Now Malaga's website is down. This is now a fire sale.

I feel kind of bad about Arsenal taking advantage of their hopeless financial situation. But then again, they've brought it on themselves, or at least their owners have. Feel bad for the fans though, and the employees who aren't getting paid.

Our gain though, and another victory for sustainable and responsible financial decisions.

y va marquer wrote:
Ricky1985 wrote:

£11.8M (I'm guessing that works out to €15m) is what I've seen mentioned by a few different journalists. Would be an absurd deal if it's anything near that. We would have well and truly taken advantage if their perilous financial situation.

Wenger is the transfer vulture 🙂

I feel sorry for the supporters of Malaga but it's good for once for us to reap the benefits of the prudent managment that has put us in this position.

Hehe, my post exactly, except for the awesome bird.

We took advantage of Köln being in financial difficulties in the Podolski deal as well.

Think its closer to 18m pounds. Don't trust these low fees. If we are getting another player from Malaga I hope its Monreal for LB. Don't really need Rondon unless we manage to sell every other striker and Isco might be too lightweight in PL however talented he is. Toulalan... only if we sell Song?

Whats your twitter Ricky? Think AFC Camden is very well worth a follow then. Good source. He brought up that news totally out of nowhere and has been ever reliable with his updates when you look through his timeline.

Dario Seur reporting fee is much lower than Malaga's claim of the amount being equal to what they paid for Cazorla.

It's good business.
As I said I feel sorry for Malaga fans but the management brought this upon themselves.
Massive outlay on players, insubstantial revenue, zero cash flow, complete reliance on the whim of someone who now appears to be a completely unreliable uninterested owner.

Ricky1985 wrote:

£11.8M (I'm guessing that works out to €15m) is what I've seen mentioned by a few different journalists. Would be an absurd deal if it's anything near that. We would have well and truly taken advantage if their perilous financial situation.

it's all comng together now - wenger used his big economic brains to foresee all this.

now that big brain of his is having the last laugh

I give huge credit to the scouting team and whoever else that was keeping tabs on the Malaga situation before it became common knowledge. If we didn't take the initiative it's likely that someone else would have or, worse still, it would have been an all out bidding war.

I think Wenger sees this as just deserts for Malaga.

Gunner89 wrote:

Dario Seur reporting fee is much lower than Malaga's claim of the amount being equal to what they paid for Cazorla.

Who the fuck is Dario Seur?

who said we're getting another malaga player?

anyone still slightly worried this is all bull and we wont get our precious?

Dario Seur is local Malaga rag

Olly Girude wrote:

anyone still slightly worried this is all bull and we wont get our precious?

All we know is that he was in the airport in the morning, flying somewhere. And even when we see the tweets from London, he could have come to watch the olympics, or chelsea 😃.
Nah. this one is happening.

Diario Sur (Southern Daily) I'm guessing …

Clrnc wrote:

Think its closer to 18m pounds. Don't trust these low fees. If we are getting another player from Malaga I hope its Monreal for LB. Don't really need Rondon unless we manage to sell every other striker and Isco might be too lightweight in PL however talented he is. Toulalan... only if we sell Song?

Whats your twitter Ricky? Think AFC Camden is very well worth a follow then. Good source. He brought up that news totally out of nowhere and has been ever reliable with his updates when you look through his timeline.

Never tweet anything mate, just follow a few different people.

Yep, this AFCAMDEN bloke deserves some credit. Called it first and a long while back. Obviously knows someone.

For those feeling a little bad at the low fee, don't forget we've done Malaga a big favour by paying the full amount up front. Not many clubs could do that and it's gone some way to helping them get out of a hole. Generally the more cash paid up front, the lower the fee.

From what I understand via the trusty Malaga local newspaper based on information from club sources - agreement has been reached, Cazorla is travelling for a medical and to complete the signing.
It's not fully done but expect an announcement maybe tomorrow?
The money being handed over will be less than Malaga confirm but it will enable them to maintain their UEFA licence.
We may be picking at their bones but we're saving them at the same time.
No mention of us being in for any other Malaga players, but Apoño will be loaned to Zaragoza with an option for them to buy.

Phew 🙂

http://malagacf.diariosur.es/noticias/2012-08-02/acuerdo-entre-clubes-para-201208021519.html

Santi Cazorla
‏@SCazorla12

I'm new @Arsenal player. Ya puedo decir que soy jugador del @Arsenal :-)

I don't know if it's real or not

You are laughing at the prospect of Diaby starting?

If the boy manages to stay fit, and things certainly look good after having played parts of all three games in Asia, then Wenger WILL start him a lot. Watch and see.

Spanish journalists don't count add-ons like english ones, hence the discrepancy.

So how about the midfield of Wilshere, Arteta and Cazorla then? Sure it won't happen but anyway, do you think he's going to play in the middle 3 or more on the flanks?

Humble Rex wrote:

You are laughing at the prospect of Diaby starting?

If the boy manages to stay fit, and things certainly look good after having played parts of all three games in Asia, then Wenger WILL start him a lot. Watch and see.

Oh I know!

I was laughing at the timing of the article. Everyone expects an announcement that we've signed Cazorla and arsenal.com come out with an article about Diaby. They do enjoy winding the arsenal fans up.

Patters wrote:
Humble Rex wrote:

You are laughing at the prospect of Diaby starting?

If the boy manages to stay fit, and things certainly look good after having played parts of all three games in Asia, then Wenger WILL start him a lot. Watch and see.

Oh I know!

I was laughing at the timing of the article. Everyone expects an announcement that we've signed Cazorla and arsenal.com come out with an article about Diaby. They do enjoy winding the arsenal fans up.

Don't you know Diaby is like brand new signing

This is the best vid of him I've seen.

Shows what he's all about

Well based on those seven minutes - he's smart,doesn't dwell on the ball, moves it on quickly, very accurate with long passes, two footed 🙂, good dribbler
Takes a shot from distance, starts moves and knows to follow up and get in position to finish the job. Took those two goal chances beautifully.
If that's representative - he'll do 🙂

No announcement today? 🙁

It isn't his twitter account. I haven't taken note but some saying we always announce new signings on a Friday. So hopefully tomorrow is the day and then we can move on to Sahin.

... the club are poised to announce his £16m signing from Málaga, which they hope will be followed by the loan of Real Madrid's Nuri Sahin.

Cazorla stands to travel with the Arsenal squad on their training excursion to Germany next week and make his debut in the friendly against FC Köln

A four year deal 😉🙂🙂
Still unofficial.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/aug/02/arsenal-santi-cazorla-robin-van-persie?cat=football&type=article

Nela wrote:

No announcement today? 🙁

Y Va said August 3rd, so August 3rd it is.

this one looks like it's in the bag. excellent signing, will boost the technical level of our front line.

we would've had a cracking team if rvp didn't have be all cunty. now we'll just be "good".

A world class striker won't turn this team from good to excellent. That depends on how we work out defensively. Even though we might not sign any defensive players, I think with properly defined roles, we can make a lot of progress.

Last season no midfielder seemed to know what they were doing. It was choas. If we tell Arteta to play purely as a DM in the Busquets role, and we tell Song he no longer has to assume as much attacking responsibility, our shape will be a lot better.

having guys like arteta, cazorla, and (eventually fingers crossed) jack and sahin, as well as ball playing defenders like kos, santos, and verms should help us keep the ball a hell of alot better than we did last season.