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Saturday, May 03, 2008

Arsenal opened bidding with 15m for Kranjkar


By Aries

When we first reported on this site that Arsenal were interested in Portsmouth’s creative midfielder Niko Kranjkar as far back as early March there were some readers that ridiculed it either as pure speculation or even fabrication!

Well, once again we are proved right as our post “Wenger interested in Portsmouth ace to replace Arsenal midfielder” proved to foretell of what was to come.

We then wrote that Arsene Wenger was looking to replace Alexander Hleb who was and still is courted by Italian sirens.

And today’s English press is reporting what Niko’s father, ex Croatia national coach, Zlatko Kranjcar has confirmed Arsenal's interest.

"Wenger likes players with a sense of the game," Kranjcar told Croatian tv station Index. "Arsenal plays creative football and Wenger recognises this in Niko and he would be a logical replacement for Hleb."

This came after the current Croatia coach, Bilic, stated recently that Niko would be ideal for Arsenal’s way of playing. He was the one remember that encouraged Eduardo to join Arsenal having already given a glowing report on the player to Wenger.

Portsmouth is of course resisting with the general manager Peter Storrie issuing a statement just five days ago:

“As regards to all of this supposed interest in Niko, it was the first we heard about it. We don't know anything about it, Arsenal don't know anything about it and Niko doesn't know anything about it. So you can take it as the usual rubbish speculation that goes on at this time of the year” he said.

With Niko’s father “coming out” it doesn’t look like speculation now does it?

And there are further news for you. Arsenal have already bid 15m pounds (19m euros) for the player, Croatian internet news site index.hr is reporting. They also state that this has been rebuffed by Portsmouth.

Just for how long though? The player is probably too focused on the FA Cup final for the moment to force the issue if he wishes to. But after that is over the bidding will begin in earnest.

What is also of course interesting and troubling is Wenger’s desire to sign another creative midfielder unless someone is leaving.

This is worrying as Hleb has been the one who Wenger has been complaining about after Inter Milan’s approach to the player in an ice cream parlour in Italy.

And the Croatian media and Kranjakar’s father do mention that Niko is targeted as a replacement for Hleb.

We are not about to lose two of our midfielders are we?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

arsenal italia has just stated that flamini has signed for milan. done & dusted

Anonymous said...

Hleb is a good player, but he really wants to play in the 'hole' behind the striker, which is fine to a certain extent in Europe when we play 4-5-1, but he is not productive enough in terms of goal scoring.

He would be a loss, but with the right creative player who offers more of a goal threat, he could be replaced. Krancjar could be a good shout for that role and his relationship with Eduardo could really help to make the most of the latter's talents as well. For once I hope there is more than speculation to this particular rumour.

Anonymous said...

The moment Slaven Bilic mentioned that Kranjcar is suited for Arsenal , it meant that wenger was seriously interested in him. However i'm really baffled by the 15m bid talk and i seriously hope that it's nonsense. If that figure is true then it would make us look chumps for missing out on Ribery for 17m pounds , who imo is a lot better than Niko. Besides Niko is not worth more than 8m and i'm confident that wenger won't blow 15m on a single player with us having limited transfer funds.

Anonymous said...

15m for Kranjcar? His value is about 10m, plus 2m for premium, the total should not be more than 12m.I cannot imagine a person as prudent as Wenger will pay such an amount for the player. However even with the deal went through, we will never know the exact amount.

I really suspect this site is ran by the club(or a staff member of the club). How on earth they can get all those insider information is battfling. 1970 gooner are you one of the Arsenal scout in disguise?

Anonymous said...

Siddharth is completely right. When looking at this story then the price tag should be the first thing that screams out bullshit.
15mil for Kranjkar...*horf!!

P.S. When the father is the agent and comes out with a statement like this then the validity immediately drops below the 20% mark.

Anonymous said...

Wenger should be concentarating on keeping his current squad together. He will bring this guy in and lose him in a year or two to more progressive sides. The more all these transfer rumours go on the more one realises that perhaps David Dein had a point. The problem is ARSENAL and WENGER are mean. They have to understand that it is clearly stupid not to recognise market forces. As FLAMINI is going and with talk of Hleb going only a fool would think that the likes of FABREGAS will not review their positions. Why should FABREGAS accept to earn a third of what he is worth? WENGER has to re-think his wage structure as a matter of urgency otherwise he will turn the club into a wonderful feeder club which will probably not achieve much. Its unfortunate the boys will come out empty handed this season in terms of CUPS but the fact it they have all done enough to warrant a review. Wenger keeps mourning about CHELSKI's pay structure, what has that got to do with him? If Abramovich dies how is that his problem?

Anonymous said...

I believe we will loss the 2 of them ,Hleb and Flamini...but I am sure they can be replaced though I really wish Hleb doesn't have to go bbut for Flamini he ccan go to hell .he should not be allowed to hold the team to ransome...any soccer lover who will like to interact with other fans and dicuss any soccer related issues should check out Soccer fan base dot com it is free to join.

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