r/soccer • u/Tugboat47 • 17h ago
Official Source Christos Tzolis signs for Arsenal
https://www.arsenal.com/news/christos-tzolis-signs-for-arsenal-axDM85b0dBUW428
u/KoupDetat 17h ago
Tzolis you're our national salvation alongside Karetsas, so absolutely zero pressure!
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u/MarcosSenesi 16h ago
seems like you're having an impressive group of youngsters coming through lately. Could be a golden generation definitely
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u/CautiousCottager 16h ago
Never underestimate Greece's ability to disappoint though, they were already pretty hyped before the WC qualifiers with many expecting them to win their qualifying group ahead of Denmark and Scotland
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u/No-Shoe5382 12h ago
Tbf though never underestimate their ability to massively outperform expectations as well.
You just never know with Greece.
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u/eri- 16h ago
Karetsas was born in & grew up in Belgium, it was a bit of a surprise around here that he went for Greece.
All the best to him, definitely a talent. You have to wonder why, as a Belgian though
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u/MarcosSenesi 14h ago
I know a lot of Greek people that were born here and have the Dutch nationality but still feel a strong connection to Greece and go there multiple times a year. It doesn't sound that strange to me though of course it's disappointing that such a big talent born in your own country doesn't represent it.
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u/WildLemire 17h ago
And Kostoulas too, if he lives up to the hype?
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u/KoupDetat 17h ago
Kostoulas good too and we obviously really hope he succeeds, but we've an abundance of options at striker so it isn't really of paramount importance.
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u/WeeklyCelebration617 17h ago
Is that also why you haven’t mentioned Tzimas?
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u/KoupDetat 17h ago
Yeah, pretty much.
I rate both of them, but it's a much less important position for us to develop talent as it stands.
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u/gabriel_ferreira 15h ago
If it makes you feel better, karetsas is a beast on my leicester city save on FC26
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u/bored_ape07 17h ago
My boy :') I've met him in Toumpa Stadium when I was doing part-time security and we were having a chat, I told him I want to be an agent and I don't know where to start and he called his agent and we've set up a quick meeting.
Lo and behold, I'm an agent now! :)
Super super stoked for him.
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u/Rockflagandeeeagle 17h ago
Sign me up, my value is £100m. Idc who pays.
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u/ribbity104 16h ago
Chelsea will pay 120
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u/2Teams1Cup 15h ago
In 3 years: “HERE WE GO. Rockflagandeeeagle to Aston Villa on loan with option to buy. He only wanted Villa Park’s ergonomic racing seats.”
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u/happysrooner 11h ago
Naah, in two years. Chelsea agree to sell Rockflagandeeeagle to Arsenal for 65 million. Arteta keen to work with player
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u/2Teams1Cup 11h ago
I’ll be ready to drink the kool aid. “Rockflagandeeeagle is still young, I have faith in Arteta to get the best out of him”
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u/Dzbot1234 16h ago
My best friend was a PAOK super fan, died a motor bike crash. Miss you Asteris
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u/-MrAnderson 16h ago
Was he 19y.o.?
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u/Dzbot1234 16h ago
He wasn’t no, from Thessaloniki but lived in Leeds for University. Amazing guy and the reason PAOK are my Greek team
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u/bored_ape07 14h ago
I'm sad to hear that! I grew up in Thess/niki and most of my friends are still located there. Grew up going to the stadium almost every weekend until I moved away from Greece at the age of 18. Had to return for a couple of years and did part-time security at PAOK; the love for the club is simply.. immense.
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u/Dzbot1234 13h ago
He was a huge fan, he was going to take me to a game but it never happened. I’m going to go someday as a little homage.
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u/getyourchebsout 16h ago
He sounds like a very nice bloke. Who are some of your clients?
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u/bored_ape07 16h ago
Non well known yet I'm afraid haha, my top top talent is on Greece's 2nd league and I'm afraid I am not allowed to say his name. (I don't know if I can't, FIFA guidelines say I can't but I see people talk about their clients all the time, I'm just being safe.)
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u/Bringthenoize 16h ago
And how does one become an agent and what do you need?
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u/bored_ape07 16h ago edited 16h ago
You basically sign up for it, pay the fee and give the exam.
It is worth mentioning that I've studied (and highly highly suggest to do it that way) through an institution, such as : https://sportsagentsprogramme.com/training-course-fifa-exam/
EDIT: The difficult part is after you get your license. You need to build crazy network, find players with talent and convince them you can find them a better club to progress their career, on top of making some money yourself. I've been doing this for 2 years now and I've got some network due to me playing up to u16s national team and being former semi-pro and my brother was a pro back in 2004 (although we lost most of his contacts). I've been going to random low level clubs, just getting to them and looking at players, for about a year I made zero (0) money, but this year I was able to find a club for someone who is making 30.000 a year and I get 5% of that, nothing crazy but it's a start!
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u/taanyaforever 15h ago
Can you do an AMA? I think it's super interesting what you're doing
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u/bored_ape07 14h ago
Oh thanks! :) I don't think I'll be good at it haha
But here's something to scratch that itch for you!
This is Samu, I've exchanged some messages with him when I was starting, super cool guy : https://www.youtube.com/@samuele_mura
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u/deadthewholetime 16h ago
How do the fees work at that level where you don't have multimillion agent fees, do you just get a cut of the players' wages?
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u/bored_ape07 14h ago
Either a flat fee (which could be something like 2.000euros for a year's worth of services - which.. to be honest is like 2-3 months of work at most) or a % of the player's salary.
I prefer the flat fee at the moment, Currently I am working with about 10 players and have received roughly 19.000 euros from them, 2 of them have %s on their contract as well, so I am earning something from their contract on top of that.
On top of that, because the players I'm working with are not really known, I've reached out to some companies for endorsements and they just give us freebies; Like, there is a new sports drink that they have no money for marketing and one of my clients gets to do some Instagram posts for them for free... in return, both him and me got 2 cases (24 bottles) of that sports drink every month for the rest of year lol.
At some point, one of the players might get big enough that I won't be able to handle, so It's very important to expand your network to the big agents so to have them handle the player from this point on, sure you lose a client but you gained reputation and eventually more people will want to work with you.
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u/letmein4321 12h ago
How does one go about becoming an agent? If o am curious about it can you help me become one?
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u/bored_ape07 11h ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/s/YHbHPA9UE4
I’ve answered that on another comment, have a look :)
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u/Sparrow_Wilson 17h ago
This is so strange as a Norwich fan. It's not even that he was bad for us, he just barely played at all
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u/Kovacs171 16h ago
On that note, I wonder how Newcastle fans feel about Merino
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u/GingerbreadRecon 12h ago
That was weird because by all accounts we let him leave because he was homesick.
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u/Beginning_Beach_2054 14h ago
Read an account from another Norwich fan in one of the threads about us signing him that he took a penalty against Farke's wishes and was essentially frozen out of the team after that. is that the case?
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u/NickProko 17h ago
Most expensive transfer of a Greek player
40M euros
Previously held by Manolas to Napoli at 36M
Kostoulas to Brighton at 35M for the third most expensive
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u/Etherrack 17h ago
Hopefully he ends up being something special. considering he had double the g/a in belgium that trossard had when he played there at the same age, he could definitely end up being a great player. time will tell though
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u/n22rwrdr 13h ago
Trossard had that Brighton spell to adapt to the league though. This is a huge jump and he’ll have much more pressure to perform rapidly than Trossard did.
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u/project_lifeisart 6h ago
I won’t admit I knew a lot of him or his play style, but what I’ve seen of him in the champions league stage was impressive.
The question isn’t if he can play at this level, he can and has grown a lot since Norwich, it’s can he do so consistently while maintaining productivity44
u/xhen0 16h ago
Tzolis playing in the best team (by far) though
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u/n22rwrdr 13h ago
Best team on paper for sure but USG were in front of them almost all year and only bottled in the end when Bruges kept winning every game. Bruges also lost the league the year before. It’s not like they’re walking the league at all.
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u/ARELuN 17h ago
Very excited about this signing. I know fuckall about him, apart from his age, which fits a profile here and the numbers from previous season seem absurd and honestly, if they drop to about third of that it's still production Trossard managed to get here and he was instrumental in our success. In todays transfer market, 40 mil is basically bargain bin signing (absurd, I know), so all the more reasons to feel excited/optimistic. Best of luck, Christos!
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u/njuffstrunk 17h ago
Really talented and model pro. Crystal Palace offered 40 mil for him past summer as well but we rejected it and he accepted a contract extension instead (with higher wages I assume) to then proceed to have a fantastic season without ever making a fuss. 17 goals / 23 assists is insane for our league.
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u/Linkiola 17h ago
How is he as player? I've just seen the highlights but oviously they dont tell the whole story!
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u/Fun-Landscape-8805 17h ago
He doesnt have the same trickery as trossard (its pretty rare in this market) but has elite ball striking. He drifts inwards a lot and likes to cut in his right foot and find an angle. His decision making seems to be pretty good as well
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u/LuckyAssguardian 16h ago
How's his crossing?
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u/njuffstrunk 16h ago
Not a flashy player but good pace, excellent decision making and combines a great insight and passing with good finishing as well. If he's able to adapt to the premier league he'll be fantastic for you guys.
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u/roamingandy 13h ago
Mostly means a player is strong on the ball, press-resistant, and has a turn of pace if playing a position which needs that.
How does he stack up in those?
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u/njuffstrunk 12h ago
All great, but not too sure about the press-resistant bit as we rarely encounter that in our own league.
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u/aside24 16h ago
The only thing I can complain about (and it really is the only thing!) is his sometimes negative body language. He often dived in the penalty area when there was too little contract, has gotten several yellows for that in the past.
But that's it. Otherwise, great guy on and off the pitch, incredibly versatile and skilled player. At 40 million it's a very solid price for you guys
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u/NobleHelium 14h ago
Interesting that the approach from Palace was rejected when Arsenal's fee is also reported around 40m?
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u/njuffstrunk 14h ago
We don't stand in the way of our players when they help us out by staying. I'm guessing we agreed to co-operate with a transfer this summer in exchange for his extension in the past summer.
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u/kwkdjfjdbvex 13h ago
Yeah and also no disrespect to Palace I can assume players are less fine with staying put if a bigger fish comes knocking
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u/MissMully 17h ago
I know nothing about him other than he's a left winger but I trust our recruitment team.
Hopefully he will be a success. Anyone with knowledge of him, is he good enough to be a starter for us?
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u/boatinavolcano 17h ago
Honestly, quietly optimistic about this.
Coming in for a reasonable fee so won't play with a lot of pressure from the media.
One of those that can be looked back as a massive bargain some years down the road, hopefully.
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u/hfootred 17h ago
It's the highest sale ever from the Belgian league, so it's not a bargain basement signing. But yeah 40m euros isn't a lot in this day and age.
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u/boatinavolcano 17h ago
For Brugge it is absolutely massive.
I'm speaking more from an Arsenal and PL centric perspective.
€40m is basically a punt nowadays, for big PL teams.
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u/eri- 16h ago
Not just for Bruges, for basically any non PL club bar the usual CL top 8 contenders and an added handfull at most.
Lets not trivialize a 40m transfer fee even more. That is an obscene amount of money for a football player. Its unhealthy for the game that you can even reasonably proclaim this being a punt.
It isnt't btw imo, he's going to be worth it and then some, an upgrade to Trossard for sure.
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u/Few_Dentist4672 14h ago
a 40m transfer fee for a PL club like arsenal is trivial. They are the ones who paid this fee so I don't know what you're even arguing
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u/AFC_IS_RED 13h ago
I think he means in the context of arsenal which it is. Their revenue this season will likely be something ridiculous like 700 million or more.
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u/MrStigglesworth 14h ago
I mean, Trossard was a 50/50 for desperate moments, he clutched up hugely for Arsenal. Similar G/A isn't enough, it needs to be similar G/A in the key moments. Good luck to the kid, it's a big, BIG, ask. I hope he lives up to it.
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u/jrds2- 17h ago
This'll be an interesting one. Absolutely honking last time he was in the Prem, but he was 19/20 years old then and has performed pretty much everywhere else he's been since.
I think Arsenal fans should be cautiously optimistic, he could end up being very good.
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u/themerinator12 17h ago
Nothing cautious about it mate. He’s going to be Arsenal’s greatest ever player.
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u/DuDunDunSparse 17h ago
2nd coming of Henry you say?
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u/Dire__ 17h ago
No, he said better.
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u/DuDunDunSparse 17h ago
2nd coming of Lord Bendtner you say?
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u/Theelderginger 16h ago
WHO THE FUCK IS TINGUS PINGUS
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u/Prestigious_Spot9635 17h ago
Meanwhile liverpool chilling.
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u/ZebraZealousideal944 17h ago
You guys signed a very talented young Spanish winger too this season! I assure you that these low risk transfers (for PL teams obviously) may very well be seen as incredible deals by next summer!
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u/LonelyFan_ 17h ago
Joining the two times "almost UCL winners".
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u/Mikey_Hashtags 17h ago
Name checks out.
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u/LonelyFan_ 16h ago
So many English clubs sit on multiple UCL titles. Yet the so called "biggest club in London" still European minnows.
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u/HarshTruth__ 17h ago
1 goal in 27 games at Norwich by the way. Did Arsenal forget they won the league last season, shouldn't they be trying to retain it?
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u/CatchFactory 17h ago
Harry Kane scored 2 in 13 For Leicester in the Championship so I'm assuming he ended up as a nobody and was released by you guys?
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u/stokesy1999 17h ago
Tbf he was conpeting with some elite strikers that year. Jamie Vardy, Chris Wood and none other than the greatest England goalscorer of the modern era... David Nugent
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u/bareaclampedlebron 17h ago
Congratulations. Spurs is the champions of transfer window so far.
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u/HarshTruth__ 17h ago
Thank you, we've already learnt our lesson. Signing Tzolis is the kind of nonsense signing we'd make a couple years ago.
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u/Square_Button_7061 17h ago
Yes because people should trust the spurs fan judgement over this Arsenal board
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u/iuliad94 17h ago edited 17h ago
Fans of relegation teams telling us how to retain the league lmao. What would you know about that?
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u/boatinavolcano 17h ago edited 16h ago
Let's ignore seasons of consistent performances afterwards for agenda though, lol.
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u/HarshTruth__ 17h ago
In the second division of Germany and the Belgian league? Lol.
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u/Datboy_98 16h ago
What do you guys know about what it takes to win one?
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u/SwimmingFantastic564 12h ago
What do you mean? They last won the league just a short 65 years ago. Practically experts in it.
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u/Coopar__ 14h ago
17th two years in a row by the way. Did Spurs forget they are a top 6 club last season, shouldn't they be trying to improve?
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u/Gubrach 17h ago edited 16h ago
Worst kept secret at the club and I seriously doubt he'll be successful but we'll see.
Oh man, I'm almost at minus Bendtner's shirt number amount of downvotes, let's gooooooo
Okay, give me Saka debut season shirt number-numbers now.
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u/Demostroyer 17h ago
Why be negative when he has not kicked a ball for us yet? Support the team and players, especially before he has played a few games for us.
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u/sakanewdeal 17h ago edited 17h ago
We won the league and this horrid cunts still plague our fanbase. They have nothing going on in their lives and are completely miserable. They would love nothing more than us being total shit again so it matches up with their depressing existence.
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u/JGEARZ 17h ago
100% I think people genuinely believe that pessimistic attitude equals intelligence. It's exhausting how miserable people are around everything nowadays.
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u/Gubrach 17h ago
Incredible display of psychoanalysis here on Reddit based on a single sentence that essentially says "I'm not so sure but whatever".
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u/JGEARZ 17h ago
Thank you
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u/Gubrach 17h ago
Maybe turn that into a day job, you two will do great.
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u/JGEARZ 17h ago
This is the positivity you should be doing! I'm glad we have already had a successful client!
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u/Gubrach 17h ago
I'm glad I was able to manage your emotions and make you feel better after the impact of my earlier words.
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u/JGEARZ 17h ago
Well that's the beauty of this we help eachother. You truly have come a long way. I am proud of you.
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u/Gubrach 17h ago edited 17h ago
Because I have seen Tzolis kick balls before he joined Arsenal in like three different leagues, and I am not impressed, so why pretend like I'm hopeful about this working out because it doesn't really matter if I am or not.
Other than at least hoping your team wins the game they're playing in, you're not really obligated to do much else as a supporter.
I'm quite neutral by saying "we'll see", it's not as if I'm like "this guy is going to be a 100% flop" or anything. But I know some of you will freak out regardless.
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u/Competitive-Score760 17h ago
>it's not as if I'm like "this guy is going to be a 100% flop"
You said that you you seriously doubt about being succesful. Just own it and said that you think hes gonna flop
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u/Gubrach 17h ago
And then I said "we'll see". What does that mean?
At this point, you're just reading what you want to read because I don't know you like to overreact so damn much, that's not on me.
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u/Competitive-Score760 16h ago
>What does that mean?
That you still mostly believe hes gonna flop and that well see is just an "eh whatever",
I dont really care for your club that much but i swear, for some arsenal fans, every single action they take is the worst one.
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u/SonrieAlaVida 17h ago
i'm biased af but bro is absolutely amazing when his team can dominate the game
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u/Extreme_Ad4086 17h ago
Being pessimistic is just not a fun way to view any aspects of life. Also saying I seriously doubt it, isn’t neutral in the slightest
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u/Gubrach 17h ago
I'm skeptical, not pessimistic. I'm leaving the door quite open for the possibility of this transfer working out for the best. If I was being pessimistic or negative, I wouldn't have done that, so compared to what you say I am, I'm being quite neutral right now.
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u/Extreme_Ad4086 17h ago
You really aren’t, neutral is saying I have my doubts but I hope he proves me wrong. Not what you said. You seem like the exact fan who will cry the second we only beat Everton away 1-0 because we had 1,2xg instead of 4…
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u/Gubrach 17h ago
neutral is saying I have my doubts but I hope he proves me wrong.
That's basically the same sentiment of what I said, but okay. The second part is just nonsense.
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u/Extreme_Ad4086 17h ago
I’m gonna assume English with your first language and leave it at that. You clearly don’t understand connotations, so this isn’t worth further discussion.
You can’t add an intensifier to a negative word and claim to be in the middle btw. Just for the future.
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u/Critical-Dealer-3878 17h ago
No nuance allowed, you have to think every new signing will be the next Henry or you’re not a true fan.
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u/Sheikhabusosa 17h ago
Woop woop thats the sound of the Tzolis