Arsene Wenger, as we all know, is a proud Frenchman and he has strong ties with the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. In his 18-year stint with Arsenal, he has signed a couple of players of French descent and Olivier Giroud became the 24th French player acquired by Wenger.
However, for every Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Bacary Sagna, Sylvain Wiltord and Samir Nasri he signed, there was a Mikael Silvestre, Pascal Cygan, Marouane Chamakh, Jeremie Aliadere and Sebastien Squillaci.
According to the Express, Arsenal is set to beat the likes of Tottenham and Aston Villa to signed the highly-rated French youngster, Paul-Georges Ntep. To add fuel to a raging inferno, Ntep posted a picture on Instagram showing a train ticket to London.
Arsenal is not the only team interested in signing this young lad as the Daily Mail reports that Queens Park Rangers are also hot on his tail in their bid to return to the Premier League next season.
The bloke was born in Cameroon but his moved to France in his early years. He played in a couple of youth squads before breaking into the scene in 2010, and in 47 Ligue 2 games, he has scored 13 goals with seven of them scored in 17 games this season.
It is believed that he could arrive to the Emirates for a transfer fee of £7 million but I tend to wonder if he’s worth the punt. The Express reports that Auxerre is also facing financial difficulties, so they would been keen to sell Ntep to balance their books.
Arsenal’s first acquisition from Auxerre was a certain Bacary Sagna in 2007 and he has become an indispensable member of the squad. With 262 appearances for Arsenal and five goals in that mix, Sagna is regarded as one of the senior members of the squad and his consistency levels are second to none. He has had his injury concerns as well as the contract issue that is yet to be resolved. Galatasaray intends to lure him away with a huge pay check but he’s in advanced talks with Arsenal for a contract extension.
The second acquisition from Auxerre (Yaya Sanogo) came this summer and he’s probably in a lab somewhere being used as an experiment alongside Abou Diaby. We would be hoping that the newly-hired head of sports science, Andy Rolls, would resurrect their injury-plagued careers.
Ntep’s form isn’t all that and his club is currently in 12th place in Ligue 2, which doesn’t bode well with their qualification hopes. I can understand the fact that it’s really hard finding targets in January but signing a player like Ntep won’t really inspire any confidence.
I feel that he’s in the mold of Joel Campbell, Wellington Silva and Ryo Miyaichi that would be signed and probably loaned out almost immediately so why take the punt on such a bloke? If we can’t sign any player this January that can make an immediate impact a la Andrey Arshavin, let’s keep our money in the bank and spend big in the summer.
According to the Metro, Arsenal intends to buy Ntep and loan him back to Auxerre till the end of the season, just as I suspected. This signing will definitely bring mixed receptions, and I’ll keep you updated as things unfold.
Lemme feast your appetite with a YouTube compilation of the bloke
Sayonara.
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