News broke yesterday that the highly-rated Costa Rican starlet Joel Campbell, who was set to complete his transfer to Arsenal following a medical, has pulled out of the transfer albeit temporarily.
There are rumours that the deal has been hijacked by one of the Manchester clubs. Both of them have been mentioned as having placed counter bids for Campbell following the impending transfer being made public.
The actions of Campbell are becoming a familiar and disturbing trend for Arsenal.
In this transfer window alone, Arsenal has been rejected by Phil Jones, amusingly by Sebastian Larsson, and also by Chris Smalling last year. The lure of Arsenal has always been there for young players. They know that they will get a chance to develop their game at the Emirates, and in Arsene Wenger they have a manager who is really sold out to the idea of inculcating the clubs value and evolving playing pattern to players from a young age. Perhaps there is no manager in the Premier League who has given as many opportunities for playing at the highest echelon of the English game as the Frenchman.
The stealth and predatory kind of transfer activity that Man City and Man United have recently resorted to another indication of the cutthroat practices that is prevalent in football.
Man City in particular are trying to win not only by buying quality players at prices others cannot afford, but they are also trying to strangle the opposition by enticing away talented young players that ethical clubs like Arsenal have spent quality time in scouting.
The bottom line of these actions is simply to deny the opposition the services of these players rather than any real need for them at City or any interest in the stellar development of the player’s career.
It is one thing for established stars to desire the outrageous wages that City are offering – after all the career of a footballer is relatively short – but it becomes quite disturbing when starlets just starting their profession start looking for money above the development of their game. For without a shadow of a doubt, clubs that try to buy success are the graveyard of young players’ vocations.
If Campbell wants to have a career that his talents deserve, then he will choose wisely and join Arsenal. But, if he allowed the attractions of filthy lucre to overcome him, then the young Costa Rican youth star will soon be mentioned in the same breath as Gael Kakuta.
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I wouldn’t call it a ¨trend¨, rather more a few potholes on the road to eventual stability for the Club. In actual fact these so-called refusals are hijackings. Clubs that don’t have a great scouting system ride the Arsenal’s coattails in order to kidnap such prospects as Campbell and Alvarez from under Arsenal’s noses with big money deals we can’t or won’t offer. This is a trend only in the sense that players are becoming more mercenary and disrespectful of verbal agreements thanks to their agents’ greed and unethical pressure.
theproblem is,clubs have been hijacking arsenal targets since 1998,when clubs like man utd and chelsea, saw arsenal get players like vieria and anelka, they started chaseing anyone that wenger was interested in.
this assuming that wenger actually was after these players?campbell i think maybe is true, but alvarez was never on arsenals radar,but used but agents to force the clubs who really want him to cough up more money.
arsenal used the same tactic by saying madrid wanted cesc(well not arsenal them selfs but some one who filters thier gossip to the press)
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So then what about Jon Toral, Hector Bellerin, and Carl Jankinson? And why does everyone make it such a big deal that Smalling chose United over Arsenal, if anything it just evened the score as Ramsey chose Arsenal over United.
I think toral and bellerin were kept under wraps pretty well. In that case it wasn’t in barca’s interest to let the transfer become public early on because they wanted to keep the players.
Jenkinsen could have joined other clubs but chose arsenal because he is a fan.
Good article and you raise some pertinent points. I also concur with the comments of Domhuaille MacMathghamhna. If clubs such as Man City are indeed signing players with the sole intention of sabotaging and disadvantaging other less well off clubs then football has sunk to a new low. Our great club will unfortunately always suffer because our tradition dictates that we have to adhere to certain standards, it is a pity others do not share the same principals.
People are disillusioned by the goings on at Arsenal!Wenger and co must know that perceptions matter alot! Trying to keep disgruntled players and taking forever to clinch straight forward deals is eroding Arsenals credibility in the eyes of many!!Wenger should exhibit more steel in his dealings-including with the players!He should also restore confidence by allowing Cesc n Nasri to leave and replace them with better players!Making them look indispensable will result in discord/disharmony in the entire squad.
To stop all dis hijjacking saga, wenger should not be delaying in buying player