We’ve signed Mikael Silvestre 21 August, 2008
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News.trackback
I’m sure you’ve heard already by now, Mikael Silvestre is an Arsenal player. Yesterday morning it started as a bizarre rumour that would never have got any attention if it weren’t for the amount of newspapers and websites running the story.
It started off as a ‘bizarre rumour’, but Arsenal fans gradually started to consider the possibility of this actually going ahead. The story was he was just about to sort out a move to Manchester City when Wenger heard of his availability and snapped him up right under Mark Hughes nose. City have moved quick to find someone else and are expected to sign Vincent Kompany from Hamburg.
So we spend much of yesterday debating how he could actually add to our squad, at what his role might be. A lot of questions were asked, like “Why are we buying a player that’s not good enough for our Premiership rivals?” And more importantly, “I fucking hate Mikael Silvestre, how I am going to feel if he came to Arsenal?”
So I went to work last night thinking about these things and when I came back I saw that he’d signed, and will wear the no.18 shirt. I still felt a bit shocked; it’s all a bit strange really. I think it’s a really odd Wenger signing. He’s 31, way past his peak and he’s a player Man United are trying to flog. I still haven’t heard Wenger’s view on this, there’s nothing up on Arsenal.com yet.
I want to know what Silvestre’s position at the club will be. On instincts, I would say he’s cover for Toure, Gallas and Clichy. He’s experienced and he’s used to the Premier League. Also, he’s still got some pace. So he does make some alright cover in our defence, but would he sign knowing he’s only going to be on the bench.
Or, maybe he sees him as our new defender, to partner Gallas in an all-French defensive four?
There’s some debate that this could be the case with Kolo Toure moving to midfield. Kolo likes to get forward, and has proved he can cut in further up the pitch, but on a more regular basis? I don’t know. He does seem the sort of player that could make that switch from defence to midfield. As I said, we know he likes to attack and penetrate the opposing defence, and obviously, he’s a decent defender too; So you could say he has to ingredients to replace Mathieu Flamini in central midfield.
I think Wenger plans on signing another midfielder though. There’s been talk of that Swiss bloke, Gokhan Inler. Arsene was in Switzerland last night watching the game vs. Cyprus. Maybe he was there to look at Inler; it’s a strong possibility. Djourou got 90 minutes in that game though so he might’ve been there just to check up on him.
I still think he’s going to sign in midfield. We’ll have to wait and see. As for Silvestre, well I’m not sure what Arsene plans for him yet. We might get a clue this weekend against Fulham. With him coming in, it means Armand Traore can go out on loan. It was obvious that he needed that experience but we needed him incase Clichy got injured. Now with Silvestre here he can go out on loan and Portsmouth have shown an early interest. It would be a good club to go to but I wonder whether he’ll get many games there.
Well it was another round of international friendlies last night, and so far I haven’t heard of any more injures, WOO!
Van Persie scored for Holland in a 1-1 draw with Russia. Decent goal too, took the ball on the edge of the box on his left foot and curled one into the far top corner. More of that please Robin.
Three defenders, Sagna, Gallas and Djourou all played the full 90 minutes last night. Hopefully they’ll be alright for the weekend, they should be anyway. The French beat Sweden 3-2 with Sagna’s cross setting up their first goal. Djourou’s Switzerland beat Cyprus 4-1 with Arsene Wenger watching on from the stands.
Bendtner also played a full match for his country, however he lost emphatically 3-0 to Spain with Arsenal-linked Xabi Alonso getting two.
Theo Walcott couldn’t get on the pitch for England’s 2-2 draw with Czech Republic. Personally, I thought England were crying out for a bit of Theo last night. There was no imagination, nothing exciting; I think Walcott might’ve done well if he we awarded the chance. Never mind.
Ramsey played for Wales U21, Fabianski put in a good performance with Poland but lost 1-0 to Ukraine and Carlos Vela played an hour for Sven’s Mexico against Honduras.
So that’s it for news today, hopefully we’ll get Wenger’s views on Silvestre later today but probably tomorrow in his Friday press conference. Thanks for reading.
from arsenal.com
Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger said: “We have a strong squad but a young squad and Mikael’s versatility, experience and calibre will provide the extra depth we need to reinforce our challenge for honours this season. His defensive adaptability will serve us well and it’s a big plus that Mikael has top level experience and a great understanding of football in the Premier League.”
Good article. Thanks for writing it. If you go elsewhere they seem pretty sure the purchase of Silvestre a steal. I have my doubts too. Any PL team from the lower echelons would have cought double that sum for him. So why is ManU considering this to be a good deal at a fair price??
Thank you for the article, I have been waiting to hear your opinion of the deal as I usually feel your comments are right on.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!
i dont think its a bad signing,he cost less than million,he will bring alot of experience and he is very versitele,because we need cover for left back and right back,it means that we will able to rest clichyand sanga we need dm,i dont think wenger was planning this type of player but neither was gallas
as I said, since my days following wenger’s team, this is by far the strangest signing by him. But I always trust wenger, even selling henry was strange but turned out okay so this might be a steal, who knows. All I hope is he ll be one more good cover for us in the back, plus he might score the winning goal against man u.
oh I forgot to say that I love toure in the back, he’s so good there. We have yet to see him in central midfield but why risk the best defender we have at new position? Buying one, to me, is the way.
personally i think he will bring much needed composure to the back four.Under a million it’s a steal come on you Gunners!!
diceman1984, Toure is NOT our best defender. Sagna is easily the best we have, followed by Clichy who’s defending isn’t as good as Sagna’s (although his attacking is brilliant) and even Gallas has been a better defender than Toure during the calendar year.
booga booga,
Are you serious? Me and you were watching a diffrent player then mate.
Gallas was not at his best at all last season. Clichy cost us 2 goals from his personal mistakes. Sagna was and will always be awesome. But Toure WAS the heart and soul of the back 4. It’s not coincident that we were not at our best defensively when he wasn’t there, and also when he was used as a right back we were worse off than when he partnered Gallas. Look at how we lost to Chelsea.
The starting back 4 ARE all GOOD but Toure IS the best one there, his presence is so important to the team. He’s the only remaining player from the invincibles year for something.
And after thinking about it, Silvertre will be a great addition to the back line. Wonder what will happen to Traore though, will he be another Bentley and Hoyte?