Arsenal sign da Silva

Eduardo da Silva has signed for ArsenalCroatian international da Silva joins Arsenal

The Arsenal Football Club has confirmed that the club will be signing Brazilian-born Croatian international Eduardo da Silva for an undisclosed fee. The 24-year-old Dinamo Zagreb striker will join Arsenal on a four-year deal, subject to a medical. Hooray! And he seems happy too!

“I am excited and happy in the same time, [and] also very proud that I am going to play in such a big club. I want to progress in my career, but it is be hard to leave Dinamo Zagreb after eight years. I will miss the club, the guys…I will be back one day, but now I want to accept a new challenge.”

True to Arsene Wenger’s form – in comes a real wild card. His ratio of seven goals in twelve games for the Croatian national team and 71 goals in 100 games for Dinamo Zagreb is exceptional and from this video he looks like a lightning-quick forward with a real eye for goal. He also scored the first competitive goal at Emirates Stadium and a fine headed goal in Croatia’s 2-0 win over England earlier this year. Personally, I think he’ll compliment the likes of Emmanuel Adebayor and Robin van Persie quite well. You can read all about da Silva here and if you feel like getting really excited you can also check this article out.

Arsenal fans have good reason to be excited about da SilvaThe best Croatian going around 

I have to say that I am mighty relieved that Wenger has made a signing. And like regular reader Samuel said, “At least it’s not Anelka.” According to Gooner4Ever – a Croatian Arsenal supporter and another reader of this blog – ‘Dudu’ is the best Croatian going around and a real team player as well. Good stuff. It might not be a player that we expected but it will surely give Arsenal supporters something interesting to talk about.

Although a claim from Dinamo Zagreb president Mirko Barisic suggests that Arsenal have spent the entire sum of money they got for Thierry Henry’s transfer to Barcelona to purchase da Silva – €24 million – more reliable sources say the fee is around £8million.

At this stage it probably wouldn’t be wise to believe anything that has been published in the media until Arsenal themselves disclose a fee. For now, just enjoy the fun.

I’m excited! What do you think?

Have your say on Arsenal’s new signing Eduardo da Silva by leaving a comment.

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Comments

  1. Pingback: Anonymous
  2. He’s the real deal to replace Henry. The guy has scored 34 goals in 32 games. He probably cost about 5+ and AW might have watched him for about 2 years. He’s going to set the EPL ablaze. Two more signings will be coming; a left-winger, probably from Mexico and an English defender.ARSENE KNOWS.Watch this space.

  3. SF

    Lot’s of comments on BBC Sports 606 by croation gunners and non-gunners alike, all positive. Look the guy also has 7 goals out of 12 appearances in international matches and scored a header against England in the midst of Terry and Ferdinand, so in a way that tells you the guy can succeed in the EPL. He scored against Arsenal when Dynamo Zagreb played against us in the CL. He will settle easily ‘cos of Captain Gilberto and Denilson. I’m happy too, more is coming. Don’t take serious the negatives that will be coming from fans who’re interested in big signings only. Big signings are not AW’s way of doing things. ARSENE KNOWS.

  4. Interesting, Harlan. Very interesting. I think we always knew that when the signing arrived it wouldn’t be who we expected. But I am just amazed how quiet Wenger and Co. kept this transfer. To avoid any speculation and then *bam* sign the player is typical Wenger and Arsenal. I absolutely love it.

  5. Dudu is the best Croatian player ATM. He can score goals, which is very important. He scores for Croatia and Dinamo regularly.
    Also, hes good team player.

    But honestly, i never thought that he will sign for such a big club like Arsenal. I always thought that it will be club like Ajax,PSC,Werder …

    I’m very skeptic about this signing, i don’t think he’s good enough for Arsenal, but maybe I’m wrong…

    And I’m from Croatia (Zagreb) , i have watched almost every Dinamo Zagreb match this season.

    But, Wenger knows better than me….

  6. Great stuff – really encouraging signing. I’ll be the first to admit I know little about the guy bar his stats, but they are impressive in themselves, no matter what the league.

    When up against Champions League opposition (us) and international opposition, he also steps up.

    Very encouraging, it’s like a breath of fresh air to be able to look forward to seeing what someone’s like.

    One question – how does Wenger do it? With all the press hankering after who he’ll sign, how on earth did he keep it quiet?

  7. Are you really from Croatia Gooner4ever? That’s absolutely amazing! And there was no talk of this over there?

    What are his strengths/weaknesses? Why don’t you think he’s good enough for Arsenal? Are you also a Zagreb supporter?

  8. And Pete, I think you’re right – this signing is very encouraging. The flexibility that Adebayor, van Persie and now da Silva have would ensure a unique front pairing for almost any situation.

  9. I am VERY SKEPTICAL. I am not sure this guy is going to give us the finishing power we need in the EPL. I would have much rather seen us sign Huntelaar and Babel. This guy has some skills, I just do not see them transfering to the EPL all that well, but we will see.

  10. Josh – I think that’s fair enough. Any replacement for Thierry Henry would be greeted with a level of scepticism and the fact we’ve signed a virtual unknown (outside Croatia) means that there will be a fair amount of it. However, da Silva seems a real goal poacher so I think he’ll get goals no matter which league he plays in so I think there is much to be excited about.

  11. Sky Sports reports that the fee is 16 million pounds. The full fee for Henry. I just don’t see this as a super, super class signing that Wenger was talking about. I think he will be decent, I am just wondering if he will be enough to keep us in the top 4 with everyone else getting better by the day.

  12. Whereabouts on SkySports does it claim that the fee is 16 million? It only says “undisclosed fee” where I’m looking. I think most estimates are around 6 million, rather than 16 million.

  13. The fee is not 16+, know that AW won’t pay that much for a player untried in the EPL however good. The fee is actually 6+. Sky Sports picked the figure from UEFA.COM which quoted the President of Dinamo Zagreb as saying that the fee is coming from Henry’s fees. It didn’t mean that the fee was the same.

  14. The more I read the better he sounds. I think he will be pretty good. Still want Huntelaar though.

  15. Yes, I’m trying to determine the fee from somewhere as quickly as possible. I highly doubt it would be £16.25million but Barisic is quite clear in saying that he believed Arsenal have spent €24million from Henry’s transfer on da Silva. On one hand, it is a bit worrying but on the other, we do have money to spend.

  16. I got a mention, yay for me.

    If it is 16million, it will be like every other transfer, 6 million straight, 3million if he scores x goals, 3 million if he starts x games, 2million if he pleasures pat rice and 2million if he knows any circus tricks.

    I am excited. A Brazilian! Who scores! And is over 20! Scores in big games! Kinda proven internationally, but not so much that chelsea bought him instead! Young enough to fit with everyone else!

    Of all of the media and of all of the speculation, NOONE said his name, even thought about him existing outside of Zagreb. Wenger fucking knows and we are all wearing blindfolds even though the lights weren’t on in the first place. Fucking hell I still want the man to say something though.

    Come on next fucking season, I knew my optimism wasn’t that deluded. Top three here we come.

  17. I know, it’s so interesting that this slipped through the media. Imagine if it’d got out and inflated his price. As for the price, SkySports corrected their article – saying there was an incorrect translation with Barisic and mentioning and £8million figure. Sounds reasonable to me.

  18. That sounds much better. Now just sell Reyes for 9 and we will have made money.

  19. Speaking of Reyes, do you think he might take his that spot of a winger/forward? That is kind of what I saw on Youtube, but I have no idea.

  20. Very true. Reyes is easily worth £9million if this guy is worth £8million. Arsenal just need to play Atletico and Real Madrid off against each other to try and work a better deal.

  21. I think da Silva will be a real out-and-out forward. I doubt he will play much on the wing. We’ll have to wait and see though.

  22. Spanish Fry

    Yes I’m really from Croatia. No, I’m not Dinamo supporter. I’m only Arsenal supp. since 1998.
    You must imagine how it was when my school mates asked me who will i support when we played against Dinamo… 🙁 Good think we won that time, lol

    I don’t have much time but…

    In Croatia, he’s superstar. He scores goals, he’s great team player. Also, he’s nothing like RvN or Pippo like many people are saying.
    Also, he has many assist.

    But why am I skeptic?

    Because it’s Croatian league. And honestly, it sucks! If you dad has alot of money, you can easily play in first divison. Dinamo is the only club who has SOME players who capable playing in Europe.You can imagine how hard is to score a goal out there…
    Every Croatian national player is playing
    abroad. Only this year, 3 players from Dinamo were included in natinal team, including Eduardo, Modrić, and Čorluka. Modrić is even beter player, he will be great player, remember my words.

    IMO this signing is a gamble, he could be great but also it could be mistake.
    IMO it’s like signing good player who can deliver, but you know he will never be “the special one”.

    Well see…

  23. SF-I don’t think he’ll play as the leading striker, just off-the-striker, like Rooney’s role at MANU, he’s left-footed and can really spread the game to the left. Judging from YouTube clips, he often drifts to the left like TH14 and can add an additional width to our games. Once again another good signing by AW. AW might have watched him for at least two years; he seems to do well in the big games. Check Arsenal/Dinamo Zagreb and England/Croatia. Trust AW, he knows what we don’t know.

  24. “I don’t think he’ll play as the leading striker, just off-the-striker, like Rooney’s role at MANU”

    Harlan, as most assume Van Persie to play a lot more like Bergkamp, Ade not being an out and out striker, I don’t think this will happen. VP and Ade will play off him. Unless he also drops back and with two attacking wingers we will play like Barca with 4 kinda forwards.

    A couple things I have been thinking about:
    With England having a large Eastern European contingent now, will this bag us a load more supporters (revenue)?
    Is the only reason people are frightened because he seems to be here as the new forward after Henry? Have people not learned, Wenger has never replaced like-for-like, he takes the team in new cheaper directions that for the most have worked. Yes there have been failures, but until he kicks a ball we only know stats showing him to a success.

  25. As it is then:
    Lehmann (Fabianski)
    Eboue (Hoyte), Toure (Djorou), Gallas (Senderos), Clichy (Hoyte/Traore/Gallas)
    Hleb (Walcott), Fabregas (Diaby), Gilberto (Denilson), Rosicky (Ljungberg)
    Van Persie (Ade), de Silva (Bendtner).

    We have the Swedish cpatain and the Brazilian under-21 captain on the bench! We have the Brazilian captain! One of the two most exciting youngster in Cesc in the world! We have the highest scoring player in Europe last season! “The new Van Basten”!

    I’m so excited. Why would Wenger leave this for a team that fires people for being successful?

  26. The problem is that even with what you say, we still underachieved, and lost Henry. I still think we have a lot of work to do to compete for the EPL title. Could use some help at the back and I would like to see Huntelaar and Babel still. I think those guys would be absloutely unbelieveable at Arsenal.

  27. SF-I agree with you all, we’ll not know AW’s plan for him. He is building a new team after TH14. He possibly has his designs of what the new team should look like. He has identified the shortfalls and is looking for the players to fit into that plan. I suspect he may not sign another striker but choose to rely on Ade, RVP, Nik and now Silva. He will still keep Theo on the right and might just keep Freddie in too to suport either LM or RM. He’s now left to shop for a LM and a CB who can correct Sendy’s inherent weaknesses. Then we’ll be ready for he coming season. The so-called pundits, Drogba and Spurs fans and Arsenal bashers will be burning their fingers very soon. According to FIFA news, the fee for Eduardo is 8.8+ Euros.

  28. 8.8mill euros? that’s like 5 million isn’t it? Bargain, that’s just from what birmingham have given us so far.
    I think Senderos’ weaknesses only really become apparent against the likes of Drogba and when we was played out of position last season. Against like 15 teams in the league, he would be perfectly fine and you have to remember that that is good enough for our fourth choice.

  29. I am just wondering if we are going to be able to put it in the net at the clip we need to finish high in the EPL and CL.

  30. Josh-We’re not only going to finish high but aiming at the title once more. AW knows that is the only way supporters will be satisfied. He said he would be thinking about next season all summer. I believe he’s spent all his holidays to review plans and redrafting of same over and over again until he gets it right. Next season is going to be a big, big year for Arsenal. You’ll be surprised how a lot of players will be lifting their game.

  31. Harlan I hope you are right. I will come across the ocean and buy pints for all if this works out. I really hope so. Just getting a little nervous, but then again AW knows.

  32. I am croatian and I am very sad today becouse Dudu is leaving Dinamo.He is outstanding player ,you will see that.Arsenal has made a good deal.I am sure that many croatians will support Arsenal now.I am also happy that he has signed for a great club such as Arsenal.Congratulations

  33. I just want to add that Eduardo has signed a new contract with Dinamo few months ago (10 years contract).Maybe its the reason for a great fee.

  34. spanish fry

    i told u, unknown player, we discussed this earlier…

    well its eduardo da silva, this guy will be a legend, he reminds me of adriano a bit…

    but i told u

    andreas guardaro, bakari sagna and renato augusto

    we can get javier saviola on free, beef up the attact and we spend less then £25 m

  35. For me I heard about this player, and his stats are really impresing, he scored 34 goals in 32 matches with his “ex”club. But the thing is that he was in the croatian championship which is less hard and physical then the english championship. So my point of view is that I think that he will score less goals!! (although I hope that I dead wrong). Maybe he will be more useful in some other areas.
    Above all I think that its a big hit from arsenal because we bought someone who is rather unknown and might be a very good aset to the team.

  36. Floxis-AW knows better and I trust his decisions. Silva has also scored 7 out of 12 internationals. He has scored against England and Italy; no easy defences. He scored 3 goals against Israel. The guy must be good for AW to sign him. He’ll be in a better team that will feed him with good balls to score. Let’s just pray for success.

  37. The English league is also a lot faster and stronger than the Dutch one and Van Nistelrooy had no problem taking a step up. We’ll only know once he’s played 10/15 games.

  38. Nice thoughts guys. I’d just like to say that this is the 50th comment on the blog today and that is a massive achievement, if I do say so myself. There will be more to come about the transfer and to the Croatians out there (Gooner4Ever, Franjo etc) keep us informed about Eduardo.

  39. Spanish Fry – its great to see you blog elucidating so much debate!

    Anyway, two silva’s in one team? Man, that will be confusing! 🙂

  40. You know it Darragh. It was a late night last night trying to keep up with the news. I was writing a post about how absolutely nothing was going on and then *bam*, we have a new signing. What do you make of it?

  41. What more can you say, hes a goal poacher who appears to make runs, decent link up play and high levels of aggression. Thats pretty much all we can get from youtube without streching the truth.

    Wonder if we are interested in Mordic and thats the reason for the price descrepancy ?

  42. I’m from Croatia,and I just won’t to tell something,remember my words:this guy will be a legend!I will miss that boy,but I’m very happy because he deserved this,our league is less hard than championship and i think that in arsenal he will have more chances to improve himself!Go Dudu,Croatia is with you!

  43. i only hope silva will bring back our happiness,and smiles every time we watch him entering the emirates.otherwise, the gap that henry left in ma heart will be hard to fulfill.lets pray that its the same wenger eye that spoted henry that has got him.we need some other big signings,god help us.

  44. Dudu, will that be the name on shirt?
    He is very humble and honest person with great charisma, i think he will give all, to the last breath to succeed in EPL becouse life made him that way. That is something on what can Arsenal fan rely.

    Yes, he is fox in the box (not like Fran :)), but he assists as well.

    If he gets regular first team chance i see him with maybe 15 goals in first season.

    There’s one better player in Dinamo Zagreb than Dudu – his name is Modric and he is “quicksilver” middlefielder, never standing on both feet at the same moment. Arsenal would be perfect for him… AW hurry up! He is best player in Croatian squad, 90% of fans would agree with this…

    I’m from Croatia…

  45. Who does Arsene Wenger need to bring in after Eduardo”Matador”Silva to make Arsenal genuine title contenders?

  46. BREAKING NEWS!
    Arsenal to announce the signing of Bakary Sagna and Martins tomorrow

  47. Arsenal still to announce the signing of Bakary Sagna and Obafemi Martins

  48. I still trust Arsenal Wenger!
    There is no chance of Chelsea,Spurs or anyone else like that doing better than Arsenal just because they’re spending more money.
    ”Arsenal is Arsenal”.

  49. Aresenal will forever be in my heart no matter what the case may be. the departure of thierry henry, i think will never be felt due to the signing of da silva, on what we have heard about him in the croatian league, and i think arsenal would be able to end up this season as the league champion.

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