by Tony Attwood
Having failed somewhat to get any transfer news right this summer I approach this prospective purchase with trepidation, and besides everyone else is talking about the player as a transfer, and this is Untold, so maybe we should leave it to the rest.
But since not everyone quite gets it all right, or at least complete, here’s the bits I have on the guy.
Luiz Gustavo Dias was born on 23 July 1987, which makes him 26, (although I would not ask BT Sport to confirm that given that their people can’t add up to over three), has played ten times for Brazil’s first team, and plays defensive midfield, left back and centre back – a range which adds to the clue as to why we might want him.
He started at Corinthians Alagoano and then moved to Germany ending up at Bayern Munich. The cost was around £15m give or take a few.
| Season | Club | Games | Goals |
| 2007–2008 | Corinthians Alagoano | 21 | 2 |
| 2007 | CRB loan | 14 | 1 |
| 2007–2008 | 1899 Hoffenheim loan | 27 | 0 |
| 2008–2011 | 1899 Hoffenheim | 72 | 2 |
| 2011–2013 | Bayern Munich | 64 | 6 |
On 25 May 2013, he was a 91st minute sub replacing Franck Ribéry as Bayern won the Champions League.
He played for the first time for his country on 10 August 2011 against Germany and played in Confeds Cup when Brazil beat Spain 3-0.
According to a Bayern Munich interview his mother (now deceased) is his inspiration having told him in a dream he would one day succeed as a player.
So a Brazilian… the mind goes back to Gilberto Silva who signed for us for the ludicrous fee of around £4m. That was in the days when the quality of the player was never measured by the fee he commanded. He played for us 237 times, also plays the mandolin and has an anteater at London zoo named after him. We’ll have to wait and see if Luiz Gustavo is in the same league.
Interesting also that it was only yesterday that the Arsenal History Society blog did a review of Alex Song – (“not fit to wear the shirt”) and maybe this is the replacement moment for Alex.
Mr Wenger has confirmed an interest but last weekend in Helsinki (where we beat Manchester City 3-1 in case you didn’t notice) he said there was “nothing concrete yet”.
What makes the transfer possible is that Gustavo was not a first-choice selection for Bayern last season and has not played for them at the start of this season, so the player might well want to move. Thiago Alcantara, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martínez seem to be the Bayern choice.
What this would do is reduce the dependency on Mikel Arteta who has been rarely injured, but who is getting older, so there is an obvious sense to the offer.
The word (so often wrong this summer) is that Bayern will sell so it is just the fee and terms issue. It is also thought to be the case that this will not be another Gonzalo Higuaín story where the price goes up from £23m to £31 million in a matter of days. Insane economics are less common in Germany.
All of which means, given Untold’s record this season, that he’ll be transferred to …. (fill in the dots).
Arsenal Anniversaries: 12 August
- 12 August 1977: First appearance of Pat Jennings in friendly v Luton
- 12 August 1996: Bruce Rioch sacked.
- 12 August 2007: First game of final season at Highbury Arsenal 2 Fulham 1
- Full anniversary list
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
Gustavo looks perfect for Arsenal. Not saying anymore in case i jinx it.
//
I am a little surprised that ManC seemed to roll over so easily. Now this is not to say i did not expect Arsenal to play well, but with all the players at ManC, i expected a tougher game. Maybe they are just getting the measure of Arsenal before the season starts. I see that Mourinho wants Drogba back (solely for the games against Arsenal) this season as he is (probably the only opposition coach who is) well aware of Arsenal’s threat.
Anyway, season starts next week and let’s all get behind the team now. Forward ye gunners.
It would be strange if we sign Perez and gustavo I think only one of the two
para,
I think our team just played really well.
He appears an excellent player from what I have seen of him, a mix of skill, pace and power. He would be a welcome addition no doubt.
Tony,
I don’t like it when you do this. Please I REALLY like Gustavo. Please don’t jinx it 🙂
I never really cared for Higuain despite the noise about him. Going by everything that I have seen this pre-season, Giroud is better than Higuain but unfortunately, he is already our player and he did not cost an arm and a leg. Everybody knows that only expensive non-Arsenal players are good enough to help Arsenal succeed! Giroud, Walcot and the others will make many eat their words this season.
I am hoping for Gustavo now but if we fail to get him, I’m holding you responsible Tony! We all need a scapegoat and you know that mine’s not going to be Wenger 🙂
One team’s deadwood player becomes another’s brilliant signing of the season ?
Rather than jinx the likely transfer of Gustavo, I would prefer to discuss the possible signing of Justin Welby, the well-known defensive m/f, recently translated from Durham to Canterbury in the Kent League (and otherwise known in
Papua New Guinea as Archie, Bishop of Canterbury).
If we are unsuccessful in our chase for Suarez (I personally feel that £51 million would be an insane price to pay), does Wenger have any back up alternatives lined up? IMHO we should be seriously looking at Seydou Doumbia from CSKA Moscow and Erik Lamela (AC Roma). Both prolific in front of goal and relatively young; probably £20 million price tag for each. Jackson Martinez would be great as well or a possible cheaper option, Eder at Braga.
He will surely be very good addition given his performances for Freibourg, Bayern Munich and Brazil. I learnt that Napoli are porknosing again! Will someone tell this Benitez of a guy to back off from arsenal’s targets! He will never in his own capability discover any good player!
Good morning Tony,
I normally read articles posted on your site once in a while I really like the balance of the contents. As for Gustavo,we would like to see him in an arsenal shirt asap as he will add quality and quantity to our team.We also expect arsenal to bring in at least three additional quality players other than Gustavo(if at all he is coming).
The way things are moving at Arsenal at the moment looks like we are changing our strategy of relying on our academy kids and buying players with potential.This is supported by the fact that alot of academy players have been released this summer and a good number of first players have been released.
This is what alot of arsenal fans have been asking all these years.I wish we did this in 2009-2010 season but you can never know why.
Gunnerdamu… The Academy kids have always been a mix of those who come in at nine or thereabouts, as Jack did, and those who we bring in at 16.
We are seeing Hayden, Zelalem, Martinez, Gnabry – all brought in as teenagers, but all counting as Academy players. If they do make it they will count as “English” under the “25” rule because they have been trained by Arsenal, just as Cesc always counted as “English”
I think the academy is doing fine.
Reports that the increasingly excellent Ramsey has picked up a knock, so, hopefully there is something in this one. As Wenger says, we are light on numbers so can only assume players will be coming in the next few weeks. Do not know that much about Gustavo, but a Brazil international, and a defensively versatile one at that sounds like a very useful option. Despite the heroics of Atreta and Ramsey at times, we have still missed the Song/ Gilberto type in some games.
But as we all know, signings, Arsenal.com and all that…..
I read in other forum that Chelsea are bidding for Gustavo so I better start to forget. Frimpong is there anyway why forget.
If we do not bloster the squad then I am afraid it will be the same old same old. Let’s hope we can wrap this up. Seems like a good significant signing, if we do get.
Tony I agree with you on the academy issue but what i wanted to bring out is that our academy has not been that successful in producing quality players other than Fabrigas, and Wilshere. Yes Hayden, Zelalem, Martinez, Gnabry,Akpom are promising young stars but how far they will go,nobody can tell.
I think Arsenal have realized that relying on the academy to generate first team players is not as successful as it was anticipated although the system seems to be working for teams like Borussia Dortmount and Barcelona. Maybe we need to find out what they are doing right and what we are doing wrong.
@ brick fields, Bergkamp???…
Tony!
When do new players have to be registered by to be eligible to play in the CL?
alex, The cut off for the qualifiers is this week, I think.
@ robl – Good example . Henry was in the lurch at Juventus.
Brickfields,
Sol was playing at Spurs and we revived his image enabling him to go out in public again.
Thanks Adam.
Still there is time then.
Yup, did someone say knock. Yes was surprised to see this pop up. Ramsey was running alright after that Silvas ankle breaker challenge. Lets hope this is a minor…… sore ankle (right term??) and he recovers for the Villa game.
Certainly hope so Arsenal 13. At least in the last year or so, we seem to be setting our transfer sights a bit higher than in in recent years. Of course this presents its own problems and actually getting these types of in demand players is a different matter. who knows who we could end up with, I have from day 1 been convinced we will not get Suarez but Rogers is digging himself a big hole that will not be easy to get out of.
@ Stuart – To this day I still believe that Pat Jennings was the best deadwood buy from the Spuds .He saved us a bundle and played brilliantly for us .
Kevin Richardson from Watford was another who did well .
@ Tony..: “I think the academy is doing fine.”
I have asked repeatedly for you and UA to think about doing a thoroughly analytical piece about the academy and youth development at the club (esp. post the Invinceables), so through hard analysis we can discuss the successes and/or failures of our youth development.
With UA’s analytical capabilities evidenced in your commendable effort for (often numerical and qualitative)analysis in ref and even media issues, why wouldn’t you want to perform similar analysis on a topic that can arguably be seen as one of the core values/strategies of our Club and Manager.
On topic, Gustavo would be a great and needed signing. Reminds me a lot of the legendary Gilberto “The Invisible Wall” Silva.
@ A. Stewart, why don’t you do a piece for untold about the acadamy pre and post the invincibles? from 5 minutes of looking most of the info is public domain.
Because I don’t think I’m good enough analytically nor connected enough to do so. I think UA does fantastic deep analytical pieces regardless of if I agree with the conclusions or not, so I believe they could do a much better job that me.
Abu Rahman
Discover? Why do you mean?
Gustavo is a well-known player and everyone in the whole world knows he is surplus to requirements at Bayern after they bought Martinez. They wouldn’t have paid €40m for Martinez to leave him rot on the bench.
As for Napoli, who can be blamed if they sign him? Wenger had months to buy players but he refused. He chose to do nothing as usual and to add insult to injury he claimed bulls*it like ‘Arsenal can win the title with this squad’.
With a threadbare squad just a few injuries and Arsenal will be in shambles.
Wenger has forgotten the embarrassment of the 8-2 drubbing at the hands of ManU when Arsenal had to rely on clueless kids that day. No wonder he can’t remember a thing because Wenger is not accountable at Arsenal. Pathetic!
Wenger will never be like Klopp he doesn’t have what it takes to make young players winners.
sperez, just in case you missed it at the top of the page.
Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
Football news from a positive Arsenal perspective
Sperez arsenal just smashed city yes city with all there investment. why don’t you turn this old record off you are starting to sound like a compleate twat with your uneducated views on how the club should be run . IMO. You undermine the club this site and anything to do with the arsenal football club you and the rest of the twats on the shite blog your always on should try and get a relationship with one of the opposite sex otherwise your always be a w_ _k_r
“get a relationship with one of the opposite sex”
The font,
Why would that be your advice?
Bob ok any sexual preference if that helps
The font,
Yeah, better put…it does help. Cheers.
Also bob I am a firm believer you should try everything once
I still can not give credence to the gustavo rumour Perez will probably sign and will be back up for Ramsey /arteta With jack carzorla Rosicky and the ox Alternating
A.Stewart,
Why don’t you do an article? Your comments are usually article length anyway so I don’t see how it could be too difficult.
Perez sounds too much like Sperez for my liking.
SPerez – Sebastian Perez….
@Stuart
My God, you don’t think the AAA have infiltrated the dressing room do you?
A.Stewart…..your idea of an analytical review of the Academy since the 2005 season is a good one, so I’ll look into what analysis would make most sense and maybe offer up an opus majeur.
Wenger seems to be well aware of the fragility of the defensive midfield we currently have and has it all under control, despite Sperez’s predictable vitriolic and irrational rant. He has also been very actively looking for some support for Giroud (aside from Suarez)and I believe his main concern is reintegrating players like Wilshere, Rosicky and Monreal to full fitness and first team rotation.
The two trialists seem to be doing well and IF Luis Gustavo is an actual option, then we will have some strength in depth,given the Academy options we have as well.
If all esle fails, we still have Bendtner???????? LOL
@A.Stewart
actually in response to your request for a survey like this, i posted excerpts from a survey comparing the amount of players in first teams of top division clubs in england, spain, italy, germany and france, produced by clubs academies. it’d be fair to say we are middle-of-the-road. you can find the info in the comments section of the 18-july post, lets ged-it-on