Alvaro Arbeloa

[Bo Benn]

It's official then.

 

Very sad to see him go myself. He has been an excellent player for us, and I'm sure Rafa wanted to keep him. Hopefully GJ will introduce another dimension in our attacking play, as it was there Arby had his weakness. Then again when we play better sides I was always very comfortable having him on the team sheet. Right up there with Markus Babbel as our best right back of late (Finnan's probably a contender as well).

 

Always seemed a good personality, a team player and goal celebrator supreme.

[Mike]

good luck? we offered him a contract, didn't want it...couldn't give a shiney f*** about him now, nothing to do with us.

[Chili Palmer]

He's dead to me...

[Boca]

  obey Hysén said:

It's official then.

 

Very sad to see him go myself. He has been an excellent player for us, and I'm sure Rafa wanted to keep him. Hopefully GJ will introduce another dimension in our attacking play, as it was there Arby had his weakness. Then again when we play better sides I was always very comfortable having him on the team sheet. Right up there with Markus Babbel as our best right back of late (Finnan's probably a contender as well).

 

Always seemed a good personality, a team player and goal celebrator supreme.

 

 

He is a decent full back but nowhere near the level of a Babbel.

[Sion]

  Mike said:

good luck? we offered him a contract, didn't want it...couldn't give a shiney f*** about him now, nothing to do with us.

 

is right. Enjoy warming the bench Alvaro, because that's what will happen when Real splunk £20m on a fancy dan shirt selling full back next year.

[Leo No.8]

Steady full back Arbeloa - liked his versatility and attitude. Solid defensively, got up and down the right side well but his final ball is absolutely abysmal and this for me was always a major issue.

 

I'm not that sorry to see him go purely because of his lack of contribution going forward. Only two assists and one goal over the course of two full seasons isn't anywhere near good enough for a modern full back playing for a top four team.

 

It is a particularly poor record bearing in mind he has had one of the most hard working, defensively responsible right midfielders in the game playing in front of him as well. Glen Johnson is a massive upgrade going forward.

 

That said £3.5m is a paltry amount in this transfer market, so I'd have strongly considered just keeping Arbeloa as cover for every defensive position then letting him go on a free next year if he still wanted to go. It'd have f*cked Madrid off too.

 

So I'd say good luck to Arbeloa but for the fact he's signing for possibly the biggest bunch of c*nts in football. I hope the team fails miserably, but Arbeloa does OK. Don't think he will though, I think he'll play much less than he has here, and will prove to be unpopular with the hierarchy and fans because he's not exciting enough.

 

The reality is he'll be pulling splinters out of his a*** for 6 months then out on loan at someone like Getafe. Madrid is a defenders graveyard and so I expect it will prove to be for Arbeloa.

 

On the rare occasion he does play he'll be overrun and made to look silly by the fact that Madrid have no defensive orgnisation or midfielders willing to track back. He'll be reduced to keeping a picture of Dirk in his wallet to remind him of what its like to have a player in front of you who actually gives a f*ck about the team and defensive duties.

[Dominus Maximus]

  Leo No.8 said:

The reality is he'll be pulling splinters out of his a*** for 6 months then out on loan at someone like Getafe.

 

Is right...

[ajams]

Would obviously have been nice to get another million or two for him, but not a bad piece of business overall. He did a decent enough job for a couple of years and we've made a small profit.

 

Shame we couldn't keep him as a squad player though - we're probably going to have to bring in another defender now.

[Woodsyla]

  obey Hysén said:

It's official then.

 

Very sad to see him go myself. He has been an excellent player for us, and I'm sure Rafa wanted to keep him. Hopefully GJ will introduce another dimension in our attacking play, as it was there Arby had his weakness. Then again when we play better sides I was always very comfortable having him on the team sheet. Right up there with Markus Babbel as our best right back of late (Finnan's probably a contender as well).

 

Always seemed a good personality, a team player and goal celebrator supreme.

You are aware he has done exactly the same thing that Owen did. (he didn't lie I suppose, so well done Arby for that one )

 

Personally, he can f*** off and f*** off whilst he is doing it and £3.5m is f*** all.

Edited July 29, 2009 by Woodsyla

[Bo Benn]

  Woodsyla said:

You are aware he has done exactly the same thing that Owen did. (he didn't lie I suppose, so well done Arby for that one )

 

Personally, he can f*** off and f*** off whilst he is doing it and £3.5m is f*** all.

 

My impression is that he wanted to go back to Spain for a while, that is why a new contract wasn't signed and Rafa was in on it. Which makes the deal a bit easier to swallow than Owen when Rafa was just appointed.

 

Still think he he was a very good player for us and we might struggle to replace him.

[mick]

When did we offer him a new contract? I'm p!ssed off that the Spanish fb (he's a better player than Ramos) leaves the club for 3.5 mill.

 

If we had extended his deal / offered him an improved contract last year we would be in a far better bargaining position now. The risk would have been minimal to the club because a)he's a good player to have in your squad and b) we would have been able to sell him if he wanted to go back to Spain.........

 

Although its not all bad news when selling fulll backs. Portsmouth can get 19 mill for one, Udinese can get 7 mill and Sevilla can get €27mill!!

[MFletcher]

There's some rather bizarre antagonism towards Arbeloa here.

 

He's a good player, he performed admirably for us, we've just bought England's first choice right back for £17.5M. He has one year left on his contract, and Real Madrid, who have just bought Kaka, Ronaldo and Benzema made a move for him.

 

I really don't think we can blame him for wanting to make the move.

 

I hope he does well for Madrid - he seems a good sort.

[Raj]

  mick said:

When did we offer him a new contract? I'm p!ssed off that the Spanish fb (he's a better player than Ramos) leaves the club for 3.5 mill.

 

Rafa said a couple of weeks ago that he offered a new contract to Arbeloa, but also said that he would have reduced opportunitites to play this coming season. Maybe he thought that we would prefer to go back to his original club and be a squad player, rather than stay here and have the same status

 

Ramos is a far better player.

[ChrisC]

I'd have hoped to have got more than the reported £3.5M for him tbh.

[Beardsley]

  MFletcher said:

There's some rather bizarre antagonism towards Arbeloa here.

 

He's a good player, he performed admirably for us, we've just bought England's first choice right back for £17.5M. He has one year left on his contract, and Real Madrid, who have just bought Kaka, Ronaldo and Benzema made a move for him.

 

I really don't think we can blame him for wanting to make the move.

 

I hope he does well for Madrid - he seems a good sort.

 

 

Is right.

[Chili Palmer]

  RedDownUnder said:

I'd have hoped to have got more than the reported £3.5M for him tbh.

 

 

Its how we save face when we sell Alonso, knock 2 million off Arbeloas fee and add it onto Alonsos, Rafa comes out and says we got our asking price.

[Bo Benn]

  mick said:

When did we offer him a new contract? I'm p!ssed off that the Spanish fb (he's a better player than Ramos) leaves the club for 3.5 mill.

 

If we had extended his deal / offered him an improved contract last year we would be in a far better bargaining position now. The risk would have been minimal to the club because a)he's a good player to have in your squad and b) we would have been able to sell him if he wanted to go back to Spain.........

 

Although its not all bad news when selling fulll backs. Portsmouth can get 19 mill for one, Udinese can get 7 mill and Sevilla can get €27mill!!

 

He may not be the god sent spain and RM fans claims he is, but I'd still have Ramos over both Arbeloa or Johnson any day of the week.

 

Extending someone's contract comes at a price and a risk as well. Again he may wanted so leave for some time now, and told management about. Therefore no attempt was made to get another contract signed.

[Woodsyla]

  MFletcher said:

There's some rather bizarre antagonism towards Arbeloa here.

 

we've just bought England's first choice right back for £17.5M.

and he went for £3.5m so he forced us to spend £14m on a right back to replace him.

 

That's why I'm f***ed off, he was plenty good enough for the position, yes Johnson is an improvement but I believe that £14m would have been better spent elsewhere.

[Cam]

**** him, the money-grasping ****. He's no better than Owen or McManaman.

 

Average, reasonable fullback who was only ever really first-choice for us for a season. He'll be missed no more than the likes of Cheyrou & Camara.

[MFletcher]

  Woodsyla said:

and he went for £3.5m so he forced us to spend £14m on a right back to replace him.

 

That's why I'm f***ed off, he was plenty good enough for the position, yes Johnson is an improvement but I believe that £14m would have been better spent elsewhere.

 

In what way did it force us to buy Johnson?

[Jarg Armani]

Madrid c***.

[MFletcher]

Right, there are some absolutely bizarre posts in this thread.

 

Maybe he wants to go back to Spain? Maybe he told Rafa this many months ago? Maybe he saw us buy Johnson and thought it best to move on? Maybe he knew we were going to buy Johnson months ago and believed his career was best served by moving on?

 

It's quite clearly not a case of 'money grabbing', because he wasn't going to play here. We've spent £17M on England's right back, we're not about to stick him on the bench for any length of time.

 

People need to give their heads a rattle. It's not a conspiracy, nor is it a move designed to annoy us. We've signed someone better, he has been offered a move to a massive club - his first club, one of the biggest in his home country - and has accepted it. What's wrong with that, exactly? If he had two years left on his contract would you be sticking the boot in? Lest we forget that Crouch rejected a new contract last summer before moving to Portsmouth, but I don't recall an outpouring of fury at that move.

Edited July 29, 2009 by MFletcher

[Chili Palmer]

  MFletcher said:

In what way did it force us to buy Johnson?

 

 

if he had told the management that he was leaving we had to go out and replace him with someone.

 

I liked Arbeloa but once a player leaves us (especially after a short time here) I lose interest in them. I've always been that way (except for Gary Mac)

[MFletcher]

  Chili Palmer said:

if he had told the management that he was leaving we had to go out and replace him with someone.

 

I liked Arbeloa but once a player leaves us (especially after a short time here) I lose interest in them. I've always been that way (except for Gary Mac)

 

Or maybe we bought Johnson and sought to sell Arbeloa to help fund the move?

[Chili Palmer]

  MFletcher said:

Or maybe we bought Johnson and sought to sell Arbeloa to help fund the move?

 

 

Rafa said he turned down a contract offer. We are definately not selling him against his wishes.