Fabregas might want Villa but he’s just not needed

Hi there. Good to see you again. I don’t really mean see, of course, but you get what I’m trying to say. It’s nice to know you’re reading is what I’m getting at. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Anyhoo, time to move on.

The past couple of days has seen a number of excellent Euro 2008 matches, the standout being Spain’s brilliant 4-1 win over Russia on Tuesday. As you will all surely be aware of by now, the outstanding player of the match was Valencia striker David Villa who bagged the first hat-trick of the tournament.

The other goal for Spain was scored none other than Cesc Fabregas, who came off the bench and rounded out the scoring with his first international goal. Although I was cheering on the Russians (How could any Australian not support a team managed by Guus Hiddink?) I was absolutely thrilled to see Fabregas get his first goal for Spain.

Following the game he was understandably full of joy about his goal but also full of praise for teammate Villa, going so far to say that he would love to play alongside the striker at Arsenal.

“I would like to have him in my team because as you can see he can make the difference. He has mobility, he scores goals. He plays well at the back of defenders, in front of them, he’s a tremendous player.”

Now, I rate Villa very highly as a player and I can definitely see where Fabregas is coming from, but given the abundance of strikers available at Arsenal I just don’t think Villa joining would work. Arsene Wenger has Emmanuel Adebayor, Robin van Persie, Nicklas Bendtner, Carlos Vela and of course Eduardo da Silva (who could still be back for pre-season training) at his disposal and if he wanted to bring in Villa then one of those five would have to go.

While I’m sure there will be some crazies out there saying that Adebayor can buzz off or Bendtner is a clumsy oaf who isn’t up to Arsenal’s class I can honestly say I wouldn’t want to lose any of those five. It’s not that I don’t think Villa would make an impact at Arsenal it’s just that I would like to see the manager’s plan of bringing through these players come to fruition. Regardless, I’m certainly interested to hear what you think about it.

In other Euro 2008 results Sweden beat a woeful Greece side 2-0, Turkey surprisingly knocked Switzerland out of the tournament with a late winner and Portugal produced an outstanding counter-attacking performance to beat the Czech Republic 3-1. I didn’t get to see the game but by all reports Cristiano Ronaldo and Deco pretty much ran the show and I have to say the Portuguese might go a bit further than I had previously predicted.

Tonight sees the Germans taking on the Croatians in what should be a belter while the other co-hosts Austria will be trying to stay alive against Poland. Expect some goals in both games, I reckon.

That’s it for today. Take it easy.

PS. You might have noticed I’ve yet to report on the signing of Cardiff City winger Aaron Ramsey. While I do admit the move has essentially gone ahead I’ve made a decision to only speak about it once it is recognised on the official Arsenal website. So until then, Ramsey is as much an Arsenal player as I am.

What do you think?

Have your say on Arsenal or Euro 2008 by leaving a comment.

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Comments

  1. Bollocks, only RVP and Edu are worth keeping out of them and vela is playing on the wing, Wenger always said hed only go and buy players that were better than what he had, we ll i sorry but Villa is better than we have, including RVP,and Edu. I wouldnt mind if the only player we bought was Villa because hes what we need and all 3 of them could play together (RVP,Edu and villa) ade is a clive allen, hes done it for one season, he wont do it again mark my words

  2. I agree on this one, don’t think we need a striker if we can keep what we have.

    Although I wouldn’t be too unhappy if we got 32m for Ade. In my opinion he isn’t a hugely natural goal scorer. Any half decent striker starting every game for Arsenal should get 20+ a season for Arsenal.

    If he does end up going Villa would be a great replacement.

    I do think we need a CB more ( although apparently AW said yesterday he isn’t buying any defenders ) a decent replacement for the Flamster would be nice. Hopefully Yaya.

  3. I agree. As much as Villa would absolutely kill it for Arsenal, he is just not needed. Dont forget, Arsene views Theo as a striker long term too. You gotta love Cesc for his comments though 🙂

  4. So you would like Arsene to head in the new season with Uncertainty.
    Is Ade to stay? Will he be as effective next year if he does stay? How effective will Ed be? I am still not convinced that Van persie will have an injury free season. Who will play on the left if Rosicky doesnt have an injury free season for that matter? Walcott? Ed? Van persie? (strikers playing out of position) Nasri, Hleb? (not sure if they will be here next season? Ramsey? (at 17 to play a whole season?) Nicolas to become a goal machine?

    Are you from the school of Toure, and Gallas are the best centreback pairing in the world?

    Too much faith in the squad is what led arsene to misjudge the potential of players to what we actually are.

    Essentially at Arsenal there are far too many question marks. We need certainty, villa looks like a player who LOVES scoring goals like Ed. Having three goal scoring machines Ed Ade? Villa increases competition

  5. adebayor misses loads of chances, but i really think people underestimate the hold up work he does up front. Besides, 32m is fantasy talk and he has said time and time again he aint goin anywhere. What we really need are wingers who can score. ship hleb off to barcelona with yaya and 5m coming the other way, get nasri in to replace him, then sign a winger and a defender and were sorted. With ramsey, vela, the two new players and recovered rosicky and eduardo weve got a hugely stronger squad, and new players in the areas we need!

  6. I loved it when Cesc came on… My mates were saying that he hadn’t done much, and I go “He’s had a few good passes and a couple of nice touches” – right before his little flick back to Corzola and his assist for Villa’s third. And then he scored his first international goal (offisde but they all count…) and I was truly happy. Cesc is my man…
    I understand that Arsenal don’t need another striker and that we want to keep the ones you’ve listed there. Fair enough. But even though we scored heaps of goals last season, it wasn’t enough… Van Persie is great, but maybe he can be the answer to our wing problems? The goal-scoring winger everyone’s been wanting for our team! He plays there for Holland and has played on our wings plenty of times. He is definitely the best crosser in the team and he would therefore be able to take advantage of Adebayor’s head.
    Vela is hardly going to slot straight into the first team… Even Eduardo took 6 months to be able to get some good game time going and he’s an amazing player.
    As for Bendtner, I love the boy, but if he doesn’t have the patience to be a substitute for another season, then he’s going to move anyway. There is no way he will be a regular in the coming season unless there are further huge injuries…
    Eduardo could be back – “could be”. No guarantee. He might not even be the same player he was before the injury… I hope he is, and I hope he’s fighting fit early in the season. But I’m still worried.
    I agree with Fabregas and I would love to see Villa play for Arsenal. Heck, even David Villa would like to see himself play for Arsenal – he said it himself. A striker like that, who can score great goals, season in, season out would be great for Arsenal. We should sign these players that want to play for us – Villa and Mertesacker ASAP(Mertesacker has said on his personal website that he wants to play for Arsenal). Nasri is also a must. As is a defensive midfielder… Gilberto, Song, Diaby – love them, but my confidence in them performing as well as Flamini did last season is not there.
    Villa, Mertesacker, Nasri and one more…(Yaya anyone?) Then I’ll be happy!

  7. one season like last year and we still dont learn ? its the bench strength that got red nose what he wanted. though its a dream chance, if he was anywhere near emirates, i wuld trap villa inside. with due respect to eduardo and bendtner, they cant be expected to burn the tracks next season yet. With the fickle nature of rvp, a striker is reqd. and then you only think of getting the best isnt it.

  8. you are full of shit,arsenal deseave a serious striker like david villa!u cannot compare any arsenal’s sriker with villa.fabrigas is right! we need villa at emirates badly and wenger should try his best to make sure that we secure villa at arsenal even if it means deposing one of our current strikers.

  9. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I’m taking it as a given that Adebayor will stay and that Hleb will leave. If Hleb stays, that can only be seen as a bonus in my mind… He’s great to watch with the ball at his feet. But he lacks goals, (shooting even…) a killer pass and crossing. Who plays on the wings and doesn’t cross the ball? Oh yeah… Hleb and Rosicky… Now I remember…
    Maybe a little harsh there, but meh.

  10. There isnt a football fan alive that wouldnt want villa in your team, and of course he would be amazing for us, but if you actually think we might sign him then your living in dream world. After that one game alone he aint goin anywhere for less than £25million minimum! most our transfer budget on a striker, a positon we arguably dont need, NOT A CHANCE. In fact £25million on anyone, DONT THINK SO!

  11. Totally disagree with you. Ade wants away take the 32 mill if thats the real number as its much more than he’s worth, sell Nicky I don’t think hes ever gona be good enough, buy Villa and Santa Cruz. sell Helb and get Yaya in return , sell Eboue and Senderos, buy a central defender and Shay Given JOB done .

    Team

    Given
    Sagna Kolo, New Central defender, Clichy
    Theo, Yaya, Cesc Vela
    Villa, Santa cruz

    Bench, from Eduardo Rosicky, Gallas, RVP Almunia Diaby Song Traore Gilberto, plus all the great youngsters coming thru,Ramsey Nordtveit, Willshire Randall Merida , Bazarite, Gilbert

    Options RVP for Theo or Carlos, plus Rosicky if fit , with Eduardo or RVP as other strike options. Gallas as central defender

    the mind boggles what a squad !!

  12. to anon,
    all very well, but then we have a team of midgets, wheres the big man to hold up the ball up front?

  13. Adebayor has said to his agent that he wants to leave for AC, so if he goes – spend the money on Villa. Villa has already said he wants to join Arsenal and our main man in midfield wants the move too, and i think it is very needed. Van Persie will get injured, you just know it, ade and Ed, and Bendt might not be performing and in those big games you need a striker like David Villa.

  14. To Bonzodoggoonerfan

    I hear what you say , it doesn’t take a big guy to hold the ball just skill, useful to have one for lay offs from crosses in the air etc and we are much better with the ball on the ground, big central defender with aerial skills to come up for corners etc

  15. Hi mates!Well, David Villa would be a sensational signing for Arsenal, but with is price growing up every day it will be difficult to land him..otherwise, we still have plenty of excellent strikers, and I can’t wait to see what Vela can do up front..I red some amazing reports from spanish newspapers while he was there..I hope to see Dudu fully recovered and Bendtner a little more consistent in the box, with RvP finally injury free.. he’s amazing but he is always injured..as Rosicky too..I think that Rambo Ramsey will be an authentic surprise next term, and Fran Merida too..if we get Nasri (outstandig, watch him on youtube!) and another wide player we will be really strong next season..I hope that Hleb leaves asap, he and his agent are pretty ridicolous..if he wants to leave let him go, he said he is unhappy and annoyed by London’s lifestyle, get the money and send him elsewhere..

  16. Panda Bear loves Villa since Villa gained Panda Bear 34 points on Fantasy Euro 2008. Villa would be good at Arsenal but with Adebayor, van Persie, Eduardo, Bendtner…. We need to focus on wingers.

  17. I see most people’s thoughts on Villa joining rely on Adebayor but at the end of the day he’s said time and time again that he’s not going. A few people have said that he wants to go to AC Milan but if you actually read those stories you’ll realise how misquoted he has been.

    If Adebayor was to leave then I would welcome Villa but he’s not going to and I certainly don’t want him to go.

  18. We lost the title last year purely by players being out of position as wallcot was a great rm and when sagna got injured the shit hit the fan with toure being rb and eboue at rm, wtf…. it’s not like henry being a winger then a striker it was a case of the team not having there natual players in their pos. diaby at lm, eboue rm, toure rb, song cb. should of been………
    almunia
    eboue toure gallas clichy
    wallcot cesc flam hleb
    ade vrp
    bench…… lehman, diaby, randall, song, behdner.

    Villa would be great but cruz would be better and vela is very good but we will wait and see and as much as we go on it’s never going to be up to us and we have to get behind our beloved team and be thankfull we are not a yid…..

  19. We can all dream who wouldn’t love a Gunner shirt with David Villa on the back?

    If we’re going to throw BAGS AND BAGS of money at a player I’d rather we throw it at a world class center back. If we had sealed up our defense a bit and stopped conceding right after we scored the title was ours.

  20. Croatia 2-1 Germany.

    Great game. It’s 3.52am and I have to be at work at 7 but well worth getting up for 🙂

    Eduardo would be so proud.

  21. I have already said my bit about Villa. He will kill off teams for us. He will combine with Cesc. He will help keep Cesc at Arsenal. We have a lot of strikers, but who wouldn’t trade promise for the proven thing? I would part with Bendtner or Vela, knowing that they may become great, great players because 1. that isn’t going to happen next year; 2. they may never live up to potential while Villa will; and 3. we have other prospects behind them. I would NOT trade Ade, because his hard work and running makes all of our other strikers better. With the team coming so close last year and the young players coming into their own, now is the time for Wenger to make a decision about winning now or winning down the line, and Villa would improve our chances of winning now while I am pretty sure that our youth system will produce somebody to take care of down the line.

  22. I have drawn comparisons between Eduardo and David Villa and some thought I didn’t know what I was talking about. Eduardo was playing on the left hand side most of the time I remember Wenger put him up front against Everton and he was devastating. He was just starting to settle then the unfortunate happened. I honestly believe Eduardo can be the deadliest finisher in the premiership if he heals back to his normal physical ability So I agree with SF Villa a fantastic player. Would I like him at Arsenal? definitly but not for £25/30 millions we can use that money to sort out the midfield and defence. We have very good strikers you can add Walcott in the mix as he is a striker not a winger. Remember we lost the title and C.league not because we couldn’t score, the opposite we always took the lead but lost it because the defence was shambolic and errors were made.We only failed to score twice, against portsmouth and Liverpool So really Wenger need to sort out the defence and add some steel in the midfield and we’re sorted.

    Hleb he can piss off very soon and take with him his shite agents. Once a player shows his heart is not with the club he must be shipped out quickly. My only concern is that no formal offers have come in for him and he started changing his tune a bit. Adebayor is still a target for Milan preferred than Drogba because he is a lot younger and Milan confirmed they had made an offer for him and Arsenal ignored it completely I can only see Ade going if a big Sum is offered otherwise he will be staying. Its true no one gives Ade credit he is powerful in the air and runs defenders ragged. For his own good he should stay at Arsenal and improve. Arsenal give you time While at Milan he has to be an instant hit otherwise he’ll warm the bench with Flamoney in Eufa cup.

  23. I guess I don’t understand the idea the problem with Arsenal was conceding goals, not that we missed scoring opportunities. Why does a goal conceded count more in the fans’ mind than a goal scored? Why do the fans remember the mistakes made by keepers and defenders that ‘lost’ a game and not the fluffed opportunities on the offensive end. To my mind it is a simple bias towards risk-aversion. Behavioral psychologists have shown that risk-aversion is built into human thought, but it is not rational. A defensive error that loses a game only matters if the offensive has failed to put the game away on the other end. In other words, had Arsenal scored one more goal in each of the games that we tied, we would have won them. Or am I missing something??? :).

  24. @ vlcgooner – I think it’s a bit of both. Ideally Arsenal want to improve both their attack and defence. To improve the attack we need to get RVP fit for the majority of the season and have guys like Adebayor and Bendtner continue their improvement. Vela will add something up front and Eduardo will too once he returns.

    Defensively it’s simple – we need to sign a centre back. There were some quotes from Wenger saying it was not necessary but as Arseblog said they were unreliable so who knows what he really said. I’d take Metzelder or Mertesacker, they’d do well I feel.

  25. I would love so much to see Villa playing at Arsenal,because i have been following him for quite long and i love him as a person.But another thing is that Arsenal needs a prolific stricker of his type and a better central defender than Gallas.I guess if the manager does that there wil be no more problem in the team.
    On Euro just like i said last time,the under dogs will surprise the whole world,and it started last night with Germany.

  26. EVEN IF ADEBAYOR WERE LEAVE WENGER WOULD MAKE SURE THAT HE MAKES PROFIT FROM THE AMOUNT GAINED. WHEN HENRY LEFT FOR BARCA ()16M HE BOUGHT 7M(EDUARDO), FACT IS WENGER DOES NOT MAKE REPLACEMENTS FOR PLAYERS THAT LEAVE THE CLUB EG VIEIRA, HENRY AND MOST RECENTLY FLAMINI. ARSENAL HAVE BECOME A SPAZA SHOP!

  27. Adebayor is not a class act surely and i can bet all odds he wont deliver the goods next season, his goals were only because of an efficient midfield…Bendtner is not yet ready , Vela we cant say how much time hes gonna take , RVP is injury prone and eduardos injury will take time as hell need time to get into full form even after he recovers …..We desperately need VIlla who is a class act and will make sure we win trophies and better our goal conversion ratios ..EVen if u dunt watch la liga i guess the EURO can tell u wht difference Villa makes to a team …ANd when Such a player says he wants to come to arsenal ther shudnt be saying no ..HEs the perfect age the perfect style and the perfect attitude all-in-all the perfect hitman for arsenal

  28. SHow me one example of a goal that was “Adebayors work ” i mean it was a goal bcoz of an extraordinary shot at a goal rather than an extraordinary assist by some1 from midfield.And with flamini gone now ..the chances will dry up a little as Fab will need to play more center ..And Adebayor cant score until its given to him on a plate so Villa is definitely required

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