According to Twitter we have agreed terms with Dortmund midfielder Thomas Eisfeld. He is 19 and an offensive midfielder is all I know.



Jules fancy giving us a lowdown? Assume he wont be challenging for the first team straight away?

YoungGunsBlog https://twitter.com/#!/YoungGunsBlog


From what I can tell he's played 12 games for Dortmund under 19's this season, scoring 6 and 1 assist. He's played centre forward but can also play in behind the striker, sort of the false nine role that Cesc plays at Barca. That's what I've read from Twitter anyway.

This is what the latest posted article (Google's top search) tells us about him.

An attacking midfielder, Eisfeld's dreams of a career in professional football took a blow in late 2009, when he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Following his horror-injury, he has bounced back, however: in the current season with Dortmund's U19 side, heis his team's second-highest scorer, with six goals from 12 games.

Had he stayed at Dortmund Eisfeld would have faced heavy competition for a place, with the Bundesliga champions having signed midfielders Moritz Leitner, Leonardo Bittencourt and Mustafa Amini over the course of the last 12 months. But now, the 19-year-old appears to be on his way to Arsenal for a new challenge.

Elsewhere I've also read that he's only got 6 months left on his contract, so the fee won't be much. Have to admit I was hoping for something more ambitious than this. Comes to something when we're signing unwanted youngsters of Dortmund. No offence intended but the fact he only has 6 months left and they didn't seem in a rush to tie him down speaks volumes.

Yep, but that is the current philosophy, keep trying to bring in bright young prospects in the hope of finding the odd gem or two that will either stay with us or we make a killing on, I'd prefer the former but it's sometimes the latter if the player forces our hand. It's high reward for relatively low risk.

I wish they would stay (nasri, cesc) so we could build a winning team but what can you do ?

It was totally different with Cesc. Barcelona actually wanted to keep him. Dortmund don't appear too bothered losing Eisfeld! Which is a massive difference. Our philosophy is 'Sell a pound and pick up a penny'.

This signing looks similar to the signing of Amaury Bisshoff couple of years ago.
So I don't see him breaking into the first team. He's already 19, what's old for an arsenal singning. And he doesn't have any experience playing at the highest level.

How do you know they aren't bothered ? Maybe he won't re-sign because he sees too many players ahead of him in his position at Dortmund and knows he'll get more of a chance at Arsenal.

It may all be academic as he may not pass this so called stringent medical.

If he does ok with reserves next season, or goes out on loan, we will probably break even if we later sell him. So not really a risk here.

Arsenal move for Borussia Dortmund teenager Thomas Eisfeld
By Jamie Sanderson - 31st January, 2012
http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/8 ... as-eisfeld

Arsenal agree a fee of £400,000 for Borussia Dortmund midfielder Thomas Eisfeld, subject to a stringent medical because of his history of injury.

Eisfeld, who is out-of-contract at Dortmund in the summer, was in London yesterday for talks along with his agent Reza Fazeli, and even took part in the morning training session, as Arsene Wenger put the prospect through his paces. The 19-year-old is set to sign a long-term deal with Arsenal, after he completes a thorough medical, due to concerns over his poor injury record, and previous damage to his cruciate knee ligaments.

However, the Gunners are hopeful of wrapping up the formalities in time for Eisfeld to be eligible to make his debut for the club on Wednesday, when Arsenal's second string take on their Swansea City counterparts in a reserve team fixture. Eisfeld moves to North London after coming through the Dortmund Academy, where he is highly rated, and currently sits as the Under-19 team's leading scorer, with six goals in 12 matches. He is yet to feature for the Dortmund first-team, but the club had been hoping to renew his contract this month, before Arsenal pounced and agreed a £400,000 compensation deal over the weekend.

An agile, creative and attacking central play-maker, Eisfeld can also play as a striker or on the wings, and will look to hone his talents by starting life in Arsenal's reserve ranks, while training full time with the first-team.

@YoungGunsBlog https://twitter.com/#!/YoungGunsBlog

The absence of Jules in this thread speaks volumes. My money is on this guy being the next Henry.

I know nothing about this guy, sorry. Looks like a typical punt on a talented youngster.

My impression is that even many Dortmund fans don't know much about him, or don't rate him particularly. There is some frustration amongst them about losing a talented youngster, but I think this is because they think that he must be good now that Arsenal are interested in him, not because they rated him highly before that. Dortmund have plenty of young, promising midfielders of roughly the same age (Götze, Bittencourt, Amini), Eisfeld may have been the least promising prospect. Apparently he had a good season for their reserves, so maybe we are going to loan him out or sell him for small money if he doesn't develop, so the risk of this deal is not particularly high. He wasn't on the verge of breaking into their first team though, and I cannot remember the last time he has been selected to play for Germany either.

Why wait until January to look at renewing his deal? Surely if he'd shown enough potential there he'd already be tied down. If that's the case then he doesn't have too much confidence in his own ability.

Not sure whether to have negative or positive thoughts on this so I guess its the uncomfortable fence.

Some clubs are useless as tying down players, be they pros or prospects. I.e. Nasri at Arsenal.