Freddie Ljungberg set to join West Ham
695 comments July 23rd, 2007
Freddie Ljungberg has reportedly left Arsenal’s Austrian training camp to tie up a move to West Ham. Whilst reports differ over the exact the details (the Swedish press suggest the medical will be this afternoon, whilst The Sun insist it took place last night), it does seem there is more to this than your run-of-the-mill Rodrigo Palacio rumour.
Ljungberg had been set to stay after a move to Fiorentina collapsed. But the injury to West Ham’s £6m winger Julien Faubert has prompted the Hammers to offer Freddie the chance to stay in London, as well as a massive £60,000 a week. That’ll put him on a par with Lucas Neill: the ultimate compliment.
I have to say, it’s sad to see him go. It reminds me a little of the Lauren sale last year. You could see his first-team opportunities would be limited, but even so he definitely had something to offer. Above all, both Lauren and Freddie are winners – they know what it takes to go the season unbeaten. That kind of experience can be invaluable. It goes without saying that Ljungberg needs to be replaced, but I would add that there’s no point replacing him with an unproven 19-year-old.
In a summer in which we’ve seen Franck Ribery, Florent Malouda, Ryan Babel, and Nani all move elsewhere, Arsene’s going to have to pull something fairly special out the bag to find the winger we need. Still, if anyone can…
FREDDIE UPDATE: He’s gone, for a fee rising to £3m. Bit cheaper than we’d like, but there you go.
There’s plenty of takeovery banter to report on, but arseblogger and Keith Edelman between them can explain it to you far better than I ever could.
Congratulations to Jasmeet Singh, who has won the prize that children were literally slaying each other to get: The Frank McLintock t-shirt. I’ll be in Hyde Park, 12pm, wearing a dark suit. If you walk up to me and say the secret codephrase (“Spurs are gay”) before performing a small tapdance, I will hand you the briefcase containing the precious t-shirt. Either that or I can just email you?
If Freddie does go today, I’ll probably speak to you later.
