Hleb Completes Barca Switch

[jaffa]

I liked Hleb, i thought he was a real worker but I think the gooners got a reasonable price for him. He will be hard to replace but Wenger aint stupid and no doubt has a replacement in mind that will probably cost about 1 million.

Would be interested to know MickieD's opinion and of course any other gooners opinion or non gooners at that.

ps...MickieD...any chance of realtime posts on fresh and easy skin....lol

Alexander Hleb has completed his move from Arsenal to Barcelona after signing a four-year contract with the Catalan giants.
The Belarus international landed in Barcelona on Wednesday morning and after spending the day undertaking various medical tests sealed his switch this evening.
The 27-year-old midfielder will cost Barca an initial 15 million euros (£12million), rising to 17 million (£13.5million) depending on the club's success during Hleb's spell.
The buy-out clause in Hleb's contract with Barca has been set at 90 million euros (£71million).

Hleb, who has been linked with a move to Barca all summer, becomes the fifth signing of the close season for the Nou Camp club, who will be under the guidance of Pep Guardiola next term after he replaced Frank Rijkaard as coach at the end of 2007-08.
Already brought in by Barca are Sevilla duo Seydou Keita and Dani Alves, as well as Manchester United defender Gerard Pique and Martin Caceres from Villarreal.
Hleb spent the last three seasons at Arsenal after joining the Barclays Premier League side from German club Stuttgart. Prior to that he played for BATE Borisov in Belarus.
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger said: "We must firstly thank Alex for his contribution towards Arsenal during his time with us.
"He played a significant role in the three seasons he was with the club.
"We are comfortable with our decision to let him go and we are all looking forward to continuing our preparations for the new season ahead.
"Everyone at Arsenal wishes Alex the best of luck for the future."

 

[Mick]

its on the fresh and easy m8 in the quick links drop down menu ( i just added it m8)

about hleb:

i am a bit gutted to be honest i have read numerous arsenal blogs saying he cant score and does not shoot an does not have enough assists... but for me thats all crap.

what about the 3rd pass or the brilliant link up play he had with fabregas and the other midfielders.

There is not a player on the planet that has stick foot like hleb i thought many a time he lost the ball and it was stuck to his foot... he does have some flaws and yes one is shooting but for team play and hard work he was great, Barca have just bought a great team player with tons of skill.

The only way i feel we can come back a little from this is if wenger takes the fooking 12 million and adds 10million and buys arshaven because as much as i think nasri will be a great player im not 100% he is there yet and i think arshaven could be a fantastic signing and has already said he would love to play for us!!!

will wenger spend 22m NO CHANCE LOL.

wenger said at the start of the transfer silly season we need 3 players to add to our squad that was before we lost 3.

So wenger is that 6 players now ?

nasri, vela (from loan), ramsey (surely a young lad not ready for top flight?)

So thats 4 we are getting lol

So jaffa im not happy lol we done really well and if not for edaurdos broken leg and 4 dodgy pens some offsides bad reffing lmao it could of been our season ... and 4 points off the top is not a big distance....

Keep the same squad and add like wenger said and we would of been right on track but now i don't know what will happen but i guess i will still pay over 800 quid on kids kits and hopefully 10+ games lol for nothing m8y.

 

[jaffa]

Gooners will be in the mix as usual, you know it, I know it and so does everyone else. Eduardo injury was unfortunate and affected you both physically and mentally (imho).

Barca have got a good signing and as much as I liked Hleb, I am glad to see him away from gooners as he was a real work horse. Can Wenger replace him....probably but it may take time for replacement to settle.

ps...thx for realtime posts. :Clap:

 

[Mick]

I know we will be in the top 4 but we had a chance to minimize the distance utd are from us and this is a real setback to lose flammini and hleb two of our best players.

Its a very big setback to be honest and the players that have come IN are no way near the players that have gone OUT.

i would of prefered to of got 30 million for adebayor ffs and kept hleb and bought 2 top players with the cash... step backwards if you ask me lol.

rossicksy, hleb, nasri, walcott, vela sounded like real decent attacking wingers now to lose hleb - the best out of the lot lol puts allot of pressure on the 2 new boys to come in and do a job where they could of been blooded in slowly.

but who knows what wenger is up 2 lol and hopefully like you say will buy a great replacement for 50p

 

[NL7]

worrying times for arsenal if u ask me. Instead of bringing in quality, experience and adding depth to the squad, now they going to have replace quality and experience. In terms of depth and experience, they going to be short. Haven't seen ramsey or nasri play. Hleb for me was one the most underrated players in the premship. Having lost flamini, lehmann (although he's a nutter, better than almunia i think) and possibly gilberto, next season could be a struggle. With adebayor's future still unsolved, things could be tough for the gunners.

 

[logic_187]

@mickie what do you think of our defence....that is something that does worrys me when we have injuries. My next worry is the holding midfield role and i dont think we have sufficiently filled that gap......flamini was gettiing there but with his departure we are left with a hole......any way theres still some time to go for the end of the transfer window ;-)

 

[RAB - P]

Would be interested to know MickieD's opinion and of course any other gooners opinion or non gooners at that.

 

[Mick]

those was the days... lol @ rabp

Propper team.

we was alright last season and considering we was supposed to finish 6th or 7th last season we kinda made a point

And while we have fabregas i still have hope.

also clichy, sagna, toure, rvp, walcott, rossicsky, eduardo are not bad players eitheer but agree the squad is thin and they will need to beef it up and there is still nearly a month to get in some players

 

[logic_187]

i think toure is the only sole survivor left from the invincibles..... I think it may be a good thing they were sold when they were as they havent really done that well at other clubs.

A lot of the issue around player retention is the pay scale and as we know Arsenal dont break the wage structure. Admitedly we havent won much in the last few seasons so i cant see how a player can want a "payrise".

In syaing that i wish we had a couple experienced players who were content to stay on the bench, but this is modern footbal and no one really wants to play a bit part role.

I think we've got some promising new players, but its the transition period thats worrying. Most (but not all) of our unknown buys required a year or two, to transition.