Omar Abdulrahman

[Bottomless_Sailor]

Out of curiosity why were we unable to sign him last year "due to permit issues"? Surely we would just sign him then loan him out like everyone else does with foreign unknowns?

 

[Saif1994]

Even Barcelona and Arsenal are linked to Omar? Thats impressive.

 

[WyongBlue]

Interesting developments here, isn't he highly rated in the UAE, and also now other teams around Europe are starting to show some interest????......weren't we interested in him a while back, so what's happening are we going to enquire about him again????..........

 

[bluesoup]

Would be great if we signed the next big thing in the UAE.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

 

[Falastur]

Out of curiosity why were we unable to sign him last year "due to permit issues"? Surely we would just sign him then loan him out like everyone else does with foreign unknowns?

Because he's already 21. It's all well and good buying a kid who's only 17-18 and loaning him for three seasons to get a work permit, but would someone like this really want to waste several seasons where they are good enough to be playing for the first team in a top league?

Ask yourself, would you agree to go and play in Belgium or Norway for three years all the way nearly up to your 25th birthday, when alternatively you could just sign for a Spanish or Italian club, where the government is less restrictive on players from smaller countries, could play well at the highest level for 2-3 years and then could (potentially) transfer to England on the back of an already-established reputation (thus by-passing the UK's work permit legislation on the "outstanding talent" clause) and achieve exactly what you wanted to achieve in the same amount of time or less, yet with several seasons on good money in front of TV cameras being broadcast to the world while you did it?

 

[Bottomless_Sailor]

Out of curiosity why were we unable to sign him last year "due to permit issues"? Surely we would just sign him then loan him out like everyone else does with foreign unknowns?

Because he's already 21. It's all well and good buying a kid who's only 17-18 and loaning him for three seasons to get a work permit, but would someone like this really want to waste several seasons where they are good enough to be playing for the first team in a top league?

Ask yourself, would you agree to go and play in Belgium or Norway for three years all the way nearly up to your 25th birthday, when alternatively you could just sign for a Spanish or Italian club, where the government is less restrictive on players from smaller countries, could play well at the highest level for 2-3 years and then could (potentially) transfer to England on the back of an already-established reputation (thus by-passing the UK's work permit legislation on the "outstanding talent" clause) and achieve exactly what you wanted to achieve in the same amount of time or less, yet with several seasons on good money in front of TV cameras being broadcast to the world while you did it?

Again brings my back to a previous argument I had here... why oh why are our permit laws so restrictive in comparison to other countries? Buying cheaply and getting good value for money are so important in today's FFP era, why do we handicap ourselves so that the young foreign talent goes elsewhere until worth about £30m...

It's not the UK permit laws that are restrictive, just the specially amended UK sporting permit laws.

 

[Falastur]

Out of curiosity why were we unable to sign him last year "due to permit issues"? Surely we would just sign him then loan him out like everyone else does with foreign unknowns?

Because he's already 21. It's all well and good buying a kid who's only 17-18 and loaning him for three seasons to get a work permit, but would someone like this really want to waste several seasons where they are good enough to be playing for the first team in a top league?

Ask yourself, would you agree to go and play in Belgium or Norway for three years all the way nearly up to your 25th birthday, when alternatively you could just sign for a Spanish or Italian club, where the government is less restrictive on players from smaller countries, could play well at the highest level for 2-3 years and then could (potentially) transfer to England on the back of an already-established reputation (thus by-passing the UK's work permit legislation on the "outstanding talent" clause) and achieve exactly what you wanted to achieve in the same amount of time or less, yet with several seasons on good money in front of TV cameras being broadcast to the world while you did it?

Again brings my back to a previous argument I had here... why oh why are our permit laws so restrictive in comparison to other countries? Buying cheaply and getting good value for money are so important in today's FFP era, why do we handicap ourselves so that the young foreign talent goes elsewhere until worth about £30m...

It's not the UK permit laws that are restrictive, just the specially amended UK sporting permit laws.

I believe it's because the anti-immigration lobby in Parliament are fairly strong when they want to be, and insisted that sportsmen shouldn't receive special treatment just because they are famous. Consequently they managed to reach a compromise where a player has to be a regular for a top FIFA national team to move here. No doubt the argument involved claiming that Conference level teams would try to bring in any old wannabe from some Pacific island no-one had ever heard of, and then 5 years later that wannabe would be your local brickie - having failed at football and now determined on a career based upon stealing jobs from native Englishmen.

At least, I'm fairly sure I've heard it implied that essentially this is what happened. Same reason as the government refused to ever offer sportsmen lower income tax bands, like France and (I think?) Spain used to - Parliament has for a while been fairly adversarial to professional sports IIRC.

I could be wrong of course.

 

[unexpected item]

So do Arsenal think they can get a work permit where we failed?

Arsenal still confident of beating Barcelona and Schalke to UAE starlet Abdulrahman

The United Arab Emirates playmaker was supposed to be on trial at Emirates today - but his club playing hardball over sought-after 21-year-old

Arsene Wenger has made a bid to sign Olympics star Omar Abdulrahman to beat off competition from Europe's big guns.

Arsenal boss Wenger is hopeful of agreeing a deal which would see the United Arab Emirates international come over for a week's trial ahead of a deal for the biggest star in the Middle East.

Rashid bin Mubarak Al Hajri, deputy chairman of Abdulrahman's club Al Ain, said: "Have we had an offer from Arsenal for him to come to train? Then yes.

"We've also had offers from Spanish teams, and other teams also, but the player will decide ultimately. We got a lot of offers for Omar. If he finds the right environment, then we will be very supportive.

"It's a package that will have to be right, where he can improve his football. I'll leave that for Omar - that's for him to decide."

Al Ain have now blocked him coming for a trial - which was due to start today [Monday] - as they battle to keep the playmaker.

Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke and Valencia have all been trying to sign the 21-year-old who caught the eye in the Olympics last summer.

But Arsenal have worked hard on the deal for the past few months and are still confident of tying up a permanent transfer but view the trial as a way of assessing whether Abdulrahman adapts to English football and culture.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsenal-transfer-news-uae-olympic-2124142

 

[not my fault!]

Would be great if we signed the next big thing in the UAE.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Sounds promising



Sent from my iPad whilst taking a dump

 

[TonyM]

I'd be majorly disappointed if he signed for Arsenal ... Unless he turned out to be average like Gervinho.

I really wanted us to sign him last year.