Arsenal blown away by new signing as £34m star shocks coaches in training | Football
Arsenal chiefs were full of praise for summer signing Christos Tzolis at the Champions League draw and told Club Brugge of his exploits in training.
Greece international Tzolis signed a long-term contract at the Emirates Stadium in July after Arsenal agreed a £34m deal with Club Brugge.
Mikel Arteta targeted the 24-year-old after sanctioning the exit of Leandro Trossard, while Arsenal also put Gabriel Martinelli up for the sale.
Tzolis has enjoyed a bright start to his career in north London, helping the Premier League champions win their first four games of the season ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League opener against Napoli.
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After bringing Tzolis to the club, Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta insisted the Greek winger would ‘raise the technical level of our squad’ and bring a ‘strong mentality to our team’.
Those high up at the Emirates Stadium were equally positive about Tzolis when bumping into officials from Club Brugge during last month’s Champions League draw in Monaco.
President of the Belgian club, Bart Verhaeghe, said Arsenal were raving about the £34m signing and revealed he had been ‘coming out on top’ in various tests in training.
‘At the Champions League draw, I saw people from Arsenal and they showed a tremendous amount of respect,’ Verhaeghe told Het Belang van Limburg.
‘”What a player you’ve delivered”, they told me. They said he has an excellent attitude, is the best in the physical tests and is a great guy, too.’
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In a separate interview with Het Laatste Nieuws, the Club Brugge chief added: ‘Arsenal said “what a player” when they approached me after the draw.
‘Christos had come out on top in all the tests. That’s what we do here: deliver a ready-made product. Because we know what those top teams are looking for. We prepare our players for that kind of football.
‘Back then, people laughed at our holistic approach to nutrition, sleep, special glasses… Today, it’s all standard practice. We were the innovators from day one, and we’ll keep innovating.
‘Today, we’re selling players to Arsenal and Inter Milan, two teams that have reached the Champions League final in the last two years.
‘And at the same time, we’re recruiting directly from the Premier League, from a club like West Ham. 10 years ago, that was unthinkable.’
Last month, Arsenal defender Ben White revealed Tzolis was ‘beating everyone’ in pre-season testing.
‘Christos has been amazing,’ England international White said. ‘He came in, did all the testing, and beat everyone.
‘So he is fitting in really well and everyone is really happy for him to be here.’
Meanwhile, Rio Ferdinand believes Tzolis could turn out to be the ‘signing of the season’ following his bright start for the Gunners.
‘Who is the best signing of the transfer window? From what I’ve seen so far, I’m going to go for Tzolis,’ the Manchester United legend said on his YouTube channel.
‘For the price you got him for, £35m, from what I’ve seen, jinky little winger, great vision, making good decisions in the final third.
‘I think, great bit of business done by the recruitment team at Arsenal. I’m going to go early, I’m going to say he’s going to be my signing of the season, as in terms of value, and in terms of what he does.’
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