Merida is just like Fabregas, he even gets the same silly rumours!
Fran Merida - The new Fabregas?
The new young Spanish star at Arsenal, Fran Merida, has been compared many times to Cesc Fabregas, and it is expected he will replace him at some point in the future, or at least play alongside him.
Merida came from Barcelona at a young age, just like Fabregas, he plays in the same position as Cesc, and is tipped to gain in place in the full Spain squad one day, and now he is even getting subjected to the same ridiculous rumours linking him to a club in Spain.
Fabregas has been at Arsenal for seven years now, and for at least the last five Barcelona have been trying to persuade him to return to the Catalan club.
No transfer window would be complete without at least ten stories linking Fabregas with a return to Spain, and he must get sick to death of reiterating that he is NOT leaving Arsenal, and he LOVES it at the Emirates.
The window is not even open but yesterday Fabregas had to go through the same old motions of denial. He said: “I am committed to this club, it is my seventh season here,”
“It is hard to hear people saying I am not committed or something. It was a good time to show I love this club.”
Well now it seems that the young Merida is also going to be subject to the same treatment.
The People started it on Sunday (It’s always the Sunday Papers!) by saying that Merida is in the last year of his contract, and is being followed by Atletico Madrid, who are going to try and poach him back to Spain.
This was picked up today by the usual suspects. This is what Goal had to say: “Atletico de Madrid are monitoring Fran Merida’s situation at Arsenal and may make a bid to sign him if he does not accept the Premier League club’s offer of a new deal, according to a report.
The 19-year-old midfielder has not progressed as quickly as some expected with the Gunners, but manager Arsene Wenger stil believes that he can become a first-team regular.
Having made only a handful of first-team appearances for Arsenal however, Merida, who has been starring for the U-20 side at the World Cup, may not share the Frenchman’s belief and could be tempted by a return to La Liga.
With the Spain Under-21 playmaker’s contract due to run out at the end of the season, Atletico are prepared to offer him more guarantees than he has been given at the Emirates, The People stated.
It is that which could see the former Barca youth team starlet opt to end his stay in north London and head to the Vicente Calderon to continue his progress.
A five-year deal is on the table and Arsenal rejected several loan offers for Merida last summer as Wenger looked to keep him under is wing.”
A bigger load of rubbish one could not hope to read! He has not progressed as quickly as some expected at Arsenal. I think he has progressed extremely well, considering he is only 19! Merida is practically guaranteed to be the next big thing at Arsenal, and with Wenger nurturing his youngsters through to the first team on a regular basis, Merida is far more likely to get promoted to the Arsenal first team than he would do at Atletico.
I also know that Arsene Wenger gave Merida a new contract just last year, so it is unlikely that Arsenal would let such a young talent get near the end of his contract without it being sorted earlier. But the one thing that absolutely persuades me that this story is rubbish, is the statement that Merida made just four weeks ago.
“I am 100 per cent staying.” he said.
“It is true that I had an option to go out on loan but me, the boss, my agent and my family decided that the best thing for me is to stay here.
“The boss told me he believes in me and the only thing I can do now is prove it on the pitch and repay that faith.
How much more proof do you need?
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i think we should sell merida really. there isn’t room for him right now in the first team and even with fabregas out we have so many players who can play there. ramsey is a more consistent and better option already than merida for me and he’s stronger, so i think he is more likely to get games in cm and eventually replace cesc when he leaves than fran
might as well keep hold of fran and send him on loan until we can get a decent transfer fee though
I don’t believe Fran will leave Emirates anytime soon, he is still only 19. don’t think loan is a good option though
What a squad we have.
In 3 years we will still have Merida, Ramsey, Wilshire, Nasri and hopefully Cesc.
Merida will eventually move forward to the left where he will occupy Arshavins position when Arshavin retires. Merida will not leave.