Why Florent Malouda should be Arsenal’s top transfer target

Malouda would be a perfect addition to the current Arsenal sideThe latest musings of Spanish Fry

Before kicking things off I also thought I’d alert your attention to a classic bit of blogging from Arseblog that sums up the feeling of ridiculousness surrounding summer transfers. You can find it here. Anyway, I’ll now turn to more serious matters.

As news has gone a little stale with regards to the Arsenal Football Club I was fortunate enough to stumble upon an article by SoccerLens author Ahmed Bilal titled “How can Arsenal improve this summer?”. I was impressed with the the way that Ahmed provided a realistic and concise review of Arsenal’s season and singled out the one position that desperately needs an addition this summer; on the wing. In response to his article I thought I would give my thoughts about who should provide this addition.

The player is Lyon’s Florent Malouda who – for those unaware – is a left-sided (but very two-footed) winger just recently voted Player of the Season in Ligue 1 in 2006/2007. I believe he would be the perfect addition to the team and I have been very surprised at the lack of media coverage linking Arsenal with him.

He is an absolute quality player who wants to leave Lyon and his reported cost is only around ₤12m. Being a French internation player he would fit in well with the current side – especially French teammate Thierry Henry – and he is a winger with exceptional all-round abilities. His goal ratio is exceptional; scoring 13 goals from 52 games in all competitions this season. This is even more impressive in comparison to scoring ratio of the likes of Marseille’s Franck Ribery and Ajax’s Ryan Babel – two of the players that Arsenal are also reportedly chasing. Importantly, Malouda is physical strong, an able dribbler and passer of the ball and has a very direct style of play.

Houllier believes Malouda to be an very intelligent playerAn intelligent man

Comment previously made by his current manager Gerard Houllier also suggest that Malouda possesses attributes that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger would no doubt hold in high esteem.

“He is intelligent and is filled with determination.  He’s intelligent because he is capable of analyzing the flaws of his game in relationship to the team. He has a sort of constructive attitude. In addition, he has determination and is a winner.”

Add to this the fact that Malouda would be, at 26, one of the more senior members in Arsenal’s squad if he joined and I believe this a player that ticks all the right boxes and would provide the club with the best possible choice of player under the current circumstances.

As such, I will continue to keep my fingers crossed.

For those of you who missed it, read “The Light-Hearted Arsenal Season Review” here

Read previous columns by Spanish Fry here

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Comments

  1. Am I alone in thinking Malouda isn’t that good, I’ve seen him play a few times and I really don’t think he is anything special..I certainly don’t get the same feeling I did when I watched Pires (a kind of wet my pants feeling!)

  2. In addition to that he is actually 27 in a few weeks, which leaves him only 3 years off of 30. I know we are looking for experience but I am of the school of thought that the wing is the kind of place you want settled for years and years not 3 years and then the guy is handed a 1 year contract extension because of the over 30 policy.

    In my opinion he isn’t worth the 12mil or 17mil being bandied around and player of the year in France is not the greatest accolade considering Zinedine Cygan once won it!

  3. Personally, I think we need more experience, especially during the away games against below par teams. We just can’t get it up for those games. I think Malouda would be perfect.

  4. Midfield Bite – Malouda is very consistent. My personal judgment of him is not down to his performances in last seasons Ligue 1 but moreso the Champions League and World Cup. He has shown he can perform at the top level and importantly, he is an exceptional finisher. I see your point about him being older, but we do have the likes of Walcott coming through and if Malouda signed and held his spot for four years I think I would be happy.
    Gaga – Strange how that happened…
    Elisa – I agree, and that’s why I would prefer Malouda to Ribery or Babel.

  5. malouda? yeh great buy….but dont david bentley and jermaine pennant look juicy right now….i mean, we keep on letting local lads go off to other clubs, n buyin french people…not to say the frenchies arent as good…but we wudnt face this problem if we had good depth in our squad.

    well malouda/reyes would fix our left wing problem, but then where wud Rosicky play?

  6. Shravan – David Bentley left Arsenal because he got too big for his own boots. Arsenal did not want him to leave but he thought he should be ahead of the likes of Ljungberg and Pires so the club had no choice. As for Pennant, he had disruptive off-field problems and the club also had no other option to let him go. To say that the club didn’t try and develop these players is a little bit unfair. As for Malouda, he would give the squad more depth. The likes of Hleb and Rosicky could battle it out with Malouda for the three wing positions and they can all be used centrally when required.

  7. I think that Wenger should buy a class winger such as malouda who is a really good left footed player. In attack we don’t need anyone ONLY IF Henry leaves, someone like Fernando Torres could be an excellent replacement.

  8. i think wenger do not always buy the french player anymore.wenger must buy the local player also such as bently, downning, and anymore

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