c fait hatem a signe a arsenal et c confirme sur le site d arsenal
Arsenal sign Hatem Trabelsi
By Rhys Wood | Tuesday, 20 July 2004
Hatem Trabelsi can now call himself an Arsenal player. The highly rated 27 year old Tunisian, who was a part of the winning Tunisian team at this years African Cup of Nations, signed for a fee of around £4,000,000 from Dutch giants Ajax Amsterdam.
Over the last six months Trabelsi has landed himself in a similar situation to new team-mate Robin van Persie who as we all know had a detrimental falling out with Feyenoord and Bert van Marwijk. Trabelsi not only fell out with Ajax, but with manager Ronald Koeman as well.
The falling out with Ajax and Koeman began on the 11th of February when Ajax extended the contract of Brazilian left back Maxwell for a further two years and attempted to the same with their other fullback Trabelsi. The Tunisian made it made clear that he wanted to move on at season's end. Immediately Trabelsi claimed he wanted to play in the Premiership, and was immediately linked with Manchester United, Chelsea (of course) and Arsenal.
The problems arose when the fast paced right back claimed at the conclusion of the 2003/2004 season he could leave on a free transfer but Ajax denied the claim all together. Trabelsi’s contract, like Maxwell’s, had the option for Ajax to extend it by a further two years which the club promptly had already done. English newspapers valued his contract around the mark of £4,000,000 or roughly €6,000,000.
The decision to go to court with Ajax over the contract dispute saw Trabelsi understandably fall out of favour with Koeman and Ajax, missing the bulk of the tail end of the 2004 season after returning from a victorious African Cup of Nations in his home country.
On the 4th of May, Trabelsi and Ajax went to court in front of the arbitration committee of the Dutch Football Association (KNVB) where the case was found in favour of his employers, Ajax.
The ruling meant that Trabelsi would still be contracted to club until June 2006 and a fee would have to be paid to sign the player away from the Amsterdam giants. Before a verdict was given, Trabelsi made several scathing remarks in an interview for Voetball International, accusing the club of breaking promises made to him and lying about his salary.
Trabelsi, the player, is an exciting and immensely important signing for Arsenal. He had a simply brilliant African Cup of Nations for Tunisia where he was voted the best attacking player for the tournament – an honour which is simply extraordinary for a right back when big gun attackers like Bolton’s Augustine ‘Jay-Jay’ Okocha and Real Mallorca’s Samuel Eto’o were also participating.
He was bought by former Ajax manager Co Adriaanse in the summer of 2001 from Tunisian club Sportif Sfaxien, and his powerful rushes along the right flank made him one of the revelations of the season, which brought Ajax the Dutch championship and the Amstel Cup.
When Arsenal met Ajax in the second Group stage of the 2002/2003 UEFA Champions League in Amsterdam the high flying Tunisian kept the deadly Robert Pires and Thierry Henry in check all night.
Adding Hatem Trabelsi to our squad can only be a good thing for Arsenal. He has been one of most the sought after players for some time now; wanted by the likes of Manchester United, Juventus and Newcastle United. His powerful runs down the flank and explosive pace and recovery speed will add wonders to our weaker right hand side; however his signing does place clouds over the future of current first choice right back Lauren, whose contract will expire in eleven months time.
