I'm Decidedly Melo On This One
Jul 5th, 2009 by 'holic
Well, this was supposed to be a piece about the youngsters retained, and those let go this week. Events have overtaken that aim, however, with the news breaking on the Fiorentina website seemingly confirming our pursuit of Brazilian midfielder, Felipe Melo.
The story has the added attraction, for some, of offering Emanuel Eboue a fresh start in Tuscany, as the Florence club have apparently expressed a desire to take the Ivorian as part-payment. However, whilst I am not Eboue’s biggest fan he is still an Arsenal player, and were this another club expressing a public desire to sign another of our players there would be considerable outrage.
Strange one this, given that it was only on Tuesday that Melo ‘moved to end speculation about his future by signing a one-year contract extension at Fiorentina.’ Not the action, one would have thought, of someone who thought he could be about to leave for pastures new. Definitely an action that would have caused Arsenal negotiators in the past to drop the chase like a hot stone, given how he had strengthened the hand of his current employer in any talks.
Whilst I no longer have any doubt that Melo was on Arsene Wenger’s wanted list, I am also compelled to believe that the actions of the player and his club have fallen far, far short of the standards expected by Arsenal. Not least because Arsenal usually insist on a lid being kept on all negotiations by all parties involved.
Shame really. We could do with somebody like him, but I have a feeling we are more likely to put him on the back-burner, and turn our attention elsewhere.
24 Responses to “I'm Decidedly Melo On This One”
First?
Yay!
I’m also reading that Melo has agreed terms with Juve. Can’t help thinking Fiorentina published our offer to make sure Juve dig deeper into their pockets.
Yes we bid for Melo at some point, but the point is that could’ve been a month ago. I think this is probably old news being generously interpreted as a transfer about to happen by over-eager Gooners. Expect us to sign someone completely different this week…
At the back end of the season I felt that Eboué was becoming a dangerous impact substitution rather than a dangerous liability and another season could do no harm.Adebayor on, the other hand cannot go quick enough.Melo as you say has given all the wrong signals.
I am not sure anything has changed from Melo’s end! It seems from the Sky Sports quotes by him regarding the contract, wherein he says “the club would have the possibility to extend my contract automatically from five to six years,” that this has been done on the whole by the club. Whilst it certainly strengthens Fiorentina’s position in holding out for the buyout clause mentioned.
However, again to perhaps challenge another point, we have seen from the Nasri and Arshavin transfers that Arsenal no longer demand the same levels of discretion when it comes to the transfer.
On the whole, I am really not sure. The buyout clause seemed high but seemingly Arsenal have come very close to if not matching it! I certainly would not rule it out, especially as Melo’s quotes seem only to be the least expected in the face of questions regarding his new contract, especially when the many footballers contracts seem to have loyalty bonuses/clauses written in.
Juve is Fiorentinas biggest rival. If they are going to sell than selling to Arsenal must be more attractive than the Turin club.
Forget this guy Melo and spend the cash on cana or inler.
The Melo transfer looks a non-starter for me, especially for the £21m touted!
No way we would splash that on a player who has no premier league experience and likes to change clubs every year or 2.
I think it is more likely we are being used to get Juve to stump up a few extra quid…
Hmmm, I like the deal given that it would be Eboue plus 6m. Eboue was not expensive to us so I like the deal. I prefer the Adebayor out with Flamini and £20m coming in though. I also think it has more legs. This has the hallmarks of the usual way we do business witrh AC Milan. That said I would take both deals and get shot of Denilson and Song. That would leave just Toure for the annoying African Cup…. Hmmm wust phone Arsene…
Why stop at getting rid of DEnilson, Song, Ade and Eboue… When we can get rid of Clichy, Sagna, GaLLAS, Theo, Nasri..
Basically everyone except Cesc and Arshavin…
Id just swap ade for flamini straight. Any extra money we could get would just be a bonus
And I like adebayor, it’s just flamini would be so much more important to us. If he hadn’t left for milan he would be arsenal captain now.
He f*cked us over though, didn’t he.
I wouldn’t look too much into the fact he added another year onto his contract, i always thought this was to add a higher buyout clause in his contract to stop Fiorentina losing alot of money on any potential sale.
Also dont think because they have gone public it will hamper any potential deal for us because not so long ago Zenit and Arshavin’s agent were the loudest bastards on earth and we still purchased him, your right it isnt the Arsenal way but how can you help what others do? shame there isnt more repectful clubs like ours.
I want Melo but i dont want to lose Eboue at the same time, he made great improvements last year and is a handy player to have when injuries to right back or right wing come into play. A good utility player in my eyes and i think he has potential to break into the first team IF he improves the same this year as he did last.
Yeah, gimme the contract and I’ll sign it…….just gimme the contract and I’ll sign it……..Yeah, I’ll sign it when I’ve got a minute………Bit busy at the mo……….Can’t find me pen…………Right, I’m off to Milan, lads.
Even if we had the money why do you think we will spend it on a player who has come out twice and said that does not want to play for us? I think we should conentrate our efforts elsewhere- away from Italy preferably.
Where do you suggest gerry?
Ive been wondering about this one .. it made no sense that Melo signed a contract extension. I was shure he’d leave next year after the world cup. But the most logical answer here is … Melo is heading to Juve.. The BS in public is to please the fans.. Now fiorentina can say ‘oh we didnt really want to sell Mel to juve our rivals.. we tried selling to Arsenal. .. but Juve triggered the buy-out-clause . That also goes hand in hand with melo declaring his love to the fans while working on a move out.
This one looks like a runner: if you read his quotes rather than the interpretation put on them, Melo hasn’t said he doesn’t want to join us, far from it. He said he’s happy with Fiorentina but that could easily be code that he might leave but he’d want it to be on good terms. The fact that Melo’s extra year was an automatic extension Fiorentina were able to activate, seemingly without needing Melo’s further agreement, underlines the possibility. Looks to me like the ball is in Eboue’s court.
The price looks high, and Melo’s disciplinary record is worrying, but better him than Flamini or Veloso. Cana still looks good though.
check this link: http://www.raleighfuelsavings.com, you’ll like what you see.
Song will be better than Melo next season. Sell Adebayor and get a good striker and another Central defender, then our team will challenge for all the cups.
goonergerry, arsenal fu*ked him first, we want to sell him to birmingham (on the previous season) if i’m not wrong
U r always wrong Plastic Gooner if u r real plastic. lol
Nice to see another sensical post on the best Arsenal blog around. Melo just signed an extension when he had the choice not to, knowing big clubs were after him. ‘Holic is spot on: Melo is not for us, at least not this year.
And Asiyo may be right it could well be that Song will finally become the DM that everyone wants to pry from us.
Arsenal summer transfer saga is like Goundhog day really. We make a quick buy (Nasri last year, Vermaelen this year) followed by a lot of noise and a few youngsters. Come September it culminates in Arsenal really, but really really close to buy this great player that is going to make us win all competition and on the very last day the hyped deal goes tits up. Unless (a) player(s) leave(s) (and even then), we’re likely done buying anyone over 16.
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