Cheikhou Kouyaté

We're apparently trying to sign this guy. He's a defender and plays for Anderlecht. I've never seen him play but from what I understand he's a pretty good player. Does anyone know more about him?

Sources are pretty reliable so there definitely is something going on.

Link below is in French.

http://www.lalibre.be/sports/football/article/753905/kouyate-vers-arsenal.html

I know nothing about this guy, but the (somewhat strangely written) Wiki page on him says we were interested in him before he went to Anderlecht.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheikhou_Kouyat%C3%A9

Edit: I notice the same page says he has a French passport, though he plays for the Senegalese team.

Apparently he's a centre back.

I feel like we should be looking at right and left backs. Unless wenger thinks this guy is someone who could also play right back, ala kolo toure.

We need better cover for Sagna.

first time i hear about this guy. he 22 years old and and unknown typical Arsène signing. lol.

Good to know we're in for a defender.

Any belgians around that could give feedback on him would be great. I just hope this guy can also play as a RB

I saw somewhere his alternate position was DM. I think we need a higher quality signing in that position, but it would be encouraging if he were versatile to some extent.

Could be a promising replacement for Djourou if he goes.

6'4 looks like djourou thats about it.

Not read the links but I'm guessing he's the same guy who played CB for Senegal at the Olympics and was impressive. That Senegal lot are some tough bastards, I wouldnt mind picking up one or two of them.

He was good last year for Anderlecht. Hard to extrapolate to the PL, but I could see him being a decent 3rd of 4th option CB. And yeah, he was on the Senegal team in the Olympics.

Not read the links but I'm guessing he's the same guy who played CB for Senegal at the Olympics and was impressive. That Senegal lot are some tough bastards, I wouldnt mind picking up one or two of them.

I was at Wembley on Saturday and the Senegalese defence were absolutely atrocious. None of them were anywhere near good enough for Arsenal.

They did have a left-winger/ left wing-back with dyed blonde hair who was decent, think he plays for Lens or Lille.

I didn't watch Senegal, but that doesn't surprise me. African teams don't seem to emphasize defensive unity, even if some of the individual defenders are good.

Watched them against Uruguay, where I thought they played well, but Suarez and co were loss poor tbh

Can't see this one happening, we still have 6 CBs on our books

Cliche, but would kill Bartley's promise.

And at 22 he's a bit too old to settle being so down on the pecking order, but i agree it's good we're lookinbg at defenders, we lack the unit there.

Call me silly but I'm a bit worried about the homegrown quota what with 6 cb on our books now. He's not under 21 so he has to be registered. Replacing him with Djourou may seem ideal, but Djourou is one of our hg registered player in the 25 man list. Plus, JD isn't as bad as people make him to be. He's more than capable as a 4th CB backup. Realistically, unless he's an extraordinary talent, I'd say we give this a pass.

Looks like a cross between Eboue and Djourou.

We have a bucket load of homegrown players!

Check out the under 21 list: http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archiv ... ague-squad

Ramsey
Wilshere
Ox
Frimpong
Coq

The list goes on and all will be homegrown if needed.

I think leo's point is we were already maxed out at 17 non-homegrowns players. So adding a new one means we will have to get rid of another non-homegrown in addition to Djourou.

So far this window,
IN: Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla
OUT: Almunia an Benayoun

POSSIBLY OUT: Squillaci, Park, Arshavin and Chamakh

As it is, we are one-over with the latest addition of Cazorla. If we bring in Sahin, we will be two-over. So this doesn't make sense unless the new player coming in can contribute significantly more than the existing ones, i.e. not a 4th/5th choice CB.

Note Vela doesn't count as he was not part of the 25-man squad last year. The same goes for Bendtner if we manage to sell him.

Ins - Cazorla, Podolski, Giroud, Sahin (likely)
Outs - Almunia, Vela, Benanyoun, Arshavin, Park, Bendtner, Squillaci

plus any changes in defense that might happen

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... senal.html

The Sun the original twitter

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4476390/Cheikhou-Kouyate-interest-Manchester-City-and-Arsenal.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Sun the original twitter

MANCHESTER CITY and Arsenal are both eyeing Senegal’s Olympics star Cheikhou Kouyate.

The midfielder, 22, also had a superb season at Anderlecht.

How the **** is someone paid for that?

Journalists just scour the web for stuff like this (wouldn't be surprised if some of them go on here from time to time) and just reword it.

I worked at a national broadsheet for a while, and the sports desk guys just sat there chatting to each other, with Sky Sports on the TV next to them. When Sky reported something, they write it down and repackage it. No word of a lie. I remember seeing a De Rossi to Arsenal article printed in the paper the day before I started working there (2009), asked the guy who wrote it if it was happening and he admitted it was completely 100% made up. One of my mates was on the sports desk of a tabloid for a while and one of his duties was to make up rumours. He made a Lansbury to Newcastle one which then got picked up by various local papers up in the North East.

My point is that a lot of the rumours we hear are rubbish. The only journos I would really trust when it comes to Arsenal are Amy Lawrence, John Cross to a certain extent and a few of the European correspondents: Honegstein, Auclair, Balague.

Agree with your post, but John Cross???

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12691/8616888/Anderlecht-defender-Cheikhou-Kouyate-chasing-Arsenal-move

Moderator Action: Threads merged.

sounds a lot like seidou keita. that's the extent of my knowledge on this guy.. probably means that this link is legit too

Never seen him play. Is he Arsenal quality?

we've got some belgians on the forum, any thoughts guys and guyettes? especially if he came through the ranks there's a good chance he's an attacking minded player with solid technical base. midfielder convert perhaps?

ok, maybe not, since he didn't move until 16. that's not to say that senegal don't produce pique's and vertonghens though. although i don't know what he would offer that's so much different to djourou - assuming that he'll most likely be here as fourth choice with intention of developing and competing. if not (i.e. as a starter/part of top 3 rotation) then there must be something about this guy. replace a belgian with another belgian (ish), who knows.

speculate away

dude.. i'm totally sold

This looks like a classic case of agents/player trying to attract intrest by naming Arsenal. We probably have checked him out in the past (i remember the links), probably he is not our standard, but this doesnt mean he cant talk about us or name us as intrested party. Will probably end up in a midlevel club.

But in case it is true and we actually are intrested in him then he would directly be Djourous replacement.

Pointless, fun part of the post: Since i never watch Anderlecht i have little knowledge of his abilities but in Fifa he is an absolute monster in his rating bracket (starts 74 ovr). He has 90+ pace, jump and heading so he completely dominates in defence and always scores from corners and i have used him in my Career Mode alot of times. In fact he is one of my favourite players to buy and last time i grew him up to be 86 OVR and he was my first choice CB all the way through