Melo signs!
By Avenell Dave
But sadly, not for us.
It seems the newly in-demand Brazilian midfielder Felipe Melo has signed a one-year contract extension at Fiorentina.
It all looked so positive yesterday, with our dearly departed Gilberto Silva suggesting Melo should join the Gunners.
But sadly, La Viola have confirmed on their website this morning that Melo is staying put: "Fiorentina announces that its sporting director Pantaleo Corvino met in Milan with Felipe Melo's agent and an agreement was reached to extend the player's contract until 2013 with a buy-out clause also included," read a statement from the club.
Having lived in Italy, I suspect the buy-out clause will have no relation to his real market value.
It's a shame in many respects and it will be intereting to know how serious Arsene Wenger's interest was in the Brazilian.
Certainly his disciplinary record left something to be desired but we all know how much we need someone to provide some cover for Cesc Fabregas and let our playmaker push forward without exposing our defence.
Lorik Cana and Blaise Matuidi have been mentioned as other signings, along with that old mucker, Gokhan Inler - and I have no doubt that Wenger knows he MUST buy a water-carrier.
Whatever he says, Samir Nasri should not be our new Number Six.
I agree with those of you who say Denilson is continuing to improve and is a great asset to the squad. Can he be the terrier and ball-winner that every successful squad needs? I'm not so sure.
Have faith Gooners, Arsene knows....
DA
Reader Comments (23)
Personally im not disappointed. I thought that he was very average in the confederations cup.
Wenger won't sign anyone at the DM position. Why woukd you bother when you have Denilson, who will improve yet again.
Is this contract possibly the precursor to his sale? It's happened before, and the specific mention of a buyout clause is strange. Could this just be Melo making sure Fiorentina get a fair price?
Melo is overrated. I'm glad he isn't signing for Arsenal.
Although we ll never really know....I personally dont feel we were ever really serious about signing Melo. I had never really heard of him until the confed cup....and im sure many of us gooners were getting excited about him purely because he represented SOMETHING of a "BIG NAME" signing (see what the board has reduced us too...lol)
To be honest I feel that wenger will once again take evryone by suprise and pull another rabbit out a hat trick and sign someone completely random.....much like the eduardo signing.....as frustrating as many will find it.
But who ever takes the field for THE ARSENAL next season.....current squad or new addition.....they will have my FULL support.
Lets turn up the volume at the emeriates this year people..and help the boys get a trophy in that cabinet.
I agree I saw nothing to suggest he was any better than Denilson or Song.
Its actually quite a relief that thats one potential signing gone it means the transfers are gearing up into full swing meaning soon they will be all done kinda gettin tired of being linked whenever wiv whoever...ity still leaves Inler and Cana though
Still feel Song will be way better this season but jus dont want to leave things to chance we need to start the season running not thinkin bout wat could have or should have...have a feeling Wenger got one more signing onto top of an Adebayor replacement but no guarantees we will even know bout the plaayer's history
Jackass. Using a headline like that is the sort of shameless hit grabbing that I would associate with goal.com.
I wont be following any more Newsnow links to this site.
Good work
to "Disappointed" - get a life and a sense of humour.
Denilson looks set to take the role again next year anyway. He was great last season, much better than some in other positions, but gets hardly any credit.
Why does everyone want Cana? The guy just seems like a crazy person.
Unacceptable headline.
Will not be reading "arsenal Addict" in future.
I don't think we were ever in for him anyway. Judgng by his performances at the Confed Cup, I'm delighted - he's a nice passer of the ball but ball winner he is not!
I have a feeling Wenger won't buy anymore players this summer :( Hopefully my feeling is wrong.
He should be selling Ade and bringing in Chamakh. Other than that, i thinkw e are sorted, just need the likes of Rosicky and Eduardo to come back to fitness.
I saw nothing to suggest he was ever a target, only invented media speculation.
People need to get a fucking sense of humour.
The title wasnt misleading. Melo did sign, just not for us.
I do however agree that he is overrated. He didnt do the defensive job. That was Gilberto.
Also TT, Chamakh is useless. He may be tall and slightly fast but any time i have seen him he has been awful. Cant shoot, cant pass and is an all round poor player.
@ stu - His goalscoring rate is better than any of our strikers.
And this is not an opinion that we should sign him, respected journalist, Philippe Auclair has stated is several times on Talk Sport that if we sell Ade, we will sign this guy.
Seriously lame headline...
Also did you hear anything from the Arsenal camp about signing Melo? do you ever hear anything from the Arseal camp before we buy a player? no... I think there was zero truth about this signing it was the media writing made up headlines (reminds me of someone else) and fools like yourself believe it. So why dont you just wait for some real news before writing this garbbage?
Denilson is better than Melo. And if you believe he isn't, then you have to admit that in 1 to 2 years time he definitely will be. Denilson will rival Anderson as the best DM in the world in a couple of years.
Even so TT. I dont want Chamakh. He isnt what we need right now. We need an out and out goalscorer is indeed any forwards are to come in. I honestly dont rate Chamakh at all and at 25 he isnt a youngser that Wenger can mould so i dont see any point of buying him.
And i hope this Auclair fella is wrong. It was said on talk shite after all. They dont exactly have an inside track on all things arsenal.
@ Gooner: Rival who?
@Wenger: Lorik Cana please.
Pls sign Lorik CANA. we need him otherwise next year we will be fighting for Uefa Cup if lucky.... CANA is what we are missing... He is not crazyyy he has come down abit lately... But also he is alot more then just a hard man... if you remember his Goal against liverpool in CH.L what a finish was that.... You lot have seen just 1 video in youtube and u think OMG he is crazyyy
Lets hope we get him, because if we dont then...... we will suffer as we did last season.... We need a MAN in middle of the pitch not little boyss....
Cana is what we need. He has aggression, leadership qualities and is a proper protecter. He isnt anything like his youtube videos because they are the culmintaion of years of football. He doesnt get reds at all. Just 1 for Marseille in all his time there.
Benn, his goal against Liverpool was a freak occurance. That was only like his 3rd ever goal for them.