There’s a rather snobby article currently doing the rounds on NewsNow courtesy of CaughtOffisde that labels Arsenal’s potential moves for two Sunderland stars as a ‘big step backwards’. Is this fair criticism or does it miss the point?
According to the Daily Mail, Martin O’Neill is set to cash in on ex-United full-back Kieran Richardson, to get some return on the player before his contract runs down. By the summer he’ll have just a year remaining on his contract and would probably fancy a move should a top six team declare some interest.
Arsene Wenger was reported to have been weighing up a move for him in January, but never followed through. Could he make his interest concrete this summer by testing Sunderland’s resolve with a bid?
Then there’s Sunderland’s Stephane Sessegnon who the Express reports could be subject to a £20m bid from Arsenal this summer.
Whilst I’d question the veracity of these claims, I think it’s a little disrespectful to claim that they’d be a big step-back for Arsenal.
After all, Kieran Richardson would be unlikely to get in the team ahead of first choice options Bacary Sagna and Andre Santos and would most likely fulfil a role as a capable squad player. It’s a constant source of complaint amongst Arsenal fans that their club lacks decent squad players, but having Richardson in tow would go some of the way towards providing a solution.
As for Sessegnon, he’s begun to look like a genuine talent under Martin O’Neill. Whilst there’s no way he’s worth £20m (a rather arbitrary figure that I assume the Express merely pulled out of a hat) he’s clearly a dynamic, pacy forward with plenty of craft and vision. He’s the kind of man that could join the team to keep the likes of Theo Walcott and Gervinho honest.
What’s more, who’s to say he won’t undergo an Antonio Valencia-esque transformation following a move to a big club? He has shown signs of talent and if he’s given an important role under one of the best managers in the game there’s a good chance he can fulfil his potential.
Whilst Arsenal will be looking to bring some real quality this summer, wide-scale changes will need to be made throughout the squad. Players will leave and other players will join and they can’t all be marquee signings. There’s no use analysing every single transfer and getting angry that they won’t all be marquee signings. This snobby attitude simply has to stop.
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ok i have no problom with that but as back up, bench players, not frist choise not starting 11 we need to make a strong bench thats true but 20 mil for seseqnon we have biger fish that we need the money for bring in the main targets like hazard and gotez ba e.t.c
You obviously know very little about Sessegnon. Arsenal will not be the only side interested in Sessegnon and as such his fee will rise dramatically. He is an exceptional player and is a different class to Theo Walcott and most certainly more dangerous than Gervinho. Hopefully Sunderland can keep hold of him but if the big boys come knocking, there’ll no doubt be a price war. He won’t leave for anything less than £18m that’s for sure.
You’ve embarrassed yourself mate. Somebody who has impressed over 10 or so games is worth £18m? Whilst he’s better than Theo as things stand, he doesn’t share Gervinho’s ability to beat a man with ease. There’s no way ‘the big boys’ will enter a price war, he’s the kind of player that teams will back off of when they hear another bid has come in because he’s a bit of a risk.
How’s a risk when he’s a proven Premiership footballer? What has Gervinho done? Sessegnon is much more skillful that he is.
I personally think Sessegnon is too good for Arsenal, after all you’re not much at all. That was clear to see over the last two games.
I wonder which fans have the snobby attitude. You all believe its a given right for you to play champions league football and sign any player you like.
Trust me when I say that sessegnon would be your second best player behind van persie (if he decides to stay). He has also played much more than 10 world class games since his arrival.
If henderson is worth 20 million then sessegnon is worth 40.
Get in line you southern arrogant fairies!
Why do you use Henderson’s transfer to judge how the transfer market works?
Arsenal got £35m for Fabregas last year, do you reckon that Sessegnon is worth £5m more?
That’s like me saying Theirry Henry cost Arsenal £11.5m so Sessegnon should only cost £6-7m.
Yet Andy Carrol went for 35 after playing less games than sess in the premier league???? jordan henderson 19 million, sess is twice the player they are. And I dont see how its an embarrassment to say he wont leave for less than 18 million, if sunderland didnt want to sell him for less than that figure then he wont be sold for less than 18 million.
“he doesn’t share Gervinho’s ability to beat a man with ease” – Give your head a shake, if you really think that waste of space is better than sess then you really are deluded!
I agree that Sess is a better player then Henderson, but that doesn’t mean he’s worth double what Liverpool payed for him.
And yes, watch Gervinho play before you start judging, he’s great at creating space for himself and beating players – his main problem is that he has no final product.
Yep, a player with no final product is definitely better than sess. People with no end products who cost a lot of money and don’t play well in the premiership are usually the best type of players.
I hope we give Arsenal £100 and sess just so we can have gervinho in our team. We should pay him a stupid amount of wages also.
No embarrassment at all HC – Sessegnon is a class player – not just over 10 games but since he first signed for us you can see the quality and ability that he has. He is easily worth £18m and then some – personally I wouldn’t let him go for less than £25m. I’ve watched him develop in the EPL and from his first game he looked a great player – everyone is saying “Since Martin O’Neill took over” – he looked good before that – just the rest of the team didn’t – he looks better now that he is not carrying the side
These figures just seem to arbitrary. No big club would pay that for him.
Then no club WILL buy him. You get the point now eh?
Just because arsenal fancy a player, doesn’t mean they get him. Your no barcelona.
Then he’ll stay and that’s great. We didn’t say we’re Barcelona, but we just made you look like Scunthorpe. After seeing you over two games there’s not one Arsenal player that stood out. Van Persie might as well not have been on the pitch.
If anyone has embarrassed themselves it’s you. 10 games? Try all of this season and the last few games of last season.
With the possible exception of Silva and Bale, I believe he has been the most consistent and exciting attacking midfielder this season. Liverpool paid £20million for Henderson, Sessegnon is twice the player but I wouldn’t sell him for £40 million!
He would win my vote for player of the year if I was eligible to vote.
keep this up much longer and sunderland to the arse will be soon considered a backwards step. enjoy your thursday nights on channel 5 next season. up the spurs
So saying two of Sunderlands first team regulars would be bench warming squad players isn’t snobbish then?
Richardson would be – can you argue with that point? Sessegnon – I don’t know.
Sad to see gooners believing that Arsenal are still an elite clunb in the English game. Arsenal are sadly currently a club in decline with only limited prospects of any European football next season…but some fans clearly can’t see it. The days when top quality players would join Arsenal as squad players is over!
Arsenal are a very poor team now, and sess would go somewhere better if he were to leave, you arsenal fans live in the past, average at best
And stop trying to poach my best players, richardsons sat here now having a cuppa before coronation street and says he’d never choose arsenal…..
The arrogance of it all..you Gooners better wake up to the fact that Arsenal are finished as a top Club.. I mean, who would want to join the Arse once RVP, Walcott ,rosicky and possibly OX-C and your manager, the Arse himself, all up sticks in the summer and disappear..
the Damage was done imo around three years ago when changes to the backroom staff, recruitment of top players should have taken place…
Lets see the reaction after the next two games, Spuds a win for Spuds and Milan at the Emirates, a place I love going to by the way…
Time to move over boys.
John Shaft
This article is amazing. Sessegnon is a great player. He’s not perfect by any means and at almost twenty eight it will be interesting to see what sort of fees are anded about. To claim that Gervinho goes past players at ease and that Sessegnon doesn’t is laughable though. Anyone who has watched premier league football this year would agree that not only has sessegnon been far more effective than Gervinho, he is also more skillful and has a more electrifying burst of pace. Sessegnon simply doesn’t lose the ball;. People can’t tackle him, and he goes past people in his sleep. I’ve rarely seen a player on the premier league stage with such excuisite touch and skill. Question his final ball and his finishing if you are going to question anything, but if you claim that Gervinho is a better dribbler or can beat a man more easily is humiliating for you. Watch some games before writing an article you moron.
If he leaves SAFC it will be to join a CL team next season. That rules Arsenal out!!
What your never knowingly over paid therefore we rarely buy club has to accept is that your opinion of Sess is of no relevance whatsoever. What does matter is how much it will take to prise him away from our club. We are starting to play quite well now and get the measure of how to beat the top clubs. Sell our better players and that would soon change. Why would Richardson join you to be a bit player in a part time club such as Arsenal. Once a great club you now whinge like Wenger if you are not allowed to play your pretty football. Your players have lost their hunger to win while you quibble about what another teams players are worth. It is becoming laughable.
Incredible that Arsenal still act with so much snobbery, especially the week after another confirmed season of no silverware. While Richardson is most definately a step backwards, Sessegnon is a better central player than Arteta and a better wide player than Walcott. Arsenal will do well to keep up with Tottenham in the seasons to come…
Sessegnon is primarily an attacking midfielder, and a very good one at that. People are judging him as not worth these sums of money, however he cannot be judged as an ok striker who has scored a couple of goals, but as a great goalscoring midfielder.