Montpellier: "There has been no contact at present"
French Ligue 1 side Montpellier has denied that there has been any contact with Arsenal over the possible transfer of defender Emir Spahic, via a statement on their official site.
Reports emanating out of Spahic’s homeland Bosnia yesterday suggested that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was close to securing a deal for the 29-year-old. However, his club have quickly come out to rebuff their player’s quotes.
“Following the Associated Football Press’ articles this morning indicating that negotiations have begun between Montpellier and Arsenal over Emir Spahic, Montpellier denies having had any contact with the Gunners’ about him at present.”
Wenger has been linked with a string of defenders this summer after the exits of Sol Campbell, Mikael Silvestre and William Gallas from the Emirates.
New signing Laurent Koscielny impressed during the recent Emirates Cup tournament alongside Thomas Vermaelen, and the addition of Spahić would provide depth in a position that seemed to be a problem area in north London a few weeks back.
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We’ll see. If we can reach an agreement with the player, I think there will be no obstacle on his way to Arsenal… once Gazidis starts to deal with Spahic’§s transfer with Montpellier.
Once Gazidis returns from barbados on August 31st he can get the transfer done.
We’ll probably hear about it at 11.59pm on the 31st.
lol @ Arse&Nose
chris i thought your article confirmed this was on the verge of a deal? does this mean arsenal have agreed deal with player before agreeing with montpellier ? whats thwe score with this ???? what are the french papers saying ?
thank f**k for that – we dont want him here
@NJ: I was just reporting what Spahic told the Bosnian sports portal; “the deal is close”.
Montpellier did the same thing with Alberto Costa who did eventually complete his move to Valencia.
to be honest, this guy is not the type of player we need. he might be a good player but i think arsene shouold look into getting someone who is english, who knows about the premier league. we need at least one stong, tall, experienced english player as our backbone in that defence no matter how expensive he might be. some may not like him but i think gary cahill can do it for us. cahill vermaeleen partnership should flourish well IMO. then we will have djourou kosielny as the back up.
who are we going to get then?.A week and a half left till liverpool have we only have koscielny vermaelen and djourou ffs sort it out.
as for the goalkeeper, am suspecting arsene is waiting till the end of the window to see what will happen with shay given in man city.
wtf??? it looks like there wont be anymore signings 🙁
@gooner, am absolutely sure arsene wont go into the new season with 3 cb. we still goona get 2 players coming in at least. 1 cb and 1 gk. i wont be surprise if he brings in 2 cb.
Hi guys,
First, Spahic is a good player, rated on french top 10 last season, he helped montpellier a lot. Though 183 cm for 77 kgs is a bit light for the EPL, mind you, one or 2 season with Arsenal’s technical staff and the guys takes 10 kgs in muscles.
Anyway, You ask for players but no one here is giving any name, it’s nice to hear that Metersacker or Tasci or any other players might come in but the question is: DO we need those players? I mean do they fit in Arsenal line up?
Metersacker for exemple is an experienced players but he is very slow, good in the air, he would be ideal against Drogba but useless against Rooney or even Young
Tasci is still young and he would fit Wenger’s squad but in a few years, not now, unless he does a V5.
I wish too that we get a player, doesn’t matter how big is name is (media wise) as long as he is playing a good season, that ll do the job for me
We should have bought Godin. He just signed for Atletico for £6.6m. Bargain
Zapata!!!
Damstar, Arsenal does not need a cb who is English. Check the WC and realty, English players are not necessarily better, especially center backs. Vidic is not English, he seems to do just fine in the Premier League. Same with Vermaelen, Carvalho, Skrtl, etc. If Spahic is good enough, who cares if he is Bosnian or Bohemian.
i think arsene is not going to sign a keeper and spahic will come
If they are saying we havent contacted them about Spahic, then how the hell have “talks gone as planned”…we must be tapping him up!
All we can do is wait and be patient…I`m sure Wenger will sign a defender….I hope we can sign a GK too but i`m not sure..
A strong rumour going around in Turkey tonight that Tomas Rosicky is about to sign for Galatasaray….I would like Rosicky to stay we need depth…Hope its rubbish like the Sol Campbell years ago..
thank god! really hope we dont sign this player. we are not a second rate team and he is not what we need. obvious we need adefender but he certainly isnt it!
@jimmy:
Jimmy, you have no clue what you are talking about. You have probably never heard of this player and you go by the ratings on Football Manager. Take it from the Bosnians and French League followers who have already posted on this site that he is a good player.
@american gooner: i understand you. but why do arsene always go for french players? this is not a french league man. he has to be fair enough to the english game. i know we do have alot of young english players coming up the ranks. but IMO i believe we should have at least 3 of them in our starting 11. why french players all the time?? i kno the answer, bcos arsene is CHEAP.. and thats is why we havnt be able to win a trophy for the last 5 years.not even a carling cup….What am trying to say in a nutshell is that arsene must stop been cheap and spend the fucking money. he shouldnt be afraid to spend the money. he told us all before we can compete financially with chelsea in the transfer market but he hasnt spent shit yet. just 10 million on unproven koscielny. he will wait until the final hour of the window looking for cheap bargain but always ended up losing out. And in the next day he will come out and be telling us crap that i dont wanna hear. here is the fact: If he cant spent big we aint winning shit next season…you cant reap enuff where you dont sow enuff. Arsene hasnt sow enuff. he can be qualifying us for the champions league every season but he hasnt sow enuff to win a trophy simple as dat.
damstar: waaaaaahh, cry about it. I feel like we have the whineiest fans on the internet. “stop being cheap arsene and spend $18 mil on cahill or jagielka!” oh wait, jag has a horrible injury record and cahill, well basically sucks for the money, so why would we buy them? Just to make some english fans happy? no thanks, I like hearing them whineing incessantly every day instead.
damstar i understand and agree that arsene is frustrating. i would like him to spend more, certainly. however, i do trust his eye for talent when he does sack up and spend the money. and he rightly has been hesitant to spend money on english players. spahic is not a french player, he is in a french league. top players come out of the french league every year (drogba, essien, ribery just to name a few), and only rarely do the cygans of the world land here.
@ american gooner, yea agreed man. but those clubs that wins trophies like man.u, chelsea, barca, real madrid, bayern always spend money. they dont spend sign players like koscieny and stuff. they sign quality well proven players and they win things. I can bet you that man city will be winning trophies too soon enuff. I am sure there is money for wenger to sign players but he just dont like spending it thats all. If he want to buy players, buy someone that is proven enough to win us trophies. we are barca develop players from our academy but barca are not scared to spend on players who they think will win them trophies. they dont say dat if they buy those players it will hinders the development of the young coming stars. they still bought david villa while they still got pedro. I know arsene wont do such thing in arsenal. I agreed with you mehn but all i can say is arsene must stop been stingy if we are to win any trophy soon.
@ american gooner, yea agreed man. but those clubs that wins trophies like man.u, chelsea, barca, real madrid, inter, bayern always spend money. they dont sign players like koscieny and stuff. they sign quality well proven players and they win things. I can bet you that man city will be winning trophies too soon enuff. I am sure there is money for wenger to sign players but he just dont like spending it thats all. If he want to buy players, buy someone that is proven enough to win us trophies. we and barca develop players from our academy but barca are not scared to spend on players who they think will win them trophies. they dont say dat if they buy those players it will hinders the development of the young coming players. they still bought david villa while they still got pedro. I know arsene wont do such thing in arsenal. I agreed with you mehn but all i can say is arsene must stop been stingy if we are to win any trophy soon..
@American Gooner:
ok do you watch him play week in and week out? i doubt you have even heard of him before now! mayb you should do your research before you believe everything you hear. y would we want a short 6 foot player that is either very injury prone or just not good a player(he has played 174 league games in 10 years). he wont solve our main problem, defence, particularly in defending set pieces. you probably watched a vid of him on youtube and now u think he is great, but sory youtube can do that to anyone. he is a sort of player teams like birmingham and sunderland will aim for. i really feel we should and can do better than this guy.
@damstar:
agree completely
@ilya:
can you honestly say you are happy with wengers spending? the players dont have to be english but bout time we got a top player
i am from islington and have lived here all my life. my hometown club is Arsenal and u are sayin that me and damstar should support other teams even if they are our hometown clubs
guys we need to listen to the people that are either bosnian or consistently watch french league to get an accurate analysis on the guy, and so far I’ve heard really good things from the people that actually seem to know what they’re talking about. I’m the 1st to admit that I have no idea who he is, but I’m open-minded enough to give the guy a chance, not just because knowledgable bloggers said so but also because I have great respect for wenger’s scouting. The era of england having the best defenders has been over since ferdinand turned 28; now they’re just overpriced due to historical precedent and the english media. Cahill is the only decent one but he’s overpriced for his talent level. If u compare him to Subotic or Kjaer, 2 players in that price bracket, its obvious that the europeans are a much better deal. Not to say I’m happy about our defensive situation but we still have time for that perfect signing to happen so I’m not gonna complain just yet. Martesacker would be nice but his lack of pace and the price = its not gonna happen. Its hard to find the perfect signing, thats why I think an affordable, experienced, eastern european, who, from what I heard, is very aggressive wouldn’t be any worst then any other options I can think of
Wenger has came out and said he will get at least another defensive signing, and i am pretty sure he will stick to his word. He is working really hard and the problem is that most defenders we linked to are now overpriced. 15m to 18m for either jagielka or cahill? Wenger will only sign players that he sees as value for money and that should be the way things should be carried out in the transfer market. And he is also working really hard to get a keeper in, just that that Hughes is really making things difficult. But hey, the transfer window has not ended yet right, so let’s reserve our judgment for a bit first. And yes money can buy you titles, like Chelsea, Man Utd, Barcelona (it’s true even if they don’t admit) but what Wenger is doing is to win the right way. Just because buying titles work doesn’t mean we have to do it their way!
Good news!
@ george; am sure you will be part of those that will be criticizing wenger come the end of another trophyless season mark my word. we know wenger is trying but he is not trying enuff by adding big star players with the team he is building. he always settle for less all the time in the transfer window and that aint gonna win us any title. If he buys an unproven player that didnt cost you shit, spend big by adding a proven star player and by doing that i can bet that we will be winning trophies again just like barca are doing and others. barca didnt say bcos they got pedro they wont be sign david villa after henry left. and am sure barca are in the market to get a defensive midfielder. they dont say bcos they got busquet or keita, they wont be signing another dfm after toure left. chelsea didnt say after bcos they got mikel and essien they wont be signing ramires after ballack left. Arsene will never do that at arsenal. Am saying this again for the last time, Arsene will never win us a trophy again unless he start spending big on players who are proven enuff and capable of winning us trophy. Period…
@ilya:
well said. will wait n see who wenger brings in. only time will tell
@Gooner Chris:
Montpellier president Loulou Nicollin has moved to dismiss speculation defender Emir Spahic could join Arsenal.
GettyImages
Emir Spahic: Set for the Emirates?
Bosnia captain Spahic, 29, was quoted as saying he was in talks with Arsenal, but Nicollin has described the claims as “a hoax”.
“(Montepellier boss) Rene Girard got Wenger and (Arsenal scout Gilles) Grimandi on the telephone,” he told L’Equipe. “They said they have not ticked his name on their list of targets.”
Nicollin said, though, that should a suitable bid materialise, they will not hold the player against his will. “If he wants to leave, we won’t keep him. No one is irreplaceable.”
He added, however, that Montpellier would expect a huge transfer fee. “He has three years remaining on his contract. They signed Koscielny from Lorient for €12 million, and Spahic is worth three times what Koscielny is worth.”
Arsenal full back Bacary Sagna had said he would be happy to see Spahic move to Emirates Stadium. “I used to follow him in French football last year and he is a good player,” he said. “He’s definitely good enough to play for Arsenal and everyone will welcome him if he does come.”
After reading this do you think the whole Spahic deal is a wind up? By the way this is not critacism of you by anyway shape or form. I actually quite like this site
We should buy john terry or rio ferdinand..what say gooner chris???
they are better than emir
tc thats a joke right? yea we’re gonna buy terry & ferdinand the same day that we spend $150 million on messi lol