Arsenal make half a bid? Gourcuff and Matuidi surface again…

Morning all.

According to The Express, we have made a £12.5 million offer for Antoine Griezmann.

Reports in Spain suggest that the Gunners have approached Real Sociedad about signing the French attacker but have been firmly rebuffed.

Sociedad are thought to have rejected the offer out of hand and insisted that Arsenal meet the Griezmann’s £25m buyout.

If this story is true and the player has a ‘get-out’ clause set so high, why on earth would we go an offer half of that amount?

I know Arsene likes to try and get a bargain but this would be ridiculous surely, an insult even, which is why I doubt there is much substance to the story, well, the figures quoted at least….

A number of this mornings newspapers report that we are ‘deep in talks’ with Lyon to sign their 27 year old attacking midfielder Yohann Gourcuff. Just like Blaise Matuidi of PSG, he’s been linked with a move to Arsenal for many years but neither ever have, however, there are a few stories doing the rounds which suggest the latter might be finally arriving in the summer when he’ll be able to move for free.

I can’t see either story having much truth to them….

One that might have legs though relates to Julian Draxler as Schalke sporting director Horst Heldt has admitted that they may not be able to hang onto him past the summer.

We still hope that Julian stays, but there are elements we can’t influence.

Whether or not Arsene Wenger see’s him as being part of our future and is prepared to shell out the reported 45 Million Euro get out clause remains to be seen.

On the outs:

According to The Daily Mail, Galatasary have offered Bacary Sagna a hefty £4.1 million (after tax) per season wages if he agrees to move to Turkey in the summer. He’s reportedly to currently earn slightly less than that with us at £3.6 million a year.

Just what our French right-back will do in the future remains to be seen and despite all the stories suggesting he is in talks over a new contract at Arsenal, like the manager, he’s yet to sign on the dotted line.

That’s a round up of all the gossip for this Saturday…

Have a good day and let’s hope a few results go our way…

0 thoughts on “Arsenal make half a bid? Gourcuff and Matuidi surface again…

  1. Scott from Oz says:

    Morning Rico.
    Gourcuff…..he has probably had more Arsenal related articles written about him than Dennis Bergkamp 🙂

  2. AndrewH says:

    Morning rico, scott. Going to be a slow weekend full stop. Gone are the days when it all happened at 3 o’clock. Just think how many Suarez related stories would be ongoing if he hadn’t suddenly fallen in love with Pool again!

  3. rico says:

    It it Scott…

    Morning Ah. The Suarez love in with Liverpool is all a smokescreen imho – he’ll be off in the summer, especially if they don’t make the top 4…

  4. Scott from Oz says:

    I often check the clubs site to make sure Gourcuff hasn’t been snuck in.
    I’m with you Rico….Suarez signed an extension with plenty of pendings 🙂

  5. AndrewH says:

    Wouldn’t be surprised that if Pool don’t make top 4, he has another self-created ban or bust up which will give him the excuse to engineer a move.

    Did you see Steve Gerrard last night on Sky? A little 2-3% of him was happy that Walcott was out for the season. At least he was honest I suppose!

  6. Joaquim Moreira says:

    good morning all!
    So we are linking with mostly of the forwards playing in the middle and big european teams.
    not bad.

  7. FunGunner says:

    Hello, Rico. Just a couple of points on Griezmann… £12 million is a reasonable opening bid for a young player at a good Spanish club. How much did Michu and Cazorla cost? Even assuming the buyout clause applies in the Jan window, the amount it is set at is not Griezmann’s value. It is higher than his value because it is the amount Real Sociedad is contractually obliged to sell him for – buyout clauses are in place to cover the situation when a player wants out and the club wants to keep him. They want to make sure they get a really good fee if they are forced to sell him, while his agent will want to make sure that the fee is not so high that no-one will pay it. But if Real Sociedad *are* willing to sell him, which may well be the case here, then it’s just up to the two clubs to find an amount they are both happy with. There’s nothing insulting about negotiation, that’s just normal business.

  8. NorwayGooner says:

    There seems to be a bit of a lack of understanding of those buy-out clauses in Spain. They are set way above the players’ real values. Those clauses doesn’t mean the buying club has to reach the amount when bidding for a player, it just means that if they do then the seiling club has to accept the offer.

  9. rico says:

    Morning kali, JM and Mg..

    Welcome and morning to you FunGunner..

    I totally understand where you are coming from but if a player has a get out clause, surely any club won’t sell for less than that amount.

    I know nothing about the player, is he worth £25 Million?

  10. southyorkshiregunner says:

    Morning all. The Greizman stories were doing the rounds on Twitter last night. He seems a Wenger (in recent years) type player – Nasri, Arshavin, Carzorla ….

    It also does appear, barring a complete bollocks-up, that Draxler is on his way here come summer. John Cross appears adamant that that is the case…

  11. southyorkshiregunner says:

    Left footed players? If that was so, and I am not really sure that is the case – maybe Rico could help me out on that one – What has that got to do with it, Kali?

  12. malaga gooner says:

    Rico I know some 1 who interviewed draxler about a month ago,he told him off the record her arsenal bound.
    Go onto my facebook page you have my email add,you will see he’s football reporter in germany

  13. rico says:

    Morning Syg.. I agree, left, right footed, makes little difference as long as they are good…

    Not sure we have that many anyway, Pod, TV, Gibbs, Monreal and Jack isn’t it

  14. rico says:

    Welcome NorwayGooner – apparently, well according to the gossip papers we are considering an improved offer…

    Could all just be a load of tosh….

  15. BrainwashedKev says:

    Morning All…

    Morning Rico…
    The French winger from Real Sociedad looks interesting…
    Could spell the end for Miyaichi if we sign him?

    I hope there isn’t gonna be any question marks over Podolski…
    Not only is he a great player, he is also a great influence around the club…

    RVP out for six weeks….
    Ha, now doesn’t that bring back some dear old memories… 😆

  16. kali says:

    hi syg …just my humble opinion
    to Rico’s list i will add Giroud +Ozil too….

    will we have a good balance with all left-footed front men?
    Griezmann will be another…that makes 5 players upfront,

    cant see Ozil,Pod,Giroud,Griezmann with Jack playing in the same line-up imo…but again i might just be talking gibberish i suppose.

  17. BrainwashedKev says:

    Bacary Sagna is definately dragging his feet, or his advisors are!

    Kinda get the feeling that he is gonna be off in the summer…

    Not sure that the club have handled his contract as well as they should have.
    It’s gonna cost a lot of dough to replace him if he goes.
    Sagna is top quality and has already shown his versatility this season when filling in at centre-back…

  18. southyorkshiregunner says:

    Most players can play with both feet. I was naturally right footed, but I could play just as well (or bad) with my left.
    As a defender, a right back and left back need to play on their proper side, and to a deggree the same could be said of central defenders although it isn’t necessary – Campbell, Adams, Keown … Pires and Ljungberg used to to alternate wings all the time as did Hleb and Rosicky. Really, it doesn’t matter that much if the player is decent.

  19. rico says:

    Morning Kev.

    I’m yet to be convinced about Ryo but I guess he’s still young..

    Podolski will soon reach the magical ’30 year old mark’ won’t he??

  20. southyorkshiregunner says:

    Sagna has had some bad luck with injuries (2 leg breaks in one season) and had an up and down season last year, but there is no denying that he is an asset. Hopefully he stays.

  21. rico says:

    Oops, he’s only 28 years old – he’s with us for a while yet 😛

    How could I forget Ozil Kali, and Giroud…

  22. rico says:

    Kali, you raise a good point, far from gibberish…

    But we certainly lack something down our left side and Podolski can’t play every game. If Griezmann is a quality out and out winger, he’s just what we need imho..

    But we’d still need a striker surely?

  23. rico says:

    Sagna is another TW situation Kev, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him sign on in the next couple of weeks as Theo did.

    He’ll be like a new Jan signing….

  24. HenryB says:

    Hi Rico,

    Well its all the same-same, every TW.
    What puzzles me is that we knew last summer that we needed either cover at CF or even a leading No.9 in Higuain or Suarez.

    Six months later nothing has changed in that respect, so why did we wait until now to start looking for players. I think we should have begun negotiations in Nov/Dec with the formalities sorted in January.

    Wenger always disappoints when he says we will wait to see how Bendtner or ‘x’ progresses. Why?

    Or, latterly, it is either he will rely on our current squad (what has changed from the summer?) and perhaps the other one is that he would be happy if someone with quality knocks on the door, and he will listen.
    It simply does not work that way Arsene.

  25. rico says:

    Hi Hb.

    I honestly wouldn’t take what AW says with much truth, he is always being asked the same old questions by the press and he just gives them an answer, any old answer…

    I’d like to think the club have been trying to do all they can to sign a striker and just other clubs are being a pain in the backside..

    But if we get to the end of the TW and still haven’t signed one, then not only will I be amazed, but pretty cheesed off…

    Jan is not too bad for fixtures, but Feb is pretty awful and we sure need more attacking options than we have right now…

  26. ozgunner says:

    I think we said this in the summer Rico – how many months did they have, i doubt they’ll do anything but offer excuse again for January.

  27. rico says:

    I know Oz and it frustrates and angers me so often… Whilst the window is open, I have to keep on hoping…

    Could be the difference between winning silverware or not and I strongly suspect the club know that. Someone in their cosy office must be doing all they can to get us a striker surely…

  28. rico says:

    Not sure how much he’d cost JM, or even if he’s for sale…

    If he gets a striker Scott, he’d have got this bit right too 😉

  29. rico says:

    Former Arsenal striker Eduardo says he would be interested in returning to the club during the transfer window.

    The 30-year-old, who scored 21 goals in a three year spell with the Gunners, departed in 2010 and has since been playing his football for Shakhtar Donetsk.

    However, amid growing rumours that he is planning to quit them this month, Eduardo says he would be interested in going back to the Emirates Stadium.

    ‘Of course I’d like to go back to Arsenal,’ he said.

    ‘I don’t know anything about their interest, but everybody knows that when I left, everything was done in a friendly manner.

    ‘I’m still friends with Arsene Wenger and have spoken to him several times. I still have many friends that live in London too.

    ‘I want to play more ahead of the World Cup.’

  30. HenryB says:

    The trouble with us playing on Monday means that more pressure is put on us to win, especially when/if the other top teams win. 🙁

  31. rico says:

    🙂 Devil, afternoon to you. And to you Hb and thanks, I didn’t realise..

    True re Monday, huge pressure but if we want to win the PL, the pressure will be a lot more than an away fixture to Villa…

  32. rico says:

    No JM, not good at all but all will be the same as long as we win on Monday…

    Keep on winning or drawing against those around us and the PL is ours 🙂

  33. GunnerDNA says:

    Rico, lol. Its unbelievable Arsenal can’t find a player who can improve the team, failure is a habit so no worries.

  34. Micko says:

    Unusal headline today rico, how do ya think them up !

    Big Dave Seaman was on soccer am this morning chuckling his way through the whole show, he’s appearing on dancing on ice with his partner tomorrow.
    Andrew, you’ll have to pass on the details of your doctor, steak and chips sounds right up my street.

  35. rico says:

    I’m sure they can Gdna, they just need to get on with it 😉

    I struggle Micko, I struggle. Tomorrow’s is even better.. lol

  36. BrainwashedKev says:

    Paul-Georges Ntep has posted a picture of Instagram, of his lunch, passport and rail-ticket with the words ‘On My Way’…
    The rail-ticket shows Paris to St Pancras…

    Maybe he’s heard that Heal’s is have a sale???

  37. tsgh says:

    Damm, it is being reported that Giuseppe Rossi could be out until summer 2015. One option of out then…

    Kev- as I mentioned a few days ago the Ntep rumours bother me… Auxerre, Franco-African and AW not a combination AW can resist…

    If he is coming on Eurostar then maybe he is not Colney bound… 😉

    Evening all…

  38. tsgh says:

    Its a shame Swansea could not pour more misery on Moyes… This was 7 league games without a win for Swansea. 2 wins in 13. 8 wins in 32, since winning the League Cup last year.

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