From Arsenal.com:
French defender Bacary Sagna has signed for Arsenal from Auxerre on a long-term contract for an undisclosed fee.
Sagna (24) who won the French Cup with Auxerre in 2005, was recently called up to the French national squad, where he was an unused substitute in his country’s Euro 2008 Qualifier victory over Georgia in June.
Bacary, who was born in France but has Senegalese parents, has been a regular for Auxerre over the past three seasons, making 87 appearances for the French side during that time. Featuring predominantly at right back, Sagna played a part in Auxerre’s UEFA Cup campaign last season.
Manager Arsène Wenger said: “We are delighted to have signed Bacary Sagna. He is a very capable defender and has played consistently well for Auxerre in recent seasons. He plays mainly at right back, but can also play along the defence or in midfield. He is strong, quick and enjoys defending but also has a good offensive side to his game. He has a fighting spirit and will be a very good addition to our squad.”
Sagna said: “It is great to be joining Arsenal and I’m excited to be playing alongside many great players. I know Abou Diaby from our time together at Auxerre and also Gael Clichy and Mathieu Flamini from the French Under-21 team. Also Arsène Wenger is a major reason why I have signed for Arsenal. He is an excellent manager with a fantastic record and I am really looking forward to working with him. I’m also looking forward to playing at Emirates Stadium and winning trophies for the Club and all the supporters.”
Bacary will wear the No 3 shirt for Arsenal and will immediately join up with his new team mates.
28 Responses to “Another signing!”
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July 12th, 2007 at 10:26 am
A very interesting signing. Right back did not seem to be an area where we needed a new player. Now we have three not considering Gilbert. I think something has got to give.
Most people think Hoyte is on his way out. Sounds logical. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Eboue did. He is a good player, but we have just signed a 6M RB. I am sure he is good too. Hoyte would be needed to keep the home grown quota.
July 12th, 2007 at 10:50 am
There are other players in the reserves (including Gilbert) who could fill the quota role.
Sagna appears to be an upgrade over what Arsenal have already, and that is always an area of need. This is especially pertinent when looking at the depth of the squad in light of last year’s plague of injuries.
I like this signing. Hopefully Wenger can still work out something to bring Gouffran over to the other side of the Channel as well… although I hear that Caen’s chairman is denying anything is going to happen.
July 12th, 2007 at 11:30 am
For two years in a row, our defence got hit badly in terms of injury. So i think it’s not a bad idea to add some depth.
Hoyte is ok defensively, but offensively he gave us nothing. When Eboue out last season, we really struggled adding a bit of width up front down the right, when usually it’s our full backs’ job to offer us some width.
We cannot have another season needing Gilberto fall back to central half, and Toure moves to right. I like kerrea Gilbert, but he’s an unknown and untried quality.
Best of all, as always, AW bought someone who’s flexible. Even if Eboue keeps his place at RB and everybody healthy, this new guy can play in midfield as AW said in the interview, so that’s another +.
Anyway, at least the recent signings showed just because AW has not committed himself after 2008, there are still players willing to join Arsenal!
July 12th, 2007 at 11:51 am
I really doubt that signing Sagna signals Hoyte’s departure. Hoyte is young and learning his trade; if he ends up going out on loan (which I doubt, because we need cover) he will come back to us……..What this signing tells me is that maybe we are seeing the end of Hleb. AW started Eboue in R wing against Pompey at the end of the season and I feel that is where we will see him this year.
Hleb will be (and I think should be) on the bench and used as cover….if he doesn’t significantly improve this year, AW will send him packing next year.
In any event, this is a very good signing for us; it gives us depth and flexibility.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
look….hoyte is going nowhere….he, fabregas and walcott are the only “homegrown” players in the first team. and this season we need EIGHT. in a team of 30.
i figure the remaining five will be: Randall, Jay Simpson, Lansbury, Rhys-Murphy and Gavin Hoyte.
The only way Hoyte is leaving is if we buy another English player in replacement….and I just dont see Wenger doing that.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
back to my look at stats last week, Hoyte and Hleb “technically” had decent to good campaigns. I’m not saying they are the perfect fit, or overly impressed anyone, but stats count for something in the occasion. I would prefer if we hung onto both for depth and the wealth of options they give us. Don’t we need Hoyte for the quota thing? Hleb is a good player when he doesn’t try to do too much - while he often does. As far as Eboue is concerned, I rather thought that when he pushed forward he was more effective anyway. He didn’t impress me as an outright defender. I think the move to midfield might serve him well.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Hey.
Just checking out Arsenal.com. Anyone know why Baptista is still listed in the first team squad? Sagna is already there and Ali is out as well. Curious…
July 12th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
No Reyes listed either.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
This signing hardly means that Eboue is going to move Hleb to the bench. Besides van Persie, Hleb is probably the best technical player in our squad. While Eboue may look good in the overlap there’s no way he’s a better midfielder than Hleb. Wenger doesn’t want wingers, he wants midfielders who can create chances and Eboue is lacking on the creative end. It’s also why Wenger hasn’t bought a winger in so many years. Like nipuna said yesterday, Eboue would provide another tactical option but he’s hardly moving Hleb. I don’t know what Wenger’s plan is but I simply can’t see him dropping Helb for Eboue.
If Sagna’s a better defender than Eboue then this is an upgrade to our defense. Gallas and Toure are still very good defenders. I also believe Clichy will be better than Cole by the end of next season. Does Wenger have any other plans, I don’t know but I’m looking forward to seeing the boys in action.
July 12th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
If Wenger keeps Hoyte then I think there’s a good chance that Eboue will replace Hleb. Otherwise why keep Hoyte and spend £7m on a right back if Eboue is going to play right back too?
If he keeps Hoyte then you can expect Sagna to play right back and Eboue right midfield or on the bench rotating with Hleb.
July 12th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
aqh1977… Reyes hasn’t been listed since he was loaned to Real last season. That Baptista remains puzzles me, especially since his photo has been moved recently (when they assigned squad numbers) yet he wasn’t removed entirely.
Fred… if by homegrown, you mean England, well, I don’t know how to tell you this, but Fabregas isn’t homegrown then… unless there has been some war colonization of Spain that I am not aware of.
Since all the other names you listed were Brits, I was assuming that was what you meant.
July 12th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Why are people so obsessed about what country the players are from? If you are a British nationalist then I can understand why you want English players for an English team, but this is Arsenal America. Europe is multicultural now, the borders are open for practically everyone to live and work where they like if they can get a permit. Living in London as I do, every other person is white, black, brown, yellow and everything in between. I don’t give a shit if Arsenal has 20 English players or 0, all I care about is that we have the best players - and English are very rarely the best.
July 12th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
I see at the opening stage of the season, things won’t be changing much: Eboue and Hleb both keep their places in their original position. Sagna would fill in the both RB, RM position when needed.
As season progress, depends on how Eboue been doing at right back, and how Sagna been settling in. I do believe primarily it would be these 2 fighting for the RB position.
I agree with Joshuad, don’t see Eboue will be pushing up as a permanently RM role.
Perhaps as an ALTERNATIVE. Depends on who we play against, and how the game develops (like trailing in a match), AW may put Eboue on RM just to give us another option when plan A fails.
I do believe Hleb is one of the key part in AW’s plan. He will not be sold just because we bought Sagna. Afterall, we are trying to ADD TO THE DEPTH of our squad.
I think AW has learned his lesson from last season, particular that injury crisis.
And if it’s true Freddie is on the way out, the addtion of Sagna just balance things out.
July 12th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
“Why are people so obsessed about what country the players are from?”
I believe in 10 years’ time, fans from other big clubs won’t be able to mock us for having so little English players in the squad anymore.
Look at how the “big 4″ clubs signed this summer, how many English players? Only two - Owen Hargreveas (is he really English?) and Sidwell.
Even Sir Alex, once upon a time would perfer to give his young team kids a chance rather than going out and buy foreign players, now since the Beckham 5, basically Man U got zero (if u count Wes Brown) quality English young players coming through their rank.
Liverpool, home of Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, their last youth team graduates really made an impact are - Gerrard (27?) and Garracher (29).
Our rival fans are laughing at us now, but the way I see it - we are only the piorneers. It’s only a MATTER OF TIME.
The only way if they want to see more English players in the top clubs is to go back to the old days, putting a restriction on how many foreign players each club can sign. But we all know there will be no turning back now.
Bottom line is - if you are good enough, you are good enough.
July 12th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
As far as I’m concerned the only reason an English person would want English players at the club is because they’re ignorant.
July 12th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
@ ryecatcher: the “homegrown” rule has nothing to do with nationality. all england nationals plus all youngsters who have been at the club before they turned 16 are eligible under the “homegrown” rule.
so Fabregas is classified as an “homegrown” player.
July 12th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Got it.
July 12th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
When Eboue first came he looked fantastic - a young gladiator storming up and down the right flank. Something then happened to his head. Last season he was, overall, a liability….yet the underlying talent remains. His histrionics have never before been seen in an Arsenal shirt.
My take is that Wenger has doubts about him. Sagna is likely to become first choice RB, altho as Andez points out that may not be immediate. Ironic our last (and only?) big xfer fee for a defender was spent on Lauren also to fill RB.
Eboue is an option in a right midfield role….but he’s not exactly typical.
Welcome Sagna.
July 12th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Because i’m a bit stuborn, back to my earlier comment. I wonder if the Reyes deal AW is said to be working out with Madrid includes Baps returning here? Even though he was crap last year I wouldn’t mind that. He is an experienced player and has some good qualities. He may have been trying to hard last year to win a spot. He wanted to go back to madrid about as bad as Reyes wanted to come back to london.
I do think we would need a couple million to offset the difference though.
July 12th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Hleb may be technically excellent, but his contribution to our scoring is minimal. I have a feeling he will be benched more often than not this year….we’ll see.
July 12th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
whats the point of hleb being technically excellent when he doesnt actually create or score many goals.
eboue “won” 3 penalties and crossed for 4 headed goals and had a couple of other assists as well. Plus his 2 goals!
hleb`s record is WORSE than that and he is allegedly a “creative” midfielder!
hleb and eboue should split the RM duties 50-50…that should put a fire under his ass.
July 12th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Without wanting to make excuses for him, but Hleb is really a central midfielder - that’s where he played before Arsenal. I saw a video of him before he joined and to be honest he looked awesome and scored quite a few goals dancing through the defence with his quick feet. Playing on the wing seems problematic for him, this season is make or break - he has to adapt, he can be a great player but it’s now or never.
July 12th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
At the end of the day, we have 4 RBs and 6 FBs in total including Flamini. I am guessing that Flamini and Gilbert will move on. I am still expecting atleast one more signing - a wide midfielder or winger depending on your viewpoint.
July 12th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
“Wenger doesn’t want wingers, he wants midfielders who can create chances.”
Joshuad, are you saying wingers don’t create chances? What about Ronaldo, Giggs, Robben, Reyes, etc. Even SWP, who Wenger liked, is a winger. We are not asking for a Downing kind of winger who can only cross the ball. Our midfield lacks pace and we need a Reyes kind of winger. That’s why people think Eboue can do the job over Hleb - because he gets past defenders.
July 13th, 2007 at 3:44 am
hleb has only played CM in a 3-man central midfield. and that is a totally different ballgame from a 2-man central midfield.
and to be honest him being on the right is no problem for him because he spends most of the game cutting in and BEING in the position that he wants - right there in front of the box. so why doesnt he do his magic and create some goals then??
he better buckle up this season….and win us over with 5 goals at least!
July 13th, 2007 at 7:56 am
Perhaps I should have said “typical” wingers. Wenger wants midfielders who can create and make something happen. Ronaldo, Robben, and Wright-phillips are hardly typical wingers. Neither were Henry, Reyes, Hleb, and van Persie when they came to Arsenal.
You guys get too warped with these statistics. A guy can make a play but if you’ve got a clown playing up front that can’t finish then is it the playmakers fault? Arsenal were plenty guilty of not finshing chances last season.
Also the person that often gets credited with an assist is the person who passes the ball to the goal scorer. Does that necessarily mean that he’s created the play? Creative playmakers are special because they see plays several passes before they happen. Because they’ve created these plays three or four touches before the goal they often don’t get credited with the assist. Being creative goes much deeper than statistics will ever tell.
As far as Eboue and his stats, if you look a bit deeper you might be surprised to see the person supplying the vision, guile, and skill that released Eboue into the space to make that telling pass or draw that penalty was often Aleksander Hleb.
July 15th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
I know it is off-topic, but did anybody hear a rumer about Arsenal signing an Argentinian striker?
July 18th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
With been linked with everyone and his son, I hope Maradona is not returning to football with us!