Thomas Vermaelen to sign for Arsenal pending a medical

Just a quick one to add to today’s earlier post – Thomas Vermaelen has confirmed that he will undergo a medical tomorrow with the intention of finalising a deal with Arsenal. According to Sky Sports the fee will be around d £10million – which I think is great value in the current inflated transfer market – and the Belgian from Ajax will sign a 4-year deal.

Vermaelen had this to say about the situation:

“On Friday I will fly to London to undergo a medical. Then I hope to sign. I feel so proud. Arsenal is a fantastic club, and as a child I watched them play. This will be a big change in my life, next year I will suddenly be facing the best strikers in the world. This does not scare me, I will give everything my body has. This is one of the best days of my life.”

I’ll speak more about this tomorrow but the short story is that we’re just about to sign the type of player that we’ve been crying out for in the last two seasons. It’s an excellent step forward at an early stage in the pre-season and I think it bodes very well for the shape of squad going into 2009/10.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Have your say on Thomas Vermaelen by leaving a comment.

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Comments

  1. Great signing..Arsene Knows!!
    Now swap senderos+cash for Melo n we have a shout for the premiership next season.

  2. How good is he?? never seen him play.But the idea of signing a defender is good thou!! thats what we need at the moment and may be sell Silly out.DM?? Im still confident with Song.

  3. I’m really excited about Vermaelen. I know, there are some Gooners who have questions about the lad, but I have a real feeling he’ll come good. He seems a no-nonsense kind of defender, gets stuck in, is EXCELLENT in the air and has some flexibility on positional play.

    I would like to see us add Hangeland to partner along side him, though. Not because I have any doubts about Vermaelen, but just thinking what a superbly stingy middle that could bring. Hangeland has some limitations that could be exploited in our defensive style, but partnered with a more athletic CB, should be able to fulfill the same role he has at Fulham. I’m hopeful there are quiet, behind the scenes talks ongoing with Fulham over a move.

  4. fantastic……but i wish next year will be his second injury free season…consecutively!@!

  5. I think is going to be a good buy for us. Even though I have not see him playing, I believe Wenger will not buy anyhow player. GOOD FOR US!!!

  6. I don’t think we’ll know if he is value for money until he plays for Arsenal. Everyone is hopeful that he can be the defender we’ve all been crying out for, but is young for top four centre back and I do think he’ll need time to acclimatise. Hopefully the transition will be smooth if he is alongside Toure or Gallas. I suspect he’ll be rotated with those two if they stay at the club, or first choice if one leaves.

  7. @ TDP – Regarding the “value for money” comment, what I’m getting at is that I’m happy we haven’t thrown gazillions of dollars at a player that isn’t worth it. Of course we won’t know if he’s a good buy or not until he plays but if he works out well then I’m glad we haven’t thrown the kitchen sink at Ajax to get him over here.

  8. not only does he seem like a decent player, he so badly wants to be at Arsenal and make it at Arsenal, so I feel we wont get any bad effort from him, he is proud to put on the arsenal shirt (if he does sign)and he will put his body on the line, I think this signing is very positive, but hopefully Silvestre and Senderos leave the Emirates (not that anybody will want Silvestre) and Vermaelen I am happy with.

  9. @ jay-jay – Just on Silvestre and Senderos, I really don’t mind if they stick around. It’s all about pecking order and if the order is something like Gallas, Toure, Vermaelen, Djourou, Senderos, Silvestre then it doesn’t really hurt us if they stay at the club. In contrast, it gives us even more depth.

    The reality is that with the signing of Vermaelen, Senderos will surely go so maybe we can get something out of that by bringing in Felipe Melo. Tenuous, I know, but an intriguing possibility.

  10. now we need “the animal” Lorik Cana. We sign him and he plays uninjured, next season is ours

  11. He is a great signing for the gooners! I personally have ever watched him play and all I can say is, He is quality and more worth than the money paid for him. But I believe will do his esp. with Toure.

  12. @ Spanish – I totally see what you’re saying. I suppose in the current market there is no way we could sign a centre back for under that price who is going to be good enough. But this is still going to be Wenger’s biggest outlay for a defender ever.

    Certainly intrigued by Melo, will have to watch Brazil later to see him play. Saw him play for Fiorentina a couple of times this season and his attributes are transferable to the PL. Mamadou Diarra is the best option for me though – 28 years old, imposing physical presence, great reading of the game and a DM specialist. Ideal and rumoured to available for under 10m. Speaks Spanish and French – Can’t go wrong in our midfield.

  13. It is indeed good news that we now have sum1 to count on at our defense, but the problem is will Wenger go on and sign 1 or 2 midfielders to consolidate Cesc at midfield?.

  14. If it is the same melo as the guy who plays for Brazil, he just scored a great header against the US!

  15. It will be great havin thomas. h/ev, i still yearn for richards or hangeland. yaya could as well be sought 4. oyara paul. uganda.

  16. If we Felipe Melo & Vermaelen then our transfer window is closed unless AdeMoney/Toure/Gallas leaves. My feeling is most likely Gallas & AdeMoney will leave. Hopefully we will sign Hangeland to replace Gallas if he does leave.

    Also don’t be suprise if Clichy goes to Real Madrid with 20 million Euro. If RM come with that kind of money will you sell Clichy? Most probably AW will sell him.

  17. Isnt it refreshing to hear a player declare such love for our club, a willingness to put his body on the line and give it all he has? @ ska gooner, wont getting hangeland,who plays like vermaulen, be repeating last season’s mistake;playing two centre haves who play the same role hence no complimentarity?

  18. Just a note on Melo….Hes an awesome player and one that would work extremely well into an Arsenal side..he is experienced having played for three of the biggest clubs in Brazil (Flamengo, Cruzeiro and Gremio) and in Europe in Spain and Italy…Hes been linked with Arsenal before as AW is very keen on him however he has said hes not keen on a move to England.
    After a cracking header today in the first 6 minutes of the Brazil v USA match id love him in our side…Lets hope Denilson can do some good persuasion work!!

  19. It’s very rare that he will be thrown in the 1st team by arsne as I can see him playing in the pre season and then won’t see him again untill the cc or till injuries. He can also play at lb so if clichy gets injured we do have an experianced lb but gibbs is an awesome player so it will be interesting to see who gets the go ahead. Just hope we keep toure and gallas as older players are still needed and we need to add 2-3 players not 1 in 2 out like last season.

  20. @ SF – I dont mind having non-world class players at the club, its just when they are needed, they need to perform well, something Silvestre can no longer do and something Sendy was never capable of in England. Also that Melo you were talking about, scored for Brazil today i their 3-0 win and Walcott came off the bench for England U21, to do amazing work down the left flank to play the perfect pull back to Milner, it really was stunning play from the Theo!!

  21. jus commenting about my earlier post about Walcotts assist against Spain U21 for James Milner. He was on the left wing, took 2 touches and then jus used his pace to easily get past the defender, he kept running til the byeline and had a lot of time to pick out Milner, will be looking forward to next season if he wil use his pace effectively like that 🙂

  22. Hey does the Muamba who played today for England was an Arsenal player ???

    I remember that at some point we have some Muamba and I never seen him play and today that Muamba played very good against Spain as DM he was the best player of England and also our Gibbsie was very good.

  23. I think with Vermaelen n Melo, we have no worries about our defense, and we will raise our chance for the title!

  24. looks like we are real true gooners. Vermaelen n Melo, you guys are sport on and with that i think we shall not only challenge but realistically lift somethings. but for God’s sake why couldn’t wenger see this. let me hope he does not change his mind back to his previous philosophy.big-up to all our funs worldwide, greatings from Uganda-East Africa. always a GOONER FOR LIFE

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