The Club's official photographer sent back these exclusive pictures from Arsenal's European base:
Samir Nasri has insisted there was nothing sinister behind the delay in his transfer from Marseille to Arsenal.
The Gunners moved for the playmaker at the start of the summer, but it was not until July that he finally sealed his transfer.
The delay had led to suggestions that Arsenal could miss out on the 21-year-old, but he claims he had given his word to Arsene Wenger before Euro 2008.
Lyon came in for Nasri, but he has insisted there was never any chance of him playing for any other French side than Marseille.
“Lyon approached me,” Nasri told France-Football. “I spoke with chairman [Jean-Michel] Aulas on the phone. But this contact did not go forward. At this moment I had almost already made up my mind.
“I had given my word to Arsene Wenger. And I couldn’t see myself moving to a different French club than Marseille!
“I never doubted both clubs would find an agreement. There has been nonsense rumours. Both clubs just had to find an agreement to make my transfer official in L’OM’s 2008/2009 balance sheet.
“I already knew I was an Arsenal player before Euros. I passed the medical when I returned from Switzerland then we decided to make my transfer official for my return from holiday in mid-July.
“In my mind I was liberated.”
Nasri claims Arsenal’s attacking style seduced him, and he has revealed he will replace Alexander Hleb on the left wing.
“I am joining a club that plays some of the best football in Europe,” he said. “I was charmed when I watched Arsenal’s games in the Champions League.
“They achieved a tremendous first half to the season. To me England is the ideal destination and Arsenal are the perfect club!
“Arsene Wenger told me he wants to play me on a wing. But there are so many movements in the team that I’ll have the possibility to switch position.
“I was used to playing on the left wing with the youth teams. I don’t mind. Friendlies are made to find your mark.
“My mother chose my number 8. It’s a gift to make her happy. She’s not especially into football but as I’m leaving home for the first time I wanted to give her a twinkling of an eye.”
Bacary Sagna expects to be fully fit and raring to go when the season gets underway in less than four weeks time.
The Frenchman completed 45 minutes in the Gunners’ pre-season friendly win at Barnet on Saturday, his first appearance since an ankle injury against Chelsea bought his superb debut campaign to a shuddering halt in March.
Despite the weekend run-out, Sagna remains cautious but two weeks of pre-season training has already bought about a sharp rise in fitness. He expects that trend to continue.
“I still feel my ankle a little bit, but I can run and play football normally and I am confident it will improve every day,” Sagna told Arsenal.com. “It was good to play on Saturday and it is a nice feeling to be back in front of the fans. I haven’t played since March so I was pleased to be with my team-mates as well.
“I feel better now and I hope that I can feel better and better with every new game.
“The last couple of weeks have been hard because it is the first time since my injury that I have been in training. I needed to find my performance level again and be prepared to give more than I have before. I do think, though, that I will be fit for the start of the season.”
So fitness isn’t a worry, but is he worried he may suffer a bout of the infamous ‘second-season syndrome’?
“No not at all," he replied. "I am not even thinking about that as a possibility. I only want to focus on my own game, perform for Arsenal and see what the season brings. Hopefully it will be some cups.”
Last season, Theo Walcott showed Arsenal fans the first real signs of his massive potential. This season, Arsène Wenger will ask the 19-year-old to barge his way into the first-team on a regular basis. The Frenchman freely admits he does not yet know whether Walcott will play up front or on the wing but, he argues, there are “no limitations” on how the England international can develop.
“Theo made a step forward last season and you expect him to improve again,” said Wenger after the 2-1 win over Barnet on Saturday. “The target last year was for him to play 15 to 20 games and show quality. The target this year is to become a regular player.
“What position he’ll play in I don’t know. At the moment he looks more at ease wide than as a central striker. But we have to wait through the preparation games and see how ready he will be. The Barnet game was not a good opportunity to judge him.”
That is undeniably true. On Saturday, Walcott started up front alongside Nicklas Bendtner as Wenger fielded a more established XI in the first half and a younger one after the break. It appeared to be an “easing in” exercise for a rusty first-team squad. Arsenal trailed the League Two side at half time and had to rely on goals from Jay Simpson and Nacer Barazite to secure a comeback victory.
Afterwards Wenger spoke about the issues surrounding Walcott as a striker or a wide midfielder.
“He is not really a link player he is more a runner so you need to find a link player who can play close to him,” said Wenger. “It depends on who he plays with and you need to find the right combination. But he can play wide, right, left, central.
“Still I expect a lot from him, this season. At 19 years of age you have to improve. But how much better I don’t really know. You certainly don’t put any limitations on that."
Name: Carlos Alberto Vela Garrido
Club: Arsenal FC
D.O.B: March 1st 1989
Height: 1.78m
Weight: 72kg
Position: Striker, Second Striker
After spending the last couple of seasons on loan in Spain, young Mexican starlet Carlos Vela can finally be unleashed in the Premier League after being granted a work permit, which cleared him to play for Arsenal for the coming season. The 19-year-old striker’s route to North London has not been without fault and he has been waiting a long time for his chance in the Gunners’ first team, and the Arsenal faithful will certainly be hoping he can take it.
Starting Out
Carlos Vela was born on March 1st 1989, in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico. He is the younger brother of current Cruz Azul striker Alejandro Vela. Carlos learned a great deal from his brother as a youngster, and followed him into football by signing for Chivas de Guadalajara when he was just 12 years old.
Having never played a first team game for the club, Vela was thrust into the spotlight after being selected for Mexico’s U-17 World Championship squad to play in Peru along with fellow rising star Giovani Dos Santos. This tournament proved to be a life changing one for Vela, as he ended up with the Golden Boot award after his five goals helped Mexico to lift the trophy, beating Brazil 3-0 in the final, in which Vela scored. This tournament showed the world Vela’s raw pace and clinical finishing, and in less than a month, the young striker had become a name for the future.
Vela has always been known as being very close to his family, and as the World Championship final fell on the same day as his father’s birthday, the young forward decided to dedicate his golden boot award to his father, giving it to him as a present.
After the World Championships, his club Guadalajara decided to offer him a professional contract, and as a condition of the contract, Vela insisted that his family were relocated from the then-storm-stricken town of Cancun. Jorge Vergara, President of the club, agreed, and Vela signed on professional terms with the Jalisco based side.
After some excellent performances in the Guadalajara reserves, Vela began attracting massive interest from a host of European giants including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United and Inter Milan. Arsenal were also on the trail of the young Mexican marksman, and in November 2005, the London based club faxed through an offer of £2.5m, which the Mexican side duly accepted. After passing a medical and agreeing a five year contract with the Gunners, all Vela and Arsenal had to do now was obtain a work permit for him, however, this would not prove so easy. His application for a work permit was rejected as he had not reached the required number of games for the national side, and his application for an ‘Exceptional Talent’ visa was also rejected by the Home Office. The Gunners appealed the decision, but in vain and finally agreed that Vela should be taken on loan by a Spanish club, until he had EU citizenship.
El Camino
Arsenal had recently formed a link with then Spanish La Liga side Celta de Vigo, and Vela was sent on loan there for the remainder of the 2005/2006 season. He failed to make much impact during his time with Celta and did not play a single game in the five months he was there. Celta planned to take Vela on loan again for the following season, but pulled out of the deal as they were restricted by a law on non Spanish players. The loan and link with Celta was cancelled and Arsenal looked for another club to take him on loan for the 2006/2007 season.
UD Salamanca of the Spanish Segunda were chosen and after a very brief settling in period, Vela became a regular in the side, scoring 8 goals in 31 games, and becoming a fan favourite in the process.
Even after the year and a half Vela had spent in Spain, EU regulations and British Work Permit laws still restricted him from becoming an EU citizen.
After his impressive displays in the Spanish Segunda playing for Salamanca, Vela had attracted massive interest from some La Liga sides including UD Levante, Real Betis, Osasuna and UD Almeria, who all made loan offers for the youngster.
In the summer of 2007, Vela agreed a one year loan switch to La Liga side Osasuna, and had an option of a one year extension to the deal, but no permanent deal was put in place, as Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger seemed desperate to keep hold of the talent he knew Vela had.
The season started well for Vela with Osasuna, with his impressive displays earning praise from the Spanish media, and this media attention was increased when he scored his first goal for the club against Real Betis in a La Liga league game in October 2007. The goal displayed Vela’s strengths as he played a neat one two with a teammate and with a smart, powerful finish with his educated left foot into the top corner of the goal, Vela put his side 2-0 up in an eventual 3-0 win. The young Mexican had begun to make his talent known on the big stage.
He followed that goal up with smart finishes against Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid, showing that he had skill and patience to match his raw talent and pace. He finished the season with Osasuna with 3 goals in a very healthy 33 appearances for the club, in turn giving him invaluable experience in one of Europe’s toughest leagues.
Lessons Learned
Speaking to Arsenal’s club website in the summer of 2008, Vela reflected on a successful learning curve in Spain, saying, “It has helped me, first of all it taught me what it was like being away from your home country - that helped me grow up as a person and as a player. I think that the Spanish and English style of football is the best in the world. I think also that playing against the best players in the world can only help me grow as a player. The whole experience was a big lesson for me. I think that I achieved the targets I had there because I had more minutes on the pitch and gained more experience.”
His first team international career was also kick started with his displays in Spain’s top division, and he made his debut for the Mexican first team in September 2007 in a friendly against Brazil. His first international goal came against Guatemala in a friendly in Los Angeles a month later. Since then, Vela has made 5 further appearances for his country, and now has a goal scoring tally of 4 goals in 7 games, an impressive statistic for someone still learning his trade on the big stage.
Vela returned to Arsenal in the summer of 2008, and has started pre season training with the first team, after finally being granted a work permit on the 22nd May. Arsene Wenger has likened Vela’s playing style to that of current Arsenal star Eduardo, and commented on the Mexican’s talents by telling the club’s website, “He has played the whole season at Osasuna on the left wing and he had to work hard there, but for me it is not his position, he is a central striker, an Eduardo type. He is a great young player.”
Vela also spoke to the club’s website, expressing his delight at finally being able to play for the club by saying, “I am very proud to finally be here and I am truly very happy, I have been waiting three years for this moment and now I am here I will work very hard to earn my place in the first-team and I hope to be at this club for a very long time.”
Arsene Wenger has publically said that Vela, who has been given the number 12 shirt, will be part of his first team plans for the coming season, and Gunners’ fans will hope he can reach the high standards set by the likes of Thierry Henry, Ian Wright and Dennis Bergkamp, and eventually go on to achieve legendary status at the club.
Arsene Wenger insists he is unconcerned that his likely title rivals for the coming season look ready to spend huge amounts again this summer.
Arsenal finished within four points of Chelsea and Manchester United last season but while it has been another frugal summer in North London - with the sales of Alexander Hleb and Gilberto Silva financing moves for Samir Nasri and Aaron Ramsey - both Sir Alex Ferguson and Luiz Felipe Scolari are plotting multi-million pound signings.
It is now no secret that United are looking to sign Dimitar Berbatov in a deal that could reportedly reach £28 million, while Chelsea have utilised Roman Abramovich's riches to sign Jose Bosingwa and Deco, with Brazil stars Kaka and Robinho also targets that could fetch a world record transfer fee.
It is a familiar situation that Wenger finds himself in, as the move to Emirates Stadium has caused the North London club to be more reserved in the transfer market in recent seasons, and despite suggestions that The Gunners are in danger of slipping away from both Chelsea and United, the Frenchman is unconcerned by the current transfer climate.
"No it doesn't bother me too much," said Wenger.
"I know at the start of the transfer market Chelsea can buy who they want, and I cannot stop that."
Arsenal could be forced into the market for a striker if Emmanuel Adebayor joins Barcelona though, as the Togo international has seen his future at Emirates Stadium plunged into doubt by a contractual dispute.
Adebayor has failed to endear himself to Gunners fans by asking for a similar wage to former captain and all-time record goalscorer Thierry Henry after his success in scoring 30 goals for the club last season.
Saturday's pre-season friendly against Barnet saw some pointed songs directed at the striker by the travelling support but his manager is refusing to judge Adebayor after reputed quotes from the player and his agent regarding his situation this summer.
Wenger - who claims he has not attached an asking price to last season's top scorer - has urged the former Monaco man to respect the club's wage structure as the uncertainty over his future continues.
"No [we have not put a price on his head], at any price if you come in tomorrow with £400 million then I will think about it! I do not want to go into any speculation, I want to keep Adebayor," Wenger added.
"I don't know what has gone on because a lot has been denied, it is very difficult to know what is true and what is said and not said, he denies 99 percent of it.
"I have never met many people who have said 'I do not have a case for a new contract'! We are always ready and I fight always to get the players the maximum wages but you have to respect the wage structure."
As effortlessly as he plays his football, Theo Walcott provides a little reassurance. Ronaldo, Dwain Chambers and the England rugby players in New Zealand have supplied the feel-bad headlines of the summer. An afternoon with Walcott casts a rather different light on the life of the professional sportsman.
For a start, he pulls up in front of the Hertfordshire home that he shares with his parents in a VW Golf, which in the ostentatious world of the Premier League footballer represents ludicrous restraint. He has returned from a gruelling double session at Arsenal's training ground, but immediately busies himself fetching drinks, asking me and the photographer how we are, were our journeys troublesome, do we mind which room we sit in. He runs upstairs to change and is back down in seconds. He is not the sort to spend 20 minutes doing his hair or texting his mates and, in the three hours we spend with him, he does not use his phone once. For a footballer, it is a little bit weird. 'What did you expect?' he asks, then stops. He knows the answer to that question.
Walcott is not the stereotypical footballer. He seems weary of those recent headlines - court cases, slaves, celebrity girlfriends - that have made footballers such an easy target for criticism. He sighs. 'Everyone is different, but the stuff you see some footballers doing, cheating on their girlfriends and stuff, I just think, "Why?" Why have a girlfriend, or a wife and kids if you're going to cheat?' he says. 'And drinking; when you've finished your career you can have a drink - obviously not become an alcoholic...' He trails off. 'I don't drink at all. I never have done. Back at school people would take the mick out of me for not drinking at parties and stuff, but that didn't bother me. It's only a short career and the way you are off the pitch makes a big difference.'
As we talk, the European under-19 championship is on television. England are playing the Czech Republic. Walcott glances up occasionally to check the score. 'It's weird to think I could be playing for them right now,' he says. Instead he recently made his second senior appearance for England, against Trinidad & Tobago, following a successful spell with the under-21s and a string of impressive performances for Arsenal. 'It feels like I've been around for ages,' he says, 'but I'm still only 19.'
Perhaps it is his age, but there is something refreshing about Walcott. He is unguarded in his conversation, but too smart to be drawn into saying anything silly.
Apart from that England friendly in the Caribbean in June, he has had a quiet summer. 'It's been nice to get away from football and do other things. I don't even know who's signed for who, I'm just not that interested. I don't watch that - what's it called?' Sky Sports News? 'Yeah. I'm not interested.'
What does he think of Cristiano Ronaldo's 'slavery' comments? He laughs. 'Not bad, is it, being a slave on that much a year? Anyone would do that, I can guarantee.'
Walcott says a life in football is 'a dream come true' - which happens to be the name of a charity he supports - so why worry about money and contracts? He never has done. The charity arranges 'dreams' for terminally ill children, such as snow on Christmas Day, or waking up to find cows in your back garden.
In Walcott's case the dream was more a nightmare, a swarm of paparazzi after he became the most expensive 16-year-old English footballer at £9.1m, the figure that Arsenal and Southampton finally settled on earlier this year, following his move in January 2006. He did not make an Arsenal appearance that season, but became, at 17 years and three months, the youngest England player to be selected for a senior squad when Sven-Goran Eriksson picked him for the World Cup five months after that transfer. He soon became the youngest player to have scored for the under-21s, when he played against Moldova as a 17-year-old in August 2006.
The first time I saw Walcott play he was 16 and making only his second full appearance for Southampton, against Millwall at The Den. Four days earlier he had scored on his full debut away at Leeds and already there was a ripple of excitement around him.
In the press box the whisper was, 'This kid is going places'. From the whistle, Walcott did not disappoint. The afternoon was meant to be all about Dennis Wise - on his first return to The Den since joining Southampton - but as Wisey sat on the bench, Walcott stole the show. His darting runs terrified the Millwall defence. Their only response was to floor him. Despite this attention, Walcott put Southampton ahead after 18 minutes, his second senior goal in as many starts. Walcott says he has a bad memory, but he has not forgotten that day.
'I remember getting kicked about,' he says, grinning. 'I've actually got a scar on my knee from it. Someone put a hole in my knee, I can't remember the name of the guy who did it but he had no teeth.' He laughs at the stereotype. 'Yeah, proper Millwall.'
It is staggering how much life has changed for Walcott in three years. From Championship to Premier League aged 16, from a modest home to riches - although even now his home seems free from showiness or expensive James Bond-style gadgets.
At the time of the 2006 World Cup, a major breakthrough for Walcott that became mainstream news, his family could not afford to stay in the same hotel as the other England footballers' families. 'We didn't have the funds to stay there, and anyway the prices were ridiculous,' he says. 'To be honest it was nice to be out of the way. The World Cup was an experience for my family as well as me. Mel [girlfriend Melanie Slade] had to deal with the whole Wag culture - I hate that term, Wag.'
The media went crazy for them. How was it for Walcott? 'I was just a little 16-year-old running around on the pitch like a mad person, trying to impress. I didn't take any notice of anything else. You can't, people might say something you don't want to hear, or something really good that might go to your head and then your football goes downhill.'
As quickly as the excitement over Eriksson's young selection grew, it evaporated. Walcott did not play in the World Cup and resentment set in. In his autobiography, Steven Gerrard said that Walcott 'had no right to be there'. Headlines buzzed. Walcott was and remains unfazed. 'I didn't expect the call-up. I was only just taking my driving test at the time. Everyone always says, "He shouldn't have been there, blah blah blah," but it doesn't bother me. I didn't pick the team so don't judge me. It's not my fault.
'There was a lot of pressure straight away. With most young players their development is not on the telly or spoken about, but with me it was different. The England call-up didn't help my development, because everyone was expecting something straight away. In the end it was a good experience, but at the time it was like, "Whoa".'
He says he was starstruck when first picked by England. A keen Liverpool fan, he remembers showing Michael Owen - his boyhood hero - a photo of them together when Walcott had only just started playing football. 'When that photo was taken I was 11. When I showed it to Michael I was 17 - six years later. He couldn't believe it. The whole thing was so weird.'
When Steve McClaren took over from Eriksson and called to say that Walcott would be starting in the under-21s, he felt much happier. 'I was only 17 then anyway, so going into the 21s even then was a big honour. Doing well for them and scoring goals got my confidence back and people were just judging me on that.' Walcott missed the European under-21 championship finals in 2007 through a dislocated shoulder, but his contribution in getting the team there did not go unnoticed. Slowly, Walcott's reputation was being rebuilt.
When Fabio Capello named him for the Trinidad friendly, it completed that circle and Walcott felt the difference in the reception from the other players this time around.
'Whereas before I hadn't played in the Premier League, some players were probably thinking, "What's he doing here? He doesn't deserve to be here", now I'd been doing well,' he says. 'The players made me feel welcome; they trusted me on the ball, which was nice. I felt more part of the squad.'
Eriksson's World Cup gamble was not entirely wasted, though. While England played out their triumphs and woes, on and off the pitch, Walcott was busy making a video diary of his experiences.
'They gave us cameras, so I decided to record something every day about how I was feeling. Initially, it was to keep myself entertained and to show the family, but it's quite a handy thing to keep hold of,' he says. 'I haven't shown it to anyone yet... but I'm quite clever when it comes to those things.'
With the attention surrounding Walcott's emergence, there was a period when every newspaper seemed to carry photos of the young star and his girlfriend. They looked destined to follow the celebrity route. They graced the front of Hello!, appeared on the ITV gameshow Mr and Mrs, and Mel posed for the cover of men's magazine Arena. Walcott's father, Don, appeared on Celebrity Ready Steady Cook - in a face-off with Andy Murray's mum, Judy - and the whole family starred in a cameo role in the film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Walcott survived the experience. He laughs about the Hello! photos. 'That was so weird,' he says. 'We look fake! It's the airbrushing. Actually we had some other ones done of us recently, no airbrushing, just us... except that Mel's ear was sticking out in one of them so she asked to have it covered up with some hair...' He looks at me quizzically. 'Girls are weird, aren't they?'
Together the two have learnt to deal with the paparazzi. They try to laugh it off. 'They want to see something go wrong, that's the thing. They want to see a reaction, and that's fine because we don't give them any. We had one who thought Mel was pregnant, it was so stupid. They were actually going to release it in the newspaper. I was like, "OK, go on if you want." I do not have a clue where they got that from. I think they were just trying to make us lose it.'
Despite all the things that make his life unusual, Walcott does not seem far removed from an average teenager. Chatting in the kitchen, he and Mel get excited about a new milkshake chain where you can get 'any flavour of milkshake you want!' Melanie is due to start a university degree in physiotherapy this year. Walcott received an art set for his birthday. 'What do you get a footballer?' he asks. In fact he loves art. He has a C in GCSE art and would like to open a gallery one day. He likes hanging out with his best friend, the Southampton midfielder Jake Thomson.
'We still go into Reading and get haircuts like we used to. We've been going to the same place for eight years. It's a black hairdressers, and I remember we took Gareth Bale with us once. They asked him if he wanted a haircut, he was like "Naaa", which was really funny. Jake and I like to make a day of it. We go to Nando's and then have a cinema day - watch two films back to back, really close to the screen until our eyes are funny.'
Outside the window, one of Walcott's dogs - they have four - starts barking. 'That's Sanchez,' he says. 'He's a pug crossed with a shih-tzu and he's always dominating the other dogs. We've had the dog whisperer round and he says Sanchez has got height issues, that's why he has to bark at everyone. One of the other dogs had his bollocks cut off the other day. Bless him, he's got one of those lampshades on his head.'
Walcott points at his Golf. 'I love that car,' he says. 'It's small and zippy. It reminds me of myself. Plus it's the R32 model, which is also my first squad number, although that's changed now.' He has just been handed the No 14 shirt, last worn by Thierry Henry. 'It's just a number in the end,' he says. 'It's just a number on the back of a shirt, that's what I think, anyway.'
It is quite some mantle, although Walcott has long been accustomed to sharing the insignia of a global sports star. He shares his initials with Tiger Woods - also his school nickname - and is often mistaken for Lewis Hamilton. Mel later confirms that he and Hamilton have exactly the same measurements. 'That's what Hugo Boss told me when I phoned up to get his suit,' she says. Instinctively you cannot help but wonder how long it will be before Walcott's achievements match those luminaries in earnest.
Where does Walcott himself think he is heading? 'In five years' time I want to be a regular for Arsenal and England, scoring 20 goals a season. That's a lot, but you have to set your sights high. I want to win the Premier League, the Champions League and the FA Cup. That's the main thing, medals. People go on about money and contracts, but for me it's always going to be about the football.'
Source:Guardian
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