Looks like Chamakh will sign for Arsenal. Just wish it was in January.

Last week Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh reconfirmed his desire to join Arsenal on a free transfer before the start of next season. He said:

“My choice is to join Premier League and if I could choose, I will go to Arsenal. Bordeaux has brought me so much. I will soon clearly state things so the club can prepare to find my replacement peacefully.”

Today Arsene Wenger replied to those comments quite emphatically. He said:

We do like him a lot, but the day we sign him – we will let you know.”

It’s certainly good news for the club but it is a shame that the deal couldn’t be done during January, when Chamakh could have brought some real value to a team that played with a striker for too long.

Having three big, strong, out-and-out strikers in Robin van Persie, Nicklas Bendtner and Chamakh will give us great depth up front and go a long way towards solving our lack of physicality in the penalty area.

But it does make me think – wouldn’t it by just typical if Chamakh signs and van Persie and Bendtner enjoy injury-free seasons?

Have your say on Marouane Chamakh’s plan to join Arsenal by leaving a comment.

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Comments

  1. I see the fickle nature of football supporters has reared its ugly head again. Arsenal fans calling for Wenger to be sacked after two poor results? Incredible. Yes he deserves the criticism, as does Benitez at times, but why calls for him to be sacked? If you look at it a little more closely, the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal cannot compete with the likes of United, Chelsea or Man City. You could even through Tottenham in there. They spend hundreds of millions on players. Net. Arsenal and Liverpool don’t, we don’t have the resources, but to remain competitive in footballing terms, on the pitch, is a massive achievement for me. Look at how much Arsenal spend on players. Not a lot is it? They don’t buy players in their prime because I don’t think they want to risk the stability of the club. They may have the money but chose not to spend it as the club is more important than any ¿30-¿30m signing. Because of this, the players they do buy need to be developed. Look at the likes of Song and Diaby now. Fantastic players who have been developed by Wenger. How much would they go for now? This is the stance Arsenal as a club have chosen to take, they believe in it and they stand by it. The result is a very stable club. The amazing thing is, Wenger has managed to keep them competitive and they do play the best football in the country. Liverpool are similar, Benitez has averaged a net spend of ¿16m a season and kept us competitive on the pitch. A fantastic achievement. Arsenal and Liverpool are similar in that respect, and its down the management of the sides. The real under achievers are the likes of Man City and Spurs who throw money at their sides and still achieve nothing. Liverpool and Arsenal fans should count themselves lucky that both club have fantastic managers in place, because I warn you now, if they were to be sacked the fans of both clubs would end up with regret.

  2. Van Persie in each season is available only for 3 months until he gets injured, Bendtner talks a lot but does nothing on the pitch.

    So to pin any sort of hope on a player who we’ve not even signed yet (if we ever do, since it will cost money), isn’t very clever.

    I know you actuall don’t do that, but I can’t see any positives today and such a piece of news is pointless.

  3. Wenger’s criticism isn’t based on those last two games, rather on the failures of the past few years.

    Here goes:
    – Not replacing players like Vieira, Flamini and Gilberto, thus depriving us of the physicality we need. Thank god Song’s come good finally, but he alone doesn’t rectify the team’s inability to defend at all.

    – Not adressing the team’s weaknesses – defence, goalkeeper to name but a few.

    – Disrespecting the national cups, our most realistic (if not only) chance of silverware

    – Persisting way too long with players who should not be in the first team.

    – Enabling players like Jay Emanuel Thomas to buy and crash a £100,000 car is just incredible. Spoiling players who have done NOTHING AT ALL in their careers is wrong, wrong, wrong.

  4. Andy – my points are basically yesterday we saw we we have to do to become a winning side again. Yes we dominated possession, tackles, passes etc but Chelsea did the important things right, the scored on their limited chances and the defended in numbers whereas we simply stopped defending as a team. yet again the back four were left defenceless al la Rooney for the second goal, nobody wanted to touch the player or even interfere with play additionally the goal keeper trying to save the ball with his eyes closed does not really help matters. The first goal well Clichy was off his post flapping his arms around and should have been there to stop the ball going to Drogba or Drogbas shot from going in. We did a lot right but the weakness up front was terrible. To quote Fabregas early on in the season.. when the goals dry up we are in trouble… well never a truer word spoken. The saving grace is that we have a run in that we can do very well in and whilst its a huge long shot we just have to hope that both Chelsea and Man U drop a lot more points than us and draw 0-0 with each other if needs be!!

  5. Yes if only it had been in January, but I have doubts whether it will actually happen in the summer transfer window as RvP will probably be back and we will still have the same useless lot of timid little players that we have now as Wenger is afraid to spend money and this is from someone who has been a supporter for more than 50 years.

  6. I’ve just been watching a DVD of Arsenal’s 49 game unbeaten run. That side was just something else. I totally understand that the current side is completely different and plays a slightly different way, but I can’t help but think that the Arsenal team 0f 2004 had everything and could win in any way they needed to. Perhaps this was due to the physicality it possessed, Vieira, Gilberto, Campbell, Henry…but also because they could be direct when needed and weren’t afraid to shoot from distance.

    This side doesn’t have the same variety of options. That’s not to say this young team won’t develop further to surpass the 04 team but looking back you realise just how good they were.

    On Chamakh, I would expect him to be joining on the condition that he’ll be playing, but as far as I can see there is no place in the XI for him. He will surely have to be on the bench. He will give us a different option but it is yet another player who will need to acclimatise to the Premier League. Sometimes I wish Arsene would place greater stock in Premier League experience even if it costs a little more.

  7. I agree with michael. I was never so frustrated than when I heard that story about JET. There is something fundementally wrong with this club when players who are, in footballing terms, not even out of nappies can afford to spend 100k on a car. But as regards our season I’m convinced we’re over the worst in the league but as regards the cl I think everybody associated with our club needs to pray to every religious deity they know that we DO NOT get man utd or the chavs at any stage of the knockouts.

  8. this is my team for next year
    sorenson
    shawcross & GCahill (hope he recovers)
    sagna-song-vermaelan-gibbs
    cesc
    RVP-chamakh-AA

    playing a 2-4-1-3 sort of formation(or 4-2-1-3 away) we will have defenders that defends, a midfield that can tackle, run down attacks, head the ball, and pass and shoot, we will need around £25 mill to sign the three at the back, we will have height pace strength, and skill, and a back up team of
    Mannone
    JD-Campbell
    Eboue-Diaby-Ramsey-Clichy(or Troare)
    Nasri
    Theo-Bendtner-Rosicky(or Nasri)

    with squad players
    chesney
    Bartley-Ayling
    coquelin-Eastmond-Randall- Troare
    JET
    Lansbury-watt-Wilshire

    we almost have three teams there, we can have the carling cup line up the FA cup line up and the league & europe line up with these squads and keep it all fresh, and more importnatly everyone will know there roles and not leaving it to somone else.
    i know we can sign loads of other players but have delibratly not used any of the top 6 who are unlikely to sell to us, and it is within our supposed budget.

    i would get rid or Vela (too lightweight) Fabianski, and Almunia(enough chances), Sylvestre,i will assume we will lose Gallas(is he a centre half or forward) and sacrifice Denilson, Senderos, plus one of the kids as atrade in if need be.

    any thoughts appreciated.

  9. I’m a Gooner and I’d just like to say this man will be a Liverpool player next season. Why? Because Arsenal will try and pay him peanuts and Liverpool will be prepared to match his demands.
    I hope to be proved wrong, but watch this space!!!

  10. In all honesty I would not want Chamakh to come to Arsenal after the way he has acted over his possible transfer. In the summer he said if Arsenal dont sign me I wil go to Blackburn or Sunderland instead at which point Wenger should have told him where to go. Also why did he not come this January if he wants to join so much or is it just the fact he will get a bigger signing on fee in the summer whilst stiching his current club up by going on a free. Sounds a bit like a similer chap to Adebayor. Also from watching French football and him he does not look to much like an out and out striker to me he seems to like to play just behind the top man.How many more players like that do we need Arshavin, Nasri, Diaby, Fabregas, Walcott, Merida the list is endless. What we need is some more expirence in the squad Bendtner in the next year or so will become a top player he gets in the postions to score so often and thats the hardest bit the finishing will come we also have van Persie and Eduardo. I would loike to see Mr Wenger sign an expirenced midfeilder and an expirenced striker not to play but to be there much like the Campbell signing as it wont interfere with the youth coming through.

  11. JSP – somehow i dont think so. Babbel tells a classic story of some one who decided to go to Pool instead of us & exactly what’s happened to him?

    I think the Champ will come to us – for sure – followed by Villa 😉

  12. Ben I think the reason he didn’t come in January is because Arsenal would have to pay a transfer fee!!! Liverpool were touted as wanting to pay £25 million for him in the Jan transfer window (probably paper talk I’d admit), but if there was an ounce of truth in that story then it shows how much they want him.
    Agree with what you say about getting an out and out striker, but the quality we need can you see Arsene competing with the likes of City, Chelsea and United? The minutes City or Chelsea show an interest it prices us out of the market!

  13. God please help us, for how long are we going to wait Mr Wenger for your ideallism, don’t you think is time to stop mocking your self around, listen Mr Wenger, in case you haven’t taken note of this, anytime you are complaining to the side officials they don’t seems like talking or listen to your complained anymore, they always ignored you or not listen to your arguement, look at Sir FERGURSON, the officials alway calm him down when ever is furious at the touch line, and they always listen to his complain when he talks, why because you’ve lost your integrities since you started your sturbbourness, Mr Wenger you can not eat your cake and have it.

    There is still time for you to put things right, or else you will fall from grace to grass, everybody respected you before, not anymore, because of your ideal, well its okay, but such an ideal can not work in the modern day fooball Sir. Now be ready to loose Fabregas and Ashavin, because you are not a man of his words, you can’t be
    lying to the fans and the same time to the players, these guys want to win something, but you are not helping the situations, now if Fab leaves, Ramsey will take over isn’t it, for how long would you continue to build a team and disabilise them again and again. To me i want to advice you Mr Wenger, if i were you i will forget about fighting for anything this time, go to your players assure them for next that you will surely buy the players we need that would makes big difference, or else, you are playing with the snake’s head, a word is enough for the wise. Good luck

  14. Ok we have no money, and therefore we can not comptete with like of Chealse and Man U, fine let him bring back Jay Simson, he is better than Bendtner that talks and talks, and when he is on the pitch he is nothing but a sluggard,

    How on earth can a club like arsenal football club depend on a player like Bendtner as their major striker, men things hasn’t worst to tha level, every year we always in champions league, and not to have three outstanding world class strikers is a disgraced to arsenal. Wenger has no good adviser, anyway may be because of his stubborness he might not listen though.

  15. RvP is not a big strong centre forward…he cant retain possession in a 50-50 vs the likes of carvalho and he isnt strong in the air vs the likes of terry,how he can be labelled big and strong is beyond me….i love it tho when absent players are given more attributes and hailed as messiahs just becos they havnt played in a while…..ie big nic who is the biggest strongest guy we hav yet he wants to be a ballet dancer like arsha and the boys when hes clearly too bug too master it,remember yesterday when his attemot at grace and skill brought him 12 yards out of chelseas box without a defenders intervention???im sorry to tell you chamakh isnt the answer either as hes not an pout an out goalscorer…hel arrive and be another technically decent player who cant mix it physically up the business end of the field vs the big boys
    to all fans who are pointing to the possession and ‘chances’ we created…..chelsea conceded possession and ground to us becos they had a 2-0 lead and knew we cudnt break them down,if they needed more they cudv gone and got it but they just ran down time
    i asked you all back in september wud you rather a young mannone in goals making honest mistakes and learning from them or this bumbling idiot we hav now who cant even kick a ball straight……at least mannone wud gained experience
    like i said yesterday,nasri is a bluffer who strolls around the pitch pickin up 10 yard passes and recycling them the same way,never creating anything,shooting or taking on a player down the flank
    our attacking is terrible,watch our players (except cesc) when the ball arrives at their feet 20/25 yards out in the middle of the pitch….its like they fall asleep…..head down whilst nasri,arsha,walcott are STANDING happily marked goalside by the defenders….nobodys trying to make anything happen,watch the game yesterday again and see how many times abou,and not just him to be fair, gets the ball and its like an elderly person in a home nodding off!!!!!!!does wenger think teams shud get out of your way or their shud be some yellow brick road thru????
    nobody takes us seriously anymore and nobody coming to the emirates fears us yet you think we hav a handy run in????
    at least liverpool hav grit and pride,they can somehow win games dirty and beat their local rivals with 10 men,we were poxed to beat them aswel with an og and LEFT foot wonder strike from our makeshift striker…thank god torres isnt fit for wed
    i asked where the goals were gonna come from when we didnt sign a striker in jan and was told we are the top scorers in the league and wed share the goals around, ie wer depending on cesc,verm and arsha……pathetic
    when the last time an arsenal striker scored a PL goal????? and dont count eduardos deflection vs portsmouth

  16. i would love to know why these players who we have been told for years to ‘be patient with’ and ‘who are not yet fully developed’ are paid so handsomely when they hav never won anything or even been in a final????
    wer payin young men who are far from the finished article serious dosh…i mean can walcott and nasri justify their wage

  17. FOR FUCK SAKE….WE ARE STILL IN THE RACE! AND DONT BLAME WENGER FOR ARSHAVIN’S STUPIDITY, NASRI FAILING TO SHOOT, AND SONG LOSING HIS MARKER AGAINST DROG(WHICH HE SHOULD NOT HAVE) AND ALSO NO ONE STANDING ON THE LEFT POST (I THINK SHOUD BE CLICHY) FOR THE CORNER THAT LEAD TO THE GOAL.

  18. All things aside with timing and such – Chamakh for free is a tremendous signing, should it really go through with no problems, although City will probably offer him a £150k a week deal, just for the hell of it.

  19. i hope bendtner will leave….

    i have something to say, if i may, been thinkin this the other day, u can understand this the one or the other way:D

    wenger u did a great job, back then the gunners where god… we were winning, singing, arsenal had a meaning…

    now 5 years nothing, i hope your time has past… if i keep watching u as manager i will collapse, u gave your max and it wasnt good enought, u should simply go, i now, its tought.

    I SAYD TO U THAT WENGER SHOULD GO
    NOONE LISTEND TO ME, YO
    U SPIT AT ME AND KICKT ME OUT
    THERE’S NO DOUBT,
    I SAY IT LOUD
    HERE U HAVE IT, TAKE IT BACK
    I HAD IT WITH U
    YOUR THROU
    SO…FUCK U

    chamakh isn’t good enought to get the critics away… david villa would be the one

  20. Chamakh is the name we arsenal fan keep hearing. May be he can offer some aerial treat apart from that may be technically good but what i am interested is he quick as well. If doesn’t have the pace than we need some one up front with pace. David Villa is impossible. Look for alternatives. I some how like Agbonlahor from villa. He is show time and time again. He scores goal against the so called big club and has got plenty of pace and power and winning mentality. Lets hope next season we have one decent pair of ST. I like ST who “Hunt is Pair” .

  21. read this from another blog it is so spot on !!

    decent goalkeeper is paramount to any side that holds serious aspirations about challenging for major honours, which Arsenal undoubtedly do and it’s something (not the only thing admittedly) that Arsenal seriously lack. The only thing keeping Almunia in his place is the lack of any real alternatives at the club. Lukasz Fabianski arrived with a burgeoning reputation but looks error prone and although Vito Mannone performed admirably at the beginning of the season he is undoubtedly a raw talent and one for future.

    Defensive solidity was once the hallmark of the great Arsenal sides of the 90s where players such as Seaman, Bould, Keown, Adams, Winterburn and Dixon oversaw a period as the country’s meanest rearguard but today’s crop although talented doesn’t quite come up to scratch as yet – but it’s with Almunia where the biggest problem lies. If a forward is put through one on one, they are almost always going to score. If a ball is out into the box Almunia will rarely come to claim it – he’s simply too poor to play for a top team such as Arsenal in every aspect. He is currently ranked 19th in the league for his shots to save ratio, quite an appalling stat I’m sure everyone would agree with.

    Chelsea has Cech, Liverpool has Reina, Man Utd has Van Der Saar, Man City have Given and Spurs have Gomes, all extremely capable keepers. In fact, if you look throughout the league, Almunia would struggle to get in most teams starting elevens. The three teams currently occupying the relegation zone, West Ham, Wolves and Portsmouth all have better goalies in James, Green and Hahnemann. Look a little higher and Wigan’s Kirkland and Bolton’s Jaaskelainen are both better bets. For my money, on talent alone, at only Burnley, Hull and Sunderland would Almunia have a chance of starting and even then it would be in serious doubt.

    For Arsenal to move forward it’s imperative that they ditch Almunia, for its fairly simple, you don’t win anything with a bad goalkeeper and for all of Arsenal’s aesthetically pleasing play, without a keeper who can save shots you’ll forever be the bridesmaid and never the bride, something which Arsenal have been for the last four seasons since they won the 2005 FA Cup final. He may survive until the end of what will most probably be another trophy less season for the Gunners but come the summer, Wenger has to buy another goalkeeper, otherwise when the big games roll around next season, the overwhelming and all too familiar feeling of déjà vu will keep occurring again with Almunia between the sticks.

  22. Arsenal definitely need a new scoring presence. I haven’t seen enough of Chamakh to have any relevant input on him. What I have seen is our left side getting torn apart. Clichy has been torched since he came back, and Traore wasn’t playing well at all (especially toward the end of his run of games). We lose the ball going forward on the left and then are outpaced and outclassed on the counter. I would be interested to see all the goals allowed this season and count how many of them came from failures of our left side.

  23. @ALGunner
    i keep thinking the same thing as keown have said. clichy is a good crosser(and we dont have a player who can finish it) but when it comes to positioning,defending and concentration, he is a loser while sagna is really horrible when it comes to attacking but he’s a decent ball catcher(but arrive too late in most of games). i dont have many opinions on verm as i think hes a great defender and i think gallas is a good defender too(except he’s too obsesses with striking until he forgot to defend). obviously we need a player like evra or ashley cole(it might hurt to say his name). they know the right time to attack and to stay behind. in the past 3 games aston villa, MU and chelsea using our main weakness(i think everybody realised it) to attack. and they got the result except a bit unlucky for aston villa. and i hope wenger would instruct sagna to forget attacking.
    about chamakh.i dont know much about this player as im not following the france league but as i can see from bordeaux games, chamakh were really influenced them. so i think he’s a good addition to arsenal. and i really hope that he can score too. im too upset with wenger so im not hoping for any signing next season. i believe wenger would get chamakh if nobody interrupting. but obviously now, we also need a replacement for clichy, as i dont think troure can be better. Actually we need another replacement too but i dont want much. just two players for next season (im losing hope, maybe a striker would be better). a scorer, a real scorer.

  24. @shambo i pointed the same thing out to my son during the game. Also why do Arsenal make 5 passes to move forward 10 yards when 2 passes is possible. Thats one of the reasons why Theo cant get into the game because by the time he receives the ball he has two players round him in the last third of the pitch. So what do they do, they move the ball over to the other wing and then back again. Arsenals style of play is so slow in comparison to 5 yrs ago. They are now predictable. I think Wenger needs to go upstairs and let Pat Rice take over.

  25. What do we need with Chamakh? We had £40m from Toure and Adebayor, and the best we can do is a free transfer? We need CLASS players, like what Rooney did, like what Drogba did, they make the difference all the time, Chamakh is just another player, he is nothing compared to those guys, who will be scared of Chamakh? I’m getting frustrated with this, we have the money, so buy real players, not free transfers. Name a Top 30 strikers in the World List, and I bet that Chamakh will not be in it.

  26. Who is Webber? Spanish Fry? Sorry I haven’t been on here for a while.
    I enjoyed the documentary I didn’t know it rains that much in Australia.
    Unbelievable, people slating Chamakh and he is not an Arsenal player yet

  27. Sf oops Weber- Are you going to document the Liverpool game?
    I’ve read that Chamakh has signed a precontract with Arsenal last night

  28. @ice you said give pat rice the job are you joking? is that the same pat rice that looks stuck to the bench with glue, never giving these over paid,underachieving,prima donnas a rollicking for continuing to make the same mistake over and over again. the gulf in class was apparent yet again and although possesion is 9/10 of the law that doesn,t apply on a football pitch.it seems defending is a secondary consideration if at all? keown should be brought in immediately to sort this shambolic lot out,wenger is putting his entire legacy in the hands of a group of players unable to compete at the highest level,he has stripped the team of all the attributes that made us successful in the past and replaced them with a bunch of mediocre lightweights all vision but no end product when it really matters.the longer this continues the more respect wenger will lose from the fans and to be honest someone at arsenal needs to grow some balls and ask wenger a question he,s never been asked before “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU PLAYING AT”!!!! there are so many issues to address e.g majority of possession,double the corners they had,13 goal attempts, they had 3 shots on target scored twice with the other drogba freekick hitting the bar as fawlty manuel just stood there admiring it like he was in an art gallery. there was a time not too long ago when chelski hadn,t beaten us for years….how times change.

  29. At least Marouane Chamakh is 6 ft 2.

    His strike rate has improved recently too but against who?

    2003–04 year 33 games 10 goals
    2004–05 33 10
    2005–06 29 7
    2006–07 36 5
    2007–08 38 7
    2008–09 42 21
    2009–10 25 8 so far

  30. Not a big Chamakh fan. Athletic but not overly talented and doesnt score that many goals… My feeling was that it was a smokescreen set up by Wenger but who really knows… He doesnt usually talk this much about someone he is going to sign…

  31. Wenger was waiting for chamakh to be a free transfer, i am sure he has planted his men to keep things on track. Wenger generally gets his man, n i am sure he will. I was shocked to see this news some weeks back that LIV has snapped the deal…….it ended as a rumour!!

    He is coming to our club for sure……….but it again shows how miser wenger is, he could have n should have snapped the deal by paying some million in Jan.

    So he gets his player, n for no or very little money, but he sacrifices a season!!

    So you guys have to decide whether he is right or wrong…….m sure there would be a debate on that!!

  32. As a diehard fan of Arsenal,I’m not happy to watch Almunia,Clichy,Nasari,Walcott as first line up players.They are destroying the hope for other gunners.

  33. Must say massive negative vibe on the blog today. I don’t think Chamak is a bad option especially since he is free. But I think we need to evaluate our weaknesses because they lie deeper than 1 player

  34. we support our club and any efforts to strengthen our squad are always welcome. Its time wenger stops taking fans for a ride whats the need to add one and sell 2 I am a strong supporter of building a young squad but do everything to retain your players and u will get results but balance btw success on the pitch and success in the pockets of the shareholders.

  35. Hi! everyone
    You fan of arsenal you have a very selective memory! do you remember the critics when Henry were announced coming to arsenal? and same for Wiltord? what about Pires! Viera? the french connection! all the arsenal fans were very discouraging and no one believe that the french connection will offer some of the best souvenirs in the history of the club!!!!! my point is : the french players when they leave the french league! they become like a good old french wine! the football in france is not sexy not easy to strike! it s old school football! Chamakh’s talent will explode, he deserve a club that he really loves!!!!!! and I m’ sure Emirates will love him back!!! sorry for my poor english!

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