The Arsenal Scouting Network and European Clubs: A Guide to Understanding the Annual Transfer Madness
Hello again friends. This is Uche Edochie, your neighbour on justarsenal.com. How are you doing today? Do you feel any better yet sifting through the deluge of daily transfer rumours?
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger spoke to Arsenal.com about the importance and difficulty of scouting ahead of the London side's FA Cup tie with Swansea City. Traditionally known to have a vast scouting network, Wenger discussed the various markets the world's best players are starting to appear in, and how vital it is for clubs to get in early.
It is being reported in Scotland that Arsenal are amongst the top teams watching the prolific 16 year-old striker Noel Makombo who has made a massive impression at Alloa this season after helping the Cldesbank BFC win the U16′s title last season.
Makombo, who came through the youth system at Sochaux in France, has been tipped to become the youngest ever first team debutant in Scotland this weekend when Alloa take on Stranraer, as his goalscoring exploits could not be ignored after firing a massive six-goal haul on his debut for the Alloa U19 side.
Arsenal chasing young Leicester defender by AM Arsenal have joined the race to sign talented young
defender Liam Moore from Leicester City according to Metro. Tottenham, Everton, Aston Villa and
Manchester United have already been tracking the youngster's progress for some time now. But now
United and Arsenal are considered to be favorites to land [.
There has been a very interesting statement from the Egyptian defender Milo ahead of his
participation in the Olympic Games in London next month. The highly-rated 21 year-old left-back is
believed to be tracked by other top European clubs like Lyon and Benfica as well as Arsenal, but he
is fully expecting an offer from [.
What is there past M'Vila? by KJ Alright, so my most recent article today is discussing what
exactly is happening with regards to M'Vila coming to Arsenal and it isn't looking great. However,
I'm still confident that we'll see the young Frenchman in our famous red and white next season. But
Arsene's job is to [.
Scouting for Arsenal: Attacking Midfielder – By JG I sat down to scoff down my lunch yesterday,
and on the satellite there was a Serie A match playing. It was just a rerun of an old match between
Juventus and Palermo, I thought "eh, I'll just watch it while I eat." Well I ended up [...]
Scouting For Arsenal: Goalkeeper – By JG With Almunia, Fabianski and Mannone all forcing
themselves out of Arsenal, the signing of back-up goalkeeper has become an issue of dire
importance. Arsenal scouts have been reported to have been watching young English starlet Jack
Butland and a Norwegian shot stopper by the name of Kenneth Udjus.
Arsenal in recent weeks have become the bookies' favourites to land hard-tackling Rennes midfielder
Yann M'Vila this summer, but the French club aren't yet ready to let their star man go on the
cheap, and are testing the Gunners with a £25 million valuation for the 21-year old club academy
graduate.
It seems that there are a couple of new Arsenal Transfer rumours appearing each and every day. Now
I know that Wenger has a veritable army of scouts around the world and that the Gunners probably
look at 100 players for every one that they actually buy, but who is it that actually informs the
[...]
With the news coming out of Arsenal that Manuel Almunia's has been released at the end of his
contract, and also Fabianski has made it clear that he also wants to leave, it seems that the
Gunners are now clearly in the market for a suitable backup for Wojciech Szczesny next season. Now
it has [...]
By Dominic Vieira, writing from Lancaster, England
Arsenal are a club which must be lifting titles, not losing finals or constantly finishing 3rd
or 4th in the table. They're a young team which generally play the most appealing football in the
country, but every year it's the same concern: where are the trophies?
In November 2007, after England failed to qualify for Euro 2008, The Daily Mail did a
quick scout of the country to highlight the players pushing for internation stardom in the future
entitled 60 reasons why the future of English football is not as gloomy as you might think...ITS
investigates.
Much like the most recent Copa America, the under-20 South American Championship also saw its fair share of upsets as the continental apple cart was well and truly upset when Argentina and Brazil crashed out early, leaving some of the less fancied nations to take centre stage.
There was one minute left in extra time and Ronald Koeman started to prepare for the inevitable. He found what he was looking for, a notepad and pen, after collecting his thoughts he jotted down numbers one through five. Next to number one ‘Lex' was written, followed by a space, then letters I and M, before he could finish the surname, a loud roar erupted, looking up, Koeman saw Lex Immers – the very person that was going to take the penalty – wheel away in celebration, Feyenoord left it very late.
It's likely you have heard very little of Lorenzo Insigne so far and nobody won't blameyou for that. The Napoli lad developed through a series of loans in the lower divisions before receiving wider attention last season whilst playing in the Serie B with Pescara, who became eventual champions.
It's likely you have heard very little of Lorenzo Insigne so far and nobody won't blameyou for that. The Napoli lad developed through a series of loans in the lower divisions before receiving wider attention last season whilst playing in the Serie B with Pescara, who became eventual champions.
Hearing the full-time whistle Samuel Eto'o knew where to head. Anzhi just beaten AZ 5-0 in
Alkmaar, but there was no mood to celebrate, instead he had to see him up close and offer a few
words to a talent without limitations that left a huge impression.
The players have grown, unless they haven't. The 100 returns.
Expansive. Insightful. As good as you remember. For the second year running, our friends at IBWM have released their signature ‘The 100' list. It's a selected study of football's most talented and brightest prospects.
While the FM database let me down a bit with United's new Brazilian trialist, Alfredo, it
appears to have a more fully-realized take on another forward trialist: youth US Nat Stefan Jerome.
Though not all of his stats are defined in the database, most are, and that's enough to provide us
a reasonable picture of where he's at now.
First let me kill any hopes you may have for screenshots or comparisons with current or former
players. You can safely rule out long-winded analysis as well. There won't be any for this one. Put
simply: Alfredo Francisco Martins is a mere sketch of a player in FM. No size, no footedness,
roughly a quarter of his stats defined[1].
In the first part of our FM scouting series, we looked at United's new DP forward Hamdi Salihi.
Now it's time to turn our attention to central defender Emiliano Dudar...
click to enlarge
What jumps out immediately is Dudar's marking ability and aerial power, the later of which,
given his size, was to be expected.
While I'm relatively certain that most dedicated followers of MLS will know what United are
getting with the likes of Maicon Santos and Danny Cruz, there's still an element of mystery
surrounding the acquisitions from the mid-tier Euro-leagues. Most of us see precious little from
Swiss or Austrian clubs outside of perhaps the odd Europa League highlight.
Intense transfer speculation is revolving around the Bundesliga with names such as Gotze, Tasci,
Reus and Vidal dominating scout reports. After a strong 2010 World Cup campaign revitalised with
the presence of several young talents, it's no surprise that the attention has transferred to
Europe's most populated country.
It appears the offseason work is really beginning for SKC now, first the word on Jimmy Nielsen
being re-signed and now we learn the name of the first Sporting player that will officially enter
next week's reentry draft, and it's Josh Wolff. Wolff, 33 and a 12 year MLS veteran, had his option
declined by SKC.
It is indeed a slow day around these parts. For some reason the cold has come into Dallas and I
just feel like doing next to nothing. Thankfully there are others around that are actively doing
their part to produce interesting items and this one by Kyle McCarthy got me thinking.
Basically McCarthy offers a suggestion on how the league should re-do their scouting system.
Coming up next week is the start of Sporting KC's trialist camp in Trinidad. Along with some of the
Trinidadian players that have already been named previously, we have some more players that are
going to be attending. As coach, Peter Vermes said in his interview with Thad, this is a combine
for players from the Caribbean, South America, and Africa.
Peter Vermes and Octavio Zambrano will be in Trinidad and Tobago in early December as guests of 1st
FC Santa Rosa. While there, Vermes and Zambrano will be scouting for the upcoming season. The host
club is putting together a series of trial matches for the two to watch to potentially find a
Trinidadian player for the Wizards.
Albrighton was a name that didn't ring any bells for a lot of people when they heard the
commentator utter his name during the Aston Villa v. West ham game on Saturday. It seemed the
fleet-footed winger had snuck under the radar. However, he hadn't gone unnoticed by conscientious
Aston Villa fans, contrary to the story published in the Daily Mail today.
Marvin Sordell is promising striker who plays for Watford. Sordell is not yet a world-renowned
superstar, but we'll certainly be hearing more about his talent over the next few years. He signed
his first professional contract with the Championship side last April and played the 2009/2010
season for his club and represented Tranmere Rovers on a 2 month loan spell.
It appears that Spain is increasingly becoming the supermarket of choice for the big clubs around Europe, and Arsenal are no exception. Having signed two Spanish players from Spanish clubs last season, Arsene Wenger is about to make it three within a year, apparently, after the club's scouts put in a great recommendation for Ruben Garcia Santos.
Seriously? Not one striker? Even though "Family Day" is a day off for some - and Arkansas' sexiest holiday - there is no time for Toronto FC to relax. With only a couple of weeks left before the regular season, very big gaps remain - especially up front - yet the club only seems capable of finding a daily influx of semi-pro holding midfielders and defenders.
Not many kids want to play as a left-back, but they'll settle for the right-back position; we
simply all want to attack. This is why the search for a quality left-back is an everlasting all
night long headache, there aren't many. The shortage of this position has cultivated wingers into
full-backs and the transformations have been successful in the modern game, Patrice Evra and Fabio
Coentrao are prime examples.
By Fernando Sell, writing from Juiz de Flora, Brazil
It is not the first time that Santos has a squad enriched by talented, skilled and home-grown
players. In 2002 and 2004 the team won the league title with the influence, flair and magic of
the world class Diego, Elano and Robinho.
