So who is Gervais Yao Kouassi?

This story was originally intended to be our announcement that Arsenal had actually gone out and announced the signing of Gervais Yao Kouassi, the 24 year old forward from Ligue 1 champions Lille. However, in typical Arsenal fashion, nothing ever goes according to plan. As far as I have been able to learn, the announcement is delayed pending a paper work snafu on the French side of this transaction.  When, the announcement will be made is anyone’s guess. 

It does seem that he did in fact undergo a medical at London Colney on Wednesday or Thursday. Every and I mean every outlet had it. This wasn’t a case of the Sun or Mail carrying it or one other paper carrying it – everyone had it. Who knows maybe it is all some grand mistake on partof the entire English media – which wouldn’t surprise me but eh what the hell, let’s give some background on the guy affectionately known as Gervinho.

Gervinho has been one of the targets we were linked to the minute the window opened and except for the nusance of our noisy neighbours in North London trying to hijack the bid it has always looked like the Emirates was his destination..

Personally, I am not big watcher of the French leagues. Jamie is our resident expert there. But for what it’s worth Gervinho looks like he could be the real deal. In 2 seasons with Lille, he has scored 28 goals in 64 appearances.  He was named Ivory Cost player of the year beating out Didier Drogba and YaYa Toure. His own countyman, and former Arsenal player, Kolo Toure had this to say about him:

“Gervinho has plenty of qualities.

“He is young, fast and very technical. I call him the new Samuel Eto’o. He deserves to be declared Player of the Year in Ivory Coast.”

That’s a pretty strong endorsement coming from a defender who knows a thing or two about talented forwards. But Kolo’s word is probably not enough for parts of the fan base that would have rather seen his partner at Lille, Eden Hazard come to the Emirates stadium. While Hazard has a known admirer in Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager has said he felt that Hazard isn’t ready. Its likely that is more with his off-the-field antics than it has to do with his on the field performance.

But hey we’re here to talk about Gervinho. Now in fairness you all know I refer to Everton’s Marouane Fallaini as the “Fro” – for Gervinho I must admit that I shall from this time forward call him the forehead. If we ever were to sign Fallaini, we would have Fro and Fore. Ah well, I digress.

So what do we know about Gervinho?

The Ivorian started his french career at Le Mans after a tour in Belgium playing for Beveren. His inagural season for Le Mans was lacklustre as he only managed 2 goals.  He did manage to turn things around and improved on that the following season scoring 7. Arsenal’s admiration for the player began to blossom here  but a little known fact is that Arsenal had tried to sign him coming out of Belgium in 2006.

Upon his move to Lille, Gervinho began to really blossom. In his first season he scored 13 goals in 32 appearances. His second season saw that improve to 15 in 35 apperances. He was an instrumental part of Lille’s capturing the Ligue 1 title for the first time in 57 years as well as the Coupe de France for the first time since 1955. In addition to his scoring ability Gervinho also had part in setting up goals having 10 assists this season and 4 last. It was during the historic double for Lille that other European sides began to have a hard look at the player.

Gervinho is pacy and direct. He is known to always try and take on his defender. One of his best skills is his dribbling ability, making him very hard to deal with. He also is very strong and has a tendancy not to go down and bounces off defenders. If there are weaknesses in his game it is in a dip in form when he is on the road and a lack of physical presence. Either way he is considered tricky with lots of pace and difficult to deal with.

Gervinho would be a  likely replacement for either Nicklas Bendtner (who will likely move to the Bundeliga upon the teams return from the far east) or for Carlos Vela. The real question that remains though if he is signed is this it or are there more to be had? Does a signing like Gervinho constitute a start to a new way of thinking (with regard to transfers) for Arsene. Well, that remains to be seen. There are skeptics and there are hopeful people – lets hope the hopeful lot are right.

Other transfer news:

Well, if you hadn’t heard Sunday we sold Gael Clichy to Manchester City. Funny thing is we have a recent tendancy to do that and in each case it has been a shrewd sale. Not only have we gotten a huge return in the investment but the players have seemingly fizzled out. Emmanuel Adebayor had a good first half season for City – fading in the second half and then found himself undesirable to Mancini was sent on loan to Madrid. He is now spending his summer hoping Madrid want him back. Kolo Toure started off well but he has been hampered by injuries and then was suspended do to a failed drug test. What fate awaits Gael Clichy is unknown but he has to be a little concerned that Karma isn’t going to come in kicking his own door down. In 2009 he had this to say about Man City after Adebayor left:

 “I really believe if you are a player who thinks only  about money then you could end up at Manchester City. You have to think if   you want to play for a big club and have your image or if you want to play   for a good club and earn big money.

Clichy represents the last of the Invincibles to leave North London. He joins two others at City but the legacy of that glory year are now only on the ring around the stadium and Arsene Wenger. Clichy was a good player who was experiencing a down turn in form the last few years. He had positional problems and a lot of times didn’t understand you aren’t supposed to play people on sides. (ask David Villa if he is upset he is gone). Clichy never lived up to the hype of his predecessor Ashley Cole and when Wenger laid out his summer priorities Clichy’s name was absent from that list.

We wish you luck.

All things Cesc and Samir

The funny thing about the news online is that you can almost always tell why it is people have so little faith in it. Take this for instance. I went on line yesterday and read the Mirror to find out that Arsenal had decided against selling Samir Nasri unless it was for an outlandish fee. Forget for a minute the long-term implications of that. But just as that was being published both the Sun and Daily Mail carried stories that Man City were assured they’d won the Nasri sweepstakes. And that was all topped off by today’s rumour that Man United had proclaimed they had a bid of £20 million accepted.

What we do know is that it looks like the Mirror was right as Nasri will be joining the club on the far east tour. Additionally, the club has come out and categorically denied they have received anything other than an enquiry by Manchester United if the player was available. They’ve been told no.

We also have learned that the Evening Standard has reported today that the club have offered Nasri an improved contract of £110,000 a week which would make him the best paid player ont he team next to Cesc Fabregas. Whether this improved contract is real or not remains to be seen. And if it is a real offer, will Nasri, who openly professed his preference for Arsenal earlier this year, be inclined to stay? That remains to be seen.

Somone who won’t be joining the club in the far east  – we think – is Cesc Fabregas. The report is he is staying behind to work on his lingering hamstring problem. But it could also be in case Barcelona decide to pay what the club want for him. However, Barcelona don’t seem to be budging off their willing price – of £30 million. The spainards are now also saying that the value of recent signees Toral and Bellerin (they say £7 million) should be factored into any price they are quoted for Cesc.

I’d remind Barcelona that Toral and Bellerin are already part of our organization and there will be no further payments to be made there. I think they forget that Arsenal paid the going rate for them. There is no other value to be assigned. If Barcelona want Cesc Fabregas they are going to have to pay the price.

I think the club have accepted they are going to sell Cesc. However, they are only going to do it if they get the windfall for him they want. It’s how it’s done. Considering Cesc won’t force a move – Arsenal hold all the strings. It was quite humourous on Thursday when Barcelona announced they could wait till the end of the transfer window to do the business. And that’s true – however considering Wenger doesn’t need to sell Fabregas – they could wait a long time, say till 2013 or 2014.  Still, it does look like Fabregas will go its just when.

What about others:

From across the interwebs we can report the following:

The Express and Mirror firmly (Telegraph mildly) that Arsenal are in the drivers seat to sign 23 year old Spanish Midfielder Juan Mata. Tottenham are also interested but he wants to play Champion’s League football.  Mata had the team’s eye before the Nasri saga broke. So he would likely be a replacement for Cesc should he leave.

Again the Mirror and Express believe the Gunners will possibly sign two defenders, definitely one with Gary Cahill the preferred choice.

Jose Enrique is the prohibitive favourite to replace Gael Clichy on the squad. However, this would seem a little odd given that all indications are that Kieran Gibbs is set to be given every chance to prove he deserves the first spot.  When Gibbs signed his extension it was under the promise of a clearer shot at the number 1 LB slot. However, Enrique would definitely give Gibbs some needed competition, which wouldn’t be a bad thing.

The Daily Mail (you remember them right – they reported Nasri to City was a done deal) are reporting that Arsenal are about set to splash the cash for Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema. While I would personally like this to happen I would rate that on a scale of nigh on impossible. Simply because Arsenal would never spend the £27 million needed to get him. I think the Mail puts out these stories in the hopes that one day one of them will actually turn out right.

Lots of other stuff out there but if I covered it here it would leave me without a week in review to do. So until then my friends. . . Stay Goonerish!!!!

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