Today I’ve interviewed life-long Ajax and Arsenal supporter ‘goonerchris’ to bring you some information on the mystery man that is Thomas Vermaelen. Enjoy.
* * *
First, tell us a little bit about yourself and your knowledge of Vermaelan.
I’m Australian but have a Dutch heritage. I’ve watched Ajax my whole life because of my family but I am also a Gooner and have been for 15 years. I still regularly watch Ajax matches on TV and have seen quite a bit of Vermaelen over the past few years.
So let’s start with his all-important height. Rumours are that he’s 5’11 but I’ve read elsewhere that he’s as tall as 6’2. Your thoughts?
His official stats say 180cm or 6′0. I don’t think immense height is a necessary quality in a centre half. I think as long as you can read the play and be in the right position and are willing to put your head and body where it needs to be that is more important.
How does he like to play? Is he a bit of a hard nut like Nemanja Vidic or more similar to what we already have?
There have been Vidic references before and I feel they are some what accurate. He definitely likes to tackle hard to get in the strikers face and let them know he is around. I remember him getting in Van Persie’s face a while ago when we played them. My opinion is he is far more physical than the defenders we have currently. He can also be used in a defensive midfield role and usually chips in with a handful of goals each season.
Vermaelen is only 23 but is the captain of Ajax. Obviously he’s something of a leader?
He always seems to be talking. He directs the play a lot from the back and he seems to have the respect of his team mates.
What’s his injury record like? Have we got another Tomas Rosicky on our hands?
I have not known him to have any major problems in the past. I don’t think this will be a problem.
If he joins do you think Vermaelen would be ready to slot straight into the first team? Does it spell the end for William Gallas or Kolo Toure?
I think he will fit in nicely. I think Gallas or Toure (more likely Toure) will be going regardless of whether or not we get Vermaelen. I think Toure will probably go to Man City with Richards coming our way in the deal. Toure has been a great player for the club but with his contract up next year and his age I feel Wenger might feel the time is right to let him go.
* * *
So there we go. Thanks to ‘goonerchris’ for the info. Now we’ll just have to wait and see whether he joins or not.
Have your say on Thomas Vermaelen by leaving a comment.
This is a hard one to me he seems to be a gr8 buy (if it happenes) but i really wouldnt want KOLO to leave only because if he goes than we have no chance of gettin YAYA as he has said playin along side his brother would be a dream and if he goes than so does our chance of landin YAYA but thats the only reason why i wouldnt want KOLO to leave his best playin days are behind him but he has given so much to the club and still plays hard if we could keep him even as a back up ill be happy!
Cheers AZ fan.
Alistair fan- Thanks for your comments. Although they’re not likely to make our fans thrilled about the likely signing, it is good to have realistic opinions.
Any news from Holland on the likelihood that Vermaelen will sign?
Anthony, as I said before, there are idiots in all walks of life, so it is very likely that there are also idiots on a Ajax forum.
Well that wasnt nice. if that game is anything to go by then we shouldnt sign him.
… not for €13m anyway.
any of u true arsenal fans his shit abd loook at the players we used 2 have wtight adams camell henry virea nd this ajax man is nt up 2 dat ldve
I’m shocked by gunners fans regarding KING KOLO. Who wouldnt play badly having silvestre as a partner?and having denilson as a defensive mid. Toure tries TOO HARD because he knws teamates are not as strong so tries to cover too many players and leaves himself exposed.
Toure has got to stay, in order to convince his brother to join him!
Denilson has been the dogs this season. Toure has been pants.
So has Walcott apparently. Maybe we should just sell everyone and start again.
Toure has not been pants (maybe a bit over the top on my part) but he has not been better than Gallas and is the sole reason for us looking for a center back.
Gallas marshalled Toure since he came back from having the armband taken off and they hit it off for a while, but as soon s Gallas got injured against Villareal, it all went to pot and Toure was a large part of our collapse.
I love the guy, I honestly do, but he is not up to scratch.
As for Walcott, he has been pretty average because he is pretty average on the wing. I am not sure if he would be that much better up front, but he is only 20 – a work in progress who is likely to be World Class – so I accept that he has to improve.
Toure is a 28 year old veteran who has been below-par for the past three seasons.
And Gibbs, did you actually watch it? I am 20 minutes in and he has been fantastic, not put a foot wrong, showing leadership, organisation and calms the keeper down when they conceded a penalty.
But they are going to concede six goals at some point so I will have to wait and see.
Good to hear this other one. We are still looking forward to hear event more than this. I think we need to help oldman Wenger as to who to go, who to come and who to stay. Arsenal has been a very happy team in the pass but few seasons ago it has been bitter with us the fans.
All we want is atleast victory in next season.
We welcome Thomas Vermaelen at Emmirate stadium. hope to see him preventing stikers from pricking into the GOONERS defend next season.
I think the AJAX fans saying they will not miss him and he is not a key part of the team is just a natural reaction to a player leaving your club… How can they honestly say he is not key to their team… he is the Captain FFS.
Re: Yaya Toure – his agent has said quite clearly that Arsenal do not have the money to have him. He’ll go somewhere else if he does leave Barca. He would be perfect though. Absolutely perfect.
@ goonerchris – Thanks again for the interview mate, you’re a gem!
It will be great if Richards come to Arsenal BUT NOT for Kolo.
He is better that Gallas and he loves the club, Gallas create many problems in his short stay at Arsenal.
If someone have to leave the team that is Gallas.
It will be so sad if ManCity reunite the Toure brothers and not Arsenal.
Richards had a pretty ordinary season for City though…I’m not sure if he is the best replacement!
[...] good’ point to a very likely signing. For further detailed information on Vermaelen check out this interview with a life-long Ajax [...]
Well… if micah richards and vermaelen is to be our first team CB pair, then I might think that it is a rather risky business. One is a newcomer, the other has only a few years of experience playing for an average team.
I reckon that if kolo does go, arsene must keep gallas. One of them has to be around.
However if gallas goes and kolo stays, then our chance of getting richards would be almost zero. But it is alright as we still have djourou. I reckon that wenger would not stop at buying just one defender, he will buy at least 2, given that he had seen enough of silvestre and knows that he had made a bad call by recruiting silvestre.
I really would like to see zapata coming to arsenal. With richards/zapata, vermaelen, we would have 2 young CB that can probably last us for at least 4-6 seasons. With Djourou fighting for a place, and the emergence of the reserves Gavin hoyte and Nordveit, I have no doubt that we will be strong.
The position which I would like to see some progress is that of the defensive midfielder. Do we need 1 or 2? What if the DM is injured and we are left with denilson, song and the useless diaby. Yaya toure is a good buy. I seriously hope that wenger would be able to tie him down. Give him a weekly wage of around 50K and that should do it. Given his brotherly ties with kolo, I think that would be enough to persuade him to join us. This means that kolo must not leave the club, which means we would not be able to get richards.
Regarding the strikeforce, I dont think we would get dzeko and adebayor most probably would still be around next season, now that milan and ancelotti (chelsea) are no longer showing interest. But if adebayor is really to leave us, then I think wenger would not buy any strikers as he would probably play arshavin up front and relieve him of his LM role, which nasri/rosicky should fight for it.
Therefore, hopefully I see us getting Vermaelen, Richards/Zapata, Yaya toure, Blaise Matuidi/Stephan Mbia. 4 players coming in should be enough for us.
Please sell away diaby, kolo/gallas, adebayor, senderos and silvestre.
I don’t see us signing a DM because Denilson is better than pretty muich any realistically available option. And we won’t get Richards.
There are reports that Gallas would be the one to go – hell no!
I sense alot of unneeded negativaty from our fans on this forum. Anyone who thinks Gallas shouldn’t be at Arsenal – you shouldn’t be an Arsenal fan. If you always nit pick for people’s faults, you’ll never look at anything or anyone in a positive light because your old habits die hard. Last season Gallas cried at the final whistle in Birmingham for 3 main reasons – We lost Eduardo, We lost a stupid penalty that never was, and We lost 2 points…considering we only trailed Man Utd by 4 points last year – that was a MASSIVE 2 points. The guy tries to show some passion and let off some frustration HIS WAY, and people take digs at him? WTF?! We have a guy here desparate to win things because he’s used to it, and when he doesnt, we pisstake him?! please people…
And yes, while he was captain earlier on this year, he spoke out against some players and the way we did certain things. I can guarantee you that we would have finished behind Aston Villa if he didn’t give the team THAT kick up the backside. It’s pretty much what kick-started our season. The opportunity cost to him was that he lost the armband for it. He remained, ofcourse, world-class. Portsmouth home, Spurs home, Man Utd home, Hull home (FA Cup QF), as well as in Europe and plenty of other games he played in. After he got injured against Villarreal – our season ended there and then in my opinion. We ship in FOUR away at Liverpool, FOUR at home to Chelsea, THREE at home to Man Utd, lose the FA Cup semi..etc. etc. You all know this….but he’s still not good enough. Right? Please wake up boys. The last thing we need is another world-class player of his calibre who we should be privalaged to have instead of scum like Ashley Cole leaving aswell. I’m praying he’ll be back for pre-season, and will be a certain started. He IS that good. I’ll repeat it – he is as good at CB as Denilson is in CM.
As for Vermaelen – Arsene/Arsenal.com haven’t said anything yet, so until then, he has nothing to do with Arsenal FC. Apparently Robin has said that he was quite tough to play against, so if someone as technically amazing as him had problems against Vermaelen, the boys got to be good. Heck, anyone who we realistically want to sign has to be world-class. Why? because we never buy anyone anyways, so the small additions we make have to be of the extreme highest quality available, viz. Andrey Arshavin. And also, they’ll be looking to gel into a world-class team with a world-class manager. So no Titus Bramble wannabes please.
Also, have we got an opinion on Vermaelen from a genuine Ajaz fan on here? Or just Feyenoord and AZ fans? Because lets face it – I wouldn’t exactly big up Rio Ferdinand, Jamie Carragher or John Terry either…
Z.
for my opinion I think that buying new players at arsenal will bring a new vision for the rest of the team and for the coach of arsenal I think that he make a good choice of buying a new defender because in that sector Arsenal is very poor I think that an another defencive midfield has to be in arsenal squad and I hope that the manager will bring an experience player that time because the the previous seasion he had zon the leagues in exprience players in midfield and at the back I hope that this point will be noted thanks
Thank you Z, anyone whos says we should get rid of Gallas is nutty. Vermin comes then King kolo should be benched the only problem is that Vermin and Gallas both play on the left side of defence, so we will have to see how that works out.
Wenger isnt going to be a central midfielder. NOT A CHANCE.
He said it himself we scored as much as the champions but conceeded more, so for him thats a pure backline issue. As such we are constantly linked with defenders, thats I avn and Wengers brief, Defenders. The one thing both of the two targets we are linked with have is that are both captains, the position Wenger likes his captains to be in. One of them is coming, both wouldnt be a surprise if Phil leaves.
Thanks for All of the postings good bad and ugly. I,m with Kolo Always because he’s given us all he;s had. Does he have any more? who knows? One thing for sure “Le Boss’s policy of giving our over 30 players one year contracts has burned us repeatedly; Gallas and Kolo will be the latest.
I will only name: Henri,Edu,Pires,and Patrick Viera who was in fact the last real captain we had and a man whos’ teamates were araid to be afraid around. Fact is we have not won a single thing since his penalty in the FA final shootout v Man-U.
I hope this (Belgian? Flemmish?) kid can help us but when I look at our club’s website and see that the big hubbub is that we’ve signed Fabianski(Barber Pole) to a long term contract
I can’t help but think Wenger has long lost the plot. Oh yea Bendtner Sucks out loud even though unfortunately he wears my squads crest on his overblown, self-important chest. How very sad indeed. From Heny to Bendtner.
This Cannot be called progress from any perspective you prefer.
Arsenal should buy new players otherwise, Arsenal for life i like the way they play and pass the ball.
@zee_born_gooner i agree withhh youuu. I want gallass to stay because he actually showsss sum bottle when we need it. Toure for Richards will do nicely nowww.