For a cost of around £10 million and at 23 years of age, Thomas Vermaelen has the potential to plug the gap that has leaked so many goals in the Arsenal defence.
He has plenty of European and International experience, but the Premier League is much stronger than the Eredivisie and it may take a Vidic-like period to adjust to the pace of English football.
However, despite being a good defensive acquisition, the problems in the combative department of midfield still remain to be solved.
i dont think he will be a big hit to arsenal\
i xpect another flop and the sane fate as sendros
He will be average. Nothing Special.
im taller than him apparently,and i consider myself to still be small enough.not really enough for a CB is it?
Just continue supporting Thomas Vermaelen!!!!
I have this weird feeling that he'll end up like vidic, or like ben haim.
It's either gonna be a hit or miss with Vermaelen, they can't afford an average defender and if he consequently is, he'll be branded a failure. Could Lescott have done a better job for them? He looks increasingly ready for a step up in my opinion
i would stick to playing Gallas and Toure, with Djourou as my back up. nuff said, i cant see how he would perform better against Drogba then the current CB could.
Problem is Hamburg that neither of those players have been very good for them recently and I think Toure is still a bit miffed after being completely overlooked for the captaincy role on repeated occasions. Consequently, he may look to the Citizens for saviour.
Gallas and Toure, neither of them getting any younger, could not walk into any of the other Big Four's team without serious debate; this suggests to me they need to improve their CB and I don't think they've solved the problem with Vermaelen. Only time will tell if he cuts the mustard however.
Alot of people still don't know that wenger bought toure for only 150,000 lmao, what a buy.
Vermaelen is decent and hard-working, but is not going to turn into the kind of bull mastiff penalty area boss that Vidic is. Wenger should have splurged on Albiol, but he has a reputation to uphold to be cheap!
albiol wouldnt have cost much more than vermaelan,4m more at the most.wenger really is too cheap
We're fitting the bill of aristocratic United fans here, but he is cheap and keeping that extra 4 mill could cost him dearly. Problem is, I don't see Arsenal as quite dead and buried just yet, another one or two great budget buys in key areas and Wenger will again be celebrated for his understanding of the evolution of the modern game. If, however, he loses one or two key players and his signings are jokes, it'll be all doom and gloom 
Vermaelen is going to be (sadly) brilliant at Arsenal, and we all know that. E.O.D.
No matter how good he is, Vermaelan will not create a spine for a mix of players that is essentially jaw-droppingly brilliant when things are going well, but gutless in combat with the great teams.
Exactly Bobo, where's their Vieira or Petit? Vermaelen is not going to suddenly turn Song or Denilson into fearsome holding midfielder's who hold no mercy for the opposition, trampling all those in their path.
No need to, that will be supplied by Gallas maybe. Vermaelen would just use his speed and tactical approach to outwit opposing attackers. That's the thing that Arsenal have been lacking -- their defenders can start a counter attack whenever they want, but they make too many simple mistakes when defending, and that's something that Vermaelen would fix, even if he didn't start any counter attacks or whatnot.
"No need to, that will be supplied by Gallas maybe"
Not exactly a ringing vote of confidence, is it, Liver? Especially as Wenger would love to dump Gallas if he could get an unrealistic amount for him. Vermaelan will make a fine addition to the squad, but the Arse still need more testosterone at the back.
Arsene probably isn't done with the rebuilding, he'd be satisfied with his defense now, but if he could offload one of Toure or Gallas, I'm sure we'll see him splash out on a more physically imposing defender (although, with his pattern of spending, it may be Richard Dunne). I think right now, he's more worried about finding a decent midfield hard man, he might pick up a desperately unloved Mahmadou Diarra from Real. What happened to Stephen Appiah, I think he'd do the job for a weak Arsenal, and if I'm not mistaken, he's been a free agent for a while now
Well bobo that's where Nordtveit comes in haha...
I think they should get a second centre back in that case
Has he really not been snapped up yet? Thats mental. Why didn't Arsene get him instead of Silvestre? That would of made loads more sense.
Apparently not, he was on trial at spurs, but nothing happened, seeing as he's a free agent, wouldn't it be a low-risk gamble on Arsene's part? If not, he could seriously consider pissing off the Spurs heiarchy by poaching one Lee Cattermole from under their noses
Appiah is involved in the World Cup match-fixing scandal detailed in the book 'Fix' by Declan Hill. Sepp Blatter is not a forgiving man. See my book review at: http://ivorismo.blogspot.com/
I doubt that's why he's a free agent, though.
He'd be perfect for Arsene because he falls into his golden rule; spending as little money as feasably possible. Depends on his wage demands though but with the scandal Bobo highlighted and the fact he's not done much for a year now he shouldn't be too pricey.
Look, he insists he's fit and his agent is trying so desperately to flog him that he will sign a short-term pay-as-you-play contract. So something stinks!
True, but I would of thought some club somewhere would have taken the gamble. If Ali Dia can find a club, I'm sure someone would be foolish enough to take Appiah on even with his dubious stench.
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