didn't have an easy job to be fair, had to carry Squillaci on his back.

Mirth wrote:

Clrnc wrote:

I will kill for someone if its a Kos-like development. Kos was brilliant from his very first appearance at Anfield.

Kos was one of my favourite players but that's not true, his first season was a mixed bag.

Maybe my memory is failing me, but I remember that match at Anfield I was so impressed with him as a new signing.

Wasn't he sent off for handball in that game?