The name Marouane Chamakh is one that has been doing the rounds in rumours sections over the last few weeks. Chamakh, though, is a player that many Arsenal fans will not know a great deal about.
I’ve been intrigued since France Football journalist Philippe Auclair claimed on talkSPORT that Chamakh was close to signing. Auclair, one of France’s more respected football journalists, is an expert on Arsenal and a personal friend of Arsene Wenger.
Chamakh has been tipped to replace Emmanuel Adebayor should the Togo striker depart the Emirates this summer, and I’m inclined to believe that we may well see the Morroccan international in the red and white of Arsenal this season if Adebayor is moved on.
So who exactly is Marouane Chamakh?
Chamakh was born in Tonneins, France on January 10, 1984. He began playing football seriously at the age of ten for local outfit FC Marmandais. He spent six years at the club before being noticed by Bordeaux scouts. Chamakh spent the next two years in the Bordeaux academy before breaking into the first team in 2002.
Then still a teenager, Chamakh went on to make a total of ten appearances for Bordeaux in the 2002/03 season under the tutelage of Portuguese legend Pauleta, scoring one goal. The departure of Chamakh’s mentor opened up a window of opportunity for the young Morrocan, and he took it with open arms. In the 2003/04 campaign Chamakh cemented his spot in the first team, making a total of 25 appearances and finding the net six times.
Since then, the 25-year-old has been an ever-present figure in Bordeaux’s forward line, scoring 46 goals in 189 appearances for the club. Chamakh scored a career-best thirteen goals in 34 games this season, topping his side’s scoring charts and leading them to the Ligue 1 title in the process. The striker has also made a total of fifty international appearances for Morocco since his debut in 2003, scoring fifteen goals.
As you may have guessed by now, Chamakh does not have the greatest scoring record. His thirteen goals in the 2008/09 season were his best statistics since his days in the Bordeaux youth system, although one can still see why Arsene Wenger may want the young Moroccan in his squad.
Marouane Chamakh is an elegant footballer. Standing at 6ft 2in, the 25-year-old is a force to be reckoned with in the air. His lanky physique gives him strength on the ball, but he still manages demonstrate silky skills that other ‘target men’ can only dream of. Chamakh posesses an excellent ability to link up with his teammates.
Marouane Chamakh is the type of player you would have lead your forward line, with a faster striker playing off his shoulder. If Emmanuel Adebayor is to leave, Chamakh would be the obvious candidate to partner someone like Robin van Persie or Eduardo up front. He’s available for £7m having reached the final year on his contract at Bordeaux, and would reportedly welcome a move to Arsenal.
I’m not sure whether he’ll be able to cut it in the Premiership next season, nor am I able to work out what he offers that Nicklas Bendtner doesn’t, but I’d trust Arsene on this one.
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He’s a likely candidate if only because no one knows what Bendtner offers.
Sell ade get huntelah atleast he’s available and would cost less than what we get from ade’s sale and he’s a proven goal scorer unlike this other guy. I think jan huntelah would be great with van persie.
he scored most of his goals through header. with his feet, i think he took 4 chances to convert 1. our wingers rarely supply cross for header. if ade leaves, rvp can partner dudu or bendtner. we can even play arshavin behind rvp or walcott / vela with rvp. chamakh is not a good finisher & i dont think he made a lot of assists too. either we buy a good one or not at all. dont buy just to make up the number
He’s not good enough. Bendtner is a better player
Why doesn’t anyone comment on the fact that 13 goals in a Ligue 1 winning side is actually quite a poor record for a 25 year old who should be at the peak of his powers. He simply is not as good as Bendtner or Ade
13 goals in the French league don’t mean crap, but if he’s the reason we sell Ade – I’ll be all right. I’d rather have some useless fast-running wannabe than 80,000-a-week Togolese prick.
Chamakh scored more headed goals than any other player in the top five European leagues last season – 9. Stolen from @optajoe on Twitter
Also – his conversion rate of chances into goals was better than RVP, Bendy and Ade. Also stolen from @optajoe
chamakh will be good 1 but huntelaar or aguero will be great….
He’s still better than lazy adebayor!
chamakh is a very good player lve seen in both morrocco n bordeaux matches,wenger get him u wont regret it,n pliz get ade out.
He is an attacker dt hv that attacking ability and strength to score.
Chamakh isn’t enough good for Arsenal. Sell Ade to Milan and buy Huntellar or Dzeko, they are by far better
From your description he sounds like Peter Crouch, but I also find it difficult to see what he offers that Bendtner doesn’t and I’m sure that Bendtner will end up a better striker than him eventually, not to mention he’ll probably take time to adapt to the Premier League whereas Bendtner wouldn’t.
But I feel that people are being a bit harsh on him, his chance conversion rate is better than any of our strikers and at Arsenal he’d have better coaching and a better team to play in. Sure he has Gourcuff at Bordeaux but here he’ll be able to play with Fabregas, Nasri, Arshavin and (hopefully) Rosicky. People say he won’t suit our team because we don’t cross the ball enough but I think that’s something Wenger intends to work on and if you notice, many times there’s no one in the box so you can’t blame our players for not crossing the ball, and with the arrival of Arshavin and the emergence of Gibbs, the team’s crossing will hopefully improve. When we bought Adebayor he hadn’t scored more than 10 goals in a season ever, except for once in the French Second Division (admittedly we did buy him at a younger age).
The point is though, if Adebayor gets sold and we buy this guy, we shouldn’t complain because we could probably still go on even without buying another striker to replace Ade and seeing as how everyone wants Ade out.
Simply put: No
If you look simply at goals to game across a career, Chamakh has lower than a 1 in 4 ratio. That’s pathetic!! Huntelaar is closer to 3 in 4, and is good in the air too…
When Ade goes, we could use the £25m to buy Huntelaar at £18m, Matuidi at around £5m and still have £2m to put towards Inler or another ‘now’ DM. That would mean we’d have only spent around £15-£20m in the summer (much lower than our reported ‘war chest’) getting in Vermaelen, Huntelaar, Inler and Matuidi and getting rid of the poisonous Ade…
I hope Wenger reads this XD. You know it makes sense!
i think chamakh is good lets go for him now since we do not have a good striker
Sadly, the future star in the French Lague is Loic Remy who at 23 has just made his full France debut (and dubbed the new Thierry Henry). But we would have to pay a fee from him whilst Chamakh would come on a free and scores one goal every four games! Oh and Reny is built like a brick… rather than a bean pole! But Arsene knows best eh?
Sadly, the future star in the French League is Loic Remy who at 23 has just made his full France debut. He is dubbed the new Thierry Henry and is built like a brick s***house! However, we would have to pay a £13m fee for him, whilst Chamakh would come on a free with his goal record of one every four games! If you look him up on You tube, Chamakh is a bit of a figure of fun! But Arsene knows best eh?
i think that chamakh will be a great player in arsenal
Loic Remy, he’s the dude thats linked with the scousers at the moment! damn him and the scousers! never mind atleast we still got Fabregas this season, well thats probs till the next transfer window opens when the catalans start all over again! as for Chamakh, well he gets compared to C. Ronaldo a bit, lets hope he can score like him, if he does then the titles ours for the taking this season! But i reckon he will be good, well definately better than Bendtner!