Gunners seal Clichy signing
Arsenal today completed the signing of 18-year-old left-back Gael Clichy on a four-year contract.
Clichy impressed manager Arsene Wenger on the tour of Austria and has been signed on a free transfer from AS Cannes. The French club lost their professional status through relegation and Arsenal only have to pay a small compensation fee.
Fellow new signing Philippe Senderos says he helped the French trialist settle in. "I have been helping out. Gael speaks no English so I explain things to him," he said.
Swiss teenager Senderos is still suffering from a back injury and veteran central defender Martin Keown, who has a hamstring injury, will both miss Sunday's Community Shield clash with Manchester United at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
Wenger may stay with the central defensive partnership of Sol Campbell and Kolo Toure who played in the 1-1 draw with Celtic at Celtic Park on Saturday. Nwankwo Kanu equalised after Liam Miller had put Celtic ahead.
Wenger praised the performance of new German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann. He said: " It was always going to be hard to follow David Seaman but we have made the right choice about the man to do that.
"What I liked was the way, when there were some difficult situations in the last five or ten minutes, he anticipated well and when there were crosses coming in and he came for them.
"He was good on crosses and good in his distribution. He also made some good one-on-one saves."