Forset Capture Lansbury

 

By Nick Lander

 

Nottingham Forest have unveiled their 9th signing of the summer, Arsenal youngster Henri Lansbury, who joins in a permanent deal. The talented midfielder, who has also played in goal when called upon, is bringing to a close a 13 year association with the Gunners.

 

Lansbury worked his way through the ranks in North London, joining the club as an eight-year-old, as part of the same group as Jack Wilshere and Emmanuel Frimpong. The youngster made 3 Premier League and 5 League Cup appearances for the club, scoring in the 4-1 League Cup 3rd round victory at White Hart Lane in September 2010. The 21-year-old also has 14 caps for England U-21s - for whom one of his goalkeeping appearances came, after the substitute goalkeeper got sent off.

 

The youngster has plenty of football league experience, having had loan spells at Scunthorpe, Norwich and West Ham, enjoying promotion with all three. Lansbury made 22 appearances for the Hammers as they got promoted back to the Premier League last season, and will be hoping to have a greater involvement as Forest look to return to the top tier of English football, having joined on a 4 year deal, for a fee reported to be over £1m. Arsenal seem to be including hefty sell-on clauses in most transfers away from the club at the moment, and this is likely to be the case for Lansbury's too.

 

Lansbury's failure to really make it at Arsenal could be largely attributed to circumstance, he decided to go out on loan in August 2011, but failed to make any real impact in East London, and may have been better off remaining with Arsenal and trying to force his way into Arsene Wenger's first team plans. He also seemingly missed out on one last chance to prove himself, after injury prevented him from travelling on the club's Asia tour this summer - his replacement Thomas Eisfeld went on to score twice in the three games.

 

Lansbury had this to say about his move, "I am leaving a huge club in Arsenal... but the time is right for me to move on and I'm delighted to be joining a club of Forest's stature in the game.

 

"I'm in no doubt that Forest have what it takes to go up."

 

A player who I have always liked and thought talented, I am sure that Lansbury will be back in the Premier League soon, be that after a fourth successive promotion with Forest or somewhere else. I believe he will be more Seb Larsson than David Bently with his post-Arsenal career.

 

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Bartley departs Arsenal

By Nick Lander

Young centre back Kyle Bartley has joined Swansea City on a permanent basis. The Mancunian stopper has spent much of his time as an Arsenal player on loan, enjoying his best spells in the SPL with Rangers last season and the season before that, being part of the squad that won the 2010/11 SPL title.

Bartley said on his Twitter that, "[it] was an extremely tough decision for me to leave Arsenal, but felt the time was right. Swansea offered me an opportunity, and I'm extremely excited to start my career here, will always be thankful to Arsenal for my education.

"[I] was told my chances of game time this year would be limited, and as an ambitious young player I wanted to play in the Premiership.

"Now I'm here I will give 100% for Swansea. Thank you everyone who has been behind me. [A] new chapter for me and I can't wait."

The youngster has left the Gunners for £1m, though it is likely that the club has included a hefty sell on clause - as seems to be their preference at the moment - and may include a buy back clause too (one was surprisingly included in Carlos Vela's departure so it's plausible).

While he featured regularly on the club's Asia tour this pre-season, Captain-elect Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker and Johan Djourou were all ahead of the 21-year-old in the Arsenal pecking order. With little chance of any first team action barring another defensive injury crisis, the former Bolton man now has a good chance to carve out a Premier League career for himself, and The N5 Blog would like to wish him the best of luck in Wales - except for in the two games against Arsenal!

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Ryo Heads to Wigan

By Nick Lander

As reported by the N5 Blog last week, Ryo Miyaichi is heading to Wigan Athletic on a season long loan. Arsenal confirmed this morning that the 19 year old winger is moving to the DW Stadium for the year.

Miyaichi featured in Arsenal's Asia tour, but did not travel to Germany, for the 4-0 win over Cologne. He spent the second half of last season on loan at Bolton Wanderers, who were keen for him to return there this season, but will be staying in the Premier League, as he looks to gain further first-team experience at Wigan. Miyaichi scored once in 14 appearances for the Trotters, but as at Feyenoord established himself as a firm fans' favourite.

Ryo's arrival may signal that Chelsea will be successful in their attempts to sign Victor Moses, who shone for Roberto Martinez's side at the tail end of last season. It has been said in the media that Martinez was seeking to sign Ryo as his replacement, before he would allow him to move on.

Wigan's style of football is similar to Arsenal's and all parties will be hoping that Miyaichi can play regularly and return to Arsenal an improved player.

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Arshavin & Shea set for Moves

By Nick Lander

Both Andrei Arshavin and James Shea are believed to be nearing moves away from the club.

Shea, who kept a clean sheet in the Arsenal XI game at Stevenage today (Saturday), was in training with Graham Westley's Preston North End last week, as a trial spell with a view to the Reserves goalkeeper joining the Lancashire club on loan. The 21 year old has had two fruitless loan spells in the past, having managed just four senior appearances so far in his career - none for Arsenal. He really needs experience and the Gunners will be desperate that any loan to Preston works out significantly better than Shea's previous spells.

Another player who looks set to move on is Russia captain Andrei Arshavin. His departure has been widely expected since he moved to Zenit St Petersburg on loan in January. They were believed to have been keen on taking him back at the club permanently, but a bitter war of words with the Russian public, after the nation's underwhelming Euro 2012 campaign seems to have ended their interest. West London side Fulham are now understood to be in pole position to sign the diminutive forward, with Arsenal likely to hold out for a fee in the region of £5-10m. Arshavin was left out of Arsenal's Asian tour in order to secure a move away from the club.

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Arsenal Reject van Persie Bids

By Nick Lander

Arsenal are believed to have received and rejected three bids for Robin van Persie this morning. Understood to be from Manchester United, Manchester City and Juventus, none of the bids topped £15m, way below the Gunners' £20m asking price.

Van Persie announced that he would not sign an Arsenal contract extension at the beginning of July, and there has been a flurry of speculation since. The striker joined Arsenal for just £2.75m back in 2004 from Feyenoord. With 48 goals in his last 55 Premier League games, van Persie is on form - it took him 139 games to score his first 48 Premiership goals - and the Gunners are unwilling to even enter formal talks with any bidding party until they receive an offer of at least £20m.

Having scored a goal every 111 minutes he was on the pitch in 2011/12 with a league high 58% of his shots on target, it is unsurprising the amount of interest there is in Arsenal's captain. In addition to the three clubs who have already bid, AC Milan are expected to get involved at some stage, and both Real Madrid and Barcelona are understood to have an interest in signing the Dutchman.

Following these bids, van Persie is now set to be left behind from Arsenal's forthcoming Asia tour, in order to work on his fitness (finalise a move elsewhere). If their valuation of their player is not met, Arsenal are believed to be prepared to hold him to the final year of his contract and lose him for nothing next summer.

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