By Myles Palmer
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JOSE ANTONIO REYES is your typical Arsene Wenger-type footballer: slim, fast and skilful.
He is a left-footed flyer who can score with both feet.
And he plays in a team that plays with pace.
Seville, like Chievo in Italy, are a dynamic side who play the kind of football that Arsene likes to see.They don’t use four passes when two will do.
REYES is a Spanish Harry Kewell.
One of the least-known facts of last summer was that Arsenal, who were said to have no money, made a firm bid of £8 million for Reyes.
The bid was poo-poohed by Seville president, who said the boy was worth far more than that.
Jose Maria Del Nido scoffed and said, “We haven’t so much rejected Arsenal’s offer as laughed our socks off about it. I told their vice-chairman David Dein for that money we wouldn’t give him Reyes’s boots. He said they must be very expensive boots.
“Nobody in our squad is indispensable and in the modern economics of football, everybody must have their price – it’s just that Arsenal have got the wrong one for Reyes.”
IF YOU have a hot talent, you always say that.
The subtext was this: “We need the money, but we don’t wanna sell Reyes to another Spanish club.We don’t want him playing against us. And we don’t wanna upset our fans. If he goes to Arsenal and scores 40 goals in the next three years, and then is sold to Real Madrid for £25 million, that is not my fault. I can’t do anything about that.”
Why has Arsene signed Reyes now? To win the Champions League of course!
Is it a big risk to pay £16.8 million for a 20-year old?
Yes, but all transfers are risky.
I’d guess that Arsene has done his homework on this lad. He won’t be another Wiltord, another Jeffers.
I BET THAT REYES will turn out to be a real player with real ability, someone who can make a big impact in a trophy-winning team.
Why did AFC not announce work had started on the Ashburton site?
Because in the transfer window, when you are trying to sign a striker, you don’t tell the world that you’ve just borrowed £260 million for your new stadium.
You save that news for Feb 1st, when the window closes.
Exciting week , isn’t it?
Top-up fees vote tonight and the Hutton Report tomorrow.
Will it be 2-0 to Tony?
A 72-year old Irish judge is part of the Establishment. So he is not in the business of toppling governments.
But I can’t wait to see what he says.
27th January 2004.