Emery’s First Signing – Stephan Lichtsteiner
Jun 5th, 2018 by 'holic
The first signing of the Unai Emery era was confirmed today (Tuesday) with the presentation of Stephan Lichtsteiner at Shenley. The captain of Switzerland will provide much needed competition to Hector Bellerin who will hopefully respond by learning from his vastly experienced new team-mate.
Lichtsteiner arrives with a reputation of a tough-tackling right-sided player, equally adept as a right-back in a flat back four and as a wing-back ahead of a three. He has spent the last seven seasons at Juventus where he made 257 appearances and won Serie A champions medals in all seven! The man is a winner, and a leader, but at the age of thirty four we can only realistically expect a couple of years of his drive. A free transfer, he could prove to be a huge bargain.
His professional career began with Grasshoppers in Zurich where he won the first of his eight national titles at the age of nineteen. In order to further his career he moved to Lille in Ligue 1 where he enjoyed three years before Lazio, impressed by his performances at Euro 2008, agreed a fee of around 1.5m euros to strengthen their defence. At the end of his first season he helped Lazio lift the Coppa Italia, scoring in the penalty shoot-out against Sampdoria. At the start of the following season he also helped his team win the Supercoppa against champions Inter.
Juve snapped him up in the summer of 2011 for a fee of 10m euros, and as Lichtsteiner himself said at his unveiling today,
“It’s (new start at the Arsenal) a little bit of the same project that I did seven years ago with Juventus. Juventus also, for two times, didn’t qualify for the Champions League. I hope I can bring a lot of experience, a lot of mentality, and together with my team come back to the highest level of the Champions League.”
That’s an admirable introduction by the man himself. It will be interesting to see if he has been signed as a squad player, mainly starting Europa League and cup matches, or if he will see significant Premier League action given his experience and leadership qualities. He averaged 36 appearances a season at Juve so presumably has come here with a desire to challenge Hector for the starting berth. That may be no bad thing.
It is also a clear message to Carl Jenkinson that his dream is over. His contract still has two years to run, but hopefully the club and he will come to a termination agreement that will let the likeable young man seek a new start at another club where his wholehearted commitment will be appreciated.
Welcome Stephan. We all hope your stint at the Arsenal is a happy and successful one.
29 Responses to “Emery’s First Signing – Stephan Lichtsteiner”
A grasshopper and an old lady all rolled into one. We must have got a bargain. 😉
Cheers H!
Cheers Esso! ??
Evening bt8.
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I’m all for signing more Stephen’s. Even if his is spelt with an A.
Potentially a really excellent signing for the points mentioned. A winner, played at the highest level and bucket loads of experience. Hopefully he will as much use off the field as he will be on it.
Especially on a free.
Evening Steve. This free I love. Fellaini, not having it. It’s his agent getting him a better deal elsewhere. ??
Who knows about Fellaini??? I’m not a massive fan but would take him on a free I must say.
By all accounts, Lichtsteiner is an excellent crosser of a ball, which is something else Hector can learn from. You are probably spot on, ‘Holic, that this is a message to Hector, no glamour European games unless you shape up, but also a valedictory to the Corporal.
Lichtsteiner may be the first signing on the Emery era, but is he an Emergy signing or a Sanllehí signing?
…Emery signing…
Very interesting background, H. Sounds a real asset. Our defence needs a bit more bite and nous and he certainly brings those qualities. I hope Hector is in receptive mode (conscious incompetence).
Now for a bit more of these qualities in central defence and midfield, please Unai.
No scarecrows with a loo brush hairstyle and aggressive elbows though. Even on a free. Thank you.
I think he is a part of a plan rather than an opportunistic punt and it is a deal well worth making. I intend to be as positive as possible about the new era and certainly this is a sensible start .
I suspect he may have a positive impact on Xhaka too although Xhaka’s future is shrouded in mystery . Welcome Stephan.
UEFA announced the new revenue approach for Champions League. If we had simply qualified, without playing a single match, we would have received about 42mil euros. Assuming we make it through the qualifying rounds with 3 wins and 1 draw, that would another 9mil euros. And this doesn’t include the television revenue. I’m thinking that extra 51mil euros would have been helpful in the transfer market. Btw, for participating in the Europa League, we received about 3mil euros.
Not sure there’ll be any real
Emery signings as it seems to
be a sort of committee process
now but I hope he does have a
final yes/no say.
All the best for Lichty now he’s
signed. Welcome to The Arsenal!!
ecg?
A simple Google check would very quickly have put you right.
http://www.cityam.com/285175/champions-league-and-europa-league-revenue-much-prize-money
so to conclude, we got a big wodge of euros
because Everton are crap. Seems fair to me.
Cheers Koeman.
Interesting figures re the European matches. I imagine our match day revenue would also have been reduced due to lack of numbers but the disparity is not as big as I would have first thought.
Stanley will be happy.
Any more freebies through the door yet? Yaya will play for a pound a week apparently.
Some nice videos and pics
https://www.instagram.com/arsenal/?hl=en
Looks like “Rubber” Evans is going to Leicester.
A big Swiss Lichtie to take up the torch from the wee blue Lichtie? ?Cognoscenti will know. ?
TTG
An update re Arse young guns.
The England under 21’s have reached the final of the Toulon Tournament for the 3rd successive year this evening, thanks to a blinder from Eddie Nketiah.
Down 1 nil in the semi to Scotland,he set up the equalizer,and then scored 2 cracking individual goals to seal a 3 – 1 win.
They will play Mexico in the Final.
Clive,
Great stuff. I have very high hopes of Eddie next season and beyond !
As many an oppo defender may be advising his teammates next season, Don’t let Nketiah getya.
With my apologies for the above. It is summertime and the brain gets lazy(ier).
I have just seen the second kit for the first time. Is that some kind of joke? How hideous is that? It’s an absolute disgrace. The shorts are I think the worst I have ever seen anywhere.
Puma should be sacked now.
Enough sheep will buy the shirt to make it worthwhile for the club though, the shorts don’t matter because only tools buy those.
They could do a shirt with fake tits printed on the front and people would buy it. They did get away with a WHITE shirt, after all.
Personally, I can’t get enough of those shirts with fake tits.
A guest post from TTG. Thank you so much sir. >>>>>>>>>
Cynic,
The tool ensemble can be completed by wearing socks pulled up over the knees, as is the current fashion.