arsenal sign alvarez according to palermo president

Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini claims Arsenal have beaten him to the signature of Ricardo Alvarez.

The Serie A outfit were hoping to pip the Gunners to the post and tempt the Velez Sarsfield midfielder to Italy.

Reports on Friday suggested they were still in that particular hunt, with no deal agreed for his transfer as yet.

Zamparini, though, has now conceded defeat in the race and revealed that the highly-rated 23-year-old is on his way to England.

"We did have a concrete bid for Alvarez and had him in our grasp back in January," he told Radio Kiss Kiss.

"Unfortunately, we didn't complete the move in time, so we lost him to Arsenal.

"At this moment he has already signed for the Gunners."

source: sky sports
link : http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_7003856,00.html

Replacement for Fabregas?

most likely

he'll only go for arsenal's price not barca's

Barca don't even need him to be honest.

i just hope he enjoys being a bench player.

Bitter maybe nando?

Derbyblue wrote:Bitter maybe nando?

nah just realistic

xavi iniesta mascherano busquets thiago keita afellay

unless he's willing to play DM he'll be on the bench

Mascherano would be ahead of him in the queue for defensive midfielder, and he's hardly played there this season.

there's only 2 ways cesc will play

1) xavi retires
2) iniesta goes lw and drop either villa or pedro which won't happen cos very influential front 3

The only way he plays is through a lot of injuries.

it looks as a bad move for him but if so desperate to go we can replace him with someone who wants to be at arsenal.

I don't think you can blame him for wanting to go back to Barcelona, but he's easily replaceable.

Two years ago I'd have been gutted for Cesc to leave. Now? meh

Not sure why they are so keen to "replace" him though. As long as we can hang on to Nasri and with Wilshere, Ramsey etc, the money from selling Cesc can be spent much more wisely than another "young, talented midfielder"

I know last season was his best but I can not understand why Arsenal fans want to see Cesc sold. If we are going to achieve anything we need to keep our best players and he is definitely one of them.

Yes he has said he wants to play for Barca someday, but until he formally puts in a transfer request then as far as I am concerned then he is happy to continue at the Emirates.

Being linked to Gervinho and Alvarez is exciting news and with the likes of RVP, Nasri, AA to name a few our creative and goalscoring players now needs to be complemented by some defensive reinforcements and Arsenal could be a serious contender for all trophies next season. However, by selling Fab will have a negative response as Wenger is not known for buying big name players and I think the team as well as the fans would need someone t give everyone a lift. Arsenal has sold their big name players in the past, but as we have not replace them with players of similar standing the team has deteriorated.

Davie wrote:Not sure why they are so keen to "replace" him though. As long as we can hang on to Nasri and with Wilshere, Ramsey etc, the money from selling Cesc can be spent much more wisely than another "young, talented midfielder"

The reason most say you have to "replace" him is the guys your captain, so you need someone who can take over that role within the side, also since (and including) the 2004-2005 season he has made over 30 appearances in all competitions for Arsenal and so you need a player who has the ability to step up and take his place in the starting 11, on top of this since (and including) the 2006-2007 season he has provided over 15 assists in all competitions, or in other words he sets up as many or more goals in a year as Samir Nasri has done in his whole career at Arsenal, last year Fabregas set up almost 20% of Arsenals Premier League goals. So if Arsenal finally decide to sell him then they need to find a new captain, a player who can get into the first team consistently and make 30+ appearances a year, and you need someone who can take over his role in setting up goals. In my opinion that's a big hole to fill.

Jack Wilshere?

vermaelen or van persie will become captain personally i always felt that cesc was given it to stop him leaving.

there's a lot of creative midfielders around the world could fill his place so it's not really a problem , nasri became more effective through the middle and started scoring goals from it.

alvarez and gervinho look an exciting pair who could bring something to arsenal.

so it'll be interesting to see what lies ahead

Davie wrote:Jack Wilshere?

He made 35 appearances in the Premier League last season, so unless they've cloned him he can't take over Fabregas' role and keep his own position in the team.

He will be a big loss, and personally I think this is the same hot air that was being blown about last year, but I would be interested to see a team with this midfield

Song
Wiltshire
Nasri
Walcott/Arshavin
New Winger
Vpersie