I recently read, in the Metro, that Barcelona are ready to sell playmaker Ibrahim Afellay and will apparently accept offers in the region of £6 million this summer! Now I don’t know about you guys but this is a deal Arsene Wenger must pursue and seal this summer.
The 26-year-old joined Barca from PSV in January 2011 for £2.3 million, but the midfield maestro has struggled for game time at the Camp Nou since, featuring just the five times last season for the Catalan club following a chronic knee injury which ruled him out for approximately seven months.
Despite this though, Arsenal should seriously consider the prospect of signing Afellay.
Barcelona will be desperate to sell the Dutchman in order to raise extra transfer funds this summer, and the Gunners could certainly do with a creative midfielder after losing both Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri last year.
I still firmly believe that this issue has not been dealt with by our club, despite Alex Song’s assist rate last season. We still lack someone in the middle of the park that can turn a game on its head and produce some magic when needed. Afellay is this type of player and our club would be foolish to look elsewhere.
We shouldn’t have a problem with the financial aspects of this deal, as he pockets around £80,000-a-week at Barca, which we could easily match, especially if we offload some deadwood. In addition, £6 million in transfer fees isn’t a lot to part with either; in fact, it’s a bargain price for a player of Afellay’s quality.
The potential signing of Afellay could also persuade Robin van Persie to commit his future to us, as they are very good friends, so Wenger should do all he can to acquire the former PSV man, especially if Barca are only asking for £6 million!
Tottenham, Liverpool and Newcastle are all believed to be interested in signing Afellay, but with the only team out of the bunch offering Champions League football, we should easily fend off the abovementioned clubs for his signature this summer.
Visit and Join our Facebook page, click HERE to do so.
Gunnersphere is currently looking for new writers to join the squad. Contact via twitter or at Gunnersphere@snack-media.com for further details.
Is he better than ramsey, song, arteta, or aron? If no and if he only play a limited matches for barca last season, spent 7 months on d treatment room and at £80,000 per week, then we dont need him. What we need is qualities and not liabilities
Rvp has only played 20 games in a season twice in his whole arsenal career due too injury and hes a different style of player to our midfielders hes more of a classy playmaker like kaka type he cn produce moments of magic nt sayin wilshere or arteta or song aint world class bt afellay is more of a goal threat i yhink in our whole midfield arteta or ox is dangerous outside the box for shooting
Sorry hes only played more than 20 games in a season twice
We talk the talk and Wenger do the walking, i can’t remember the last time Wenger brought a player of our dream! We chanted abt Babel,Joe cole,ashley young,cahill,samba,ribary,benzema the list is endless bt we signed no one, so let’s wait n see! Sometime we feel betrayed by Wenger arrogant bt history proves him right. Every player we buy him expensive they become a flop or headache.. Let us keep faith.
The best thing Wenger can do for me this summer is to sell Abou Diaby. I never saw the best of him and i don’t expect to see one either. Let off load liabilities in team & bring potential replacement if possible. I knw it’s hard for Arsenal to sign more established players coz what other teams offers is irresistable unless the player has Arsenal interest at heart. For Arsenal to attract interest frm good players, they need to review their payroll. I don’t expect RVP to sign a new deal when he knows how much Man City are willing to offer. RVP is now 28yrs old,he is running against time,he need titles n a good payslip b4 he hangs his boot. To be honest i worried abt Arsenal’s future if they can’t change the so called Wenger phylosophy. We will remain shopping center for the rich clubs & struggle to survive not to win silverware. All in all we have a good manager we can’t afford to lose.
Affeley’s injury problem can be a hinderance,but I think we need someone dt can play both MF & wings-dempsey.We got a lot of passers already- wilshere,arterta,song & maybe m’vila.A winger & GIROUD,will do just fine.
sign him marvin martin, van der wiel, thn mvilla and dempsey or giroud sell chamack, arshavin, vela, denilson, fabianski, bendtner and park if we dnt have im in our plans.
Loan out, ramsay, miyachi, giv ox i knw pll will disagree bt a short loan to gt continuos game time as wenger wnt giv it him too gather more experience like we did with wilshere before putin him in first team on a regular basis and frimpong and yennaris all loan out and if we can sign green or gordon as no.2 for scezny
I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Diaby will be the surprise player for Arsenal next season. It unlike Rosicky was this year. Add in Affelay, Dempsey, and Podolski and we’ll have the depth we need to challenge in 4 competitions. Of course M’villa or De Jong would also be great additions and help with our depth. I’m worried that Wilshire is going to struggle to live up to expectations, but I’m looking forward to his season next year, along with the Ox. Maybe, just maybe Gibbs/Santos will provide acceptable cover on the left, but I’m very concerned about our lack of depth on the right now that Sagna has broken his leg twice in one season.
Uh, I was trying to say about Diaby, that I hope he will be a surprise player NOT unlike Rosicky was this year, but the word got mangled by iPad autocorrect.
I like this transfer becouse this player is good
we need quality players..afellay is one…xo wenger what are yoi waiting for??…snap up this guy..diaby to suprise you all next season..
we dont need these Affellay