How Chelsea Inadvertently Dodged Gokhan Tore Ordeal Thanks to Frank Arnesen
With the unintentional help of Chelsea's former sporting director Frank Arnesen, the Blues profited from academy player Gokhan Tore before he became entangled in controversy.
One of Arnesen's many calculated gambles which sputtered out, Tore was signed by Chelsea from Bayer Leverkusen in 2009.
Having engineered the signings of Arjen Robben, Jaap Stam, Ronaldo Luis and Ruud van Nistelrooy at PSV Eindhoven, Arnesen was the foremost expert in projecting prospects making a quantum leap.
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While working for Tottenham Hotspur in 2005, Arnesen was being wined and dined abroad Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich's yacht.
The Arnesen affair cost Abramovich €10.1/£8 million in compensation paid to Spurs, per BBC Sport.
The fee was small potatoes if Arnesen could identify the next Ronaldo and bring him to Chelsea.
Four years on, Arnesen was hopeful his Chelsea legacy could be saved by punts on a multitude of young guns, one of them being Tore.
If you know Arnesen the player, it makes sense why he became enamoured with Tore.
Arnesen "duped defenders with all manner of deception," per Rob Smyth and Lars Eriksen at the Guardian. "Some feel that, but for persistent knee injuries, he could have become Denmark's greatest ever player."
Tore—a stocky, left-footed, red-head—is a mesmerising dribbler like Arnesen was during his playing days.
A year and nine months after signing Tore, Arnesen resigned from Chelsea.
"At Chelsea, we had fantastic talent [and] we built up marvellous players," Arnesen said, per Simon Johnson at the London Evening Standard. "But they needed to be given a chance and they never were."
Despite Tore's immense technical ability, he never played a Premier League game for Chelsea.
When Arnesen was hired by Hamburg to become the Bundesliga club's sporting director, he still believed in Tore and signed him for €1.3/£1 million.
"Gokhan is a young and extremely talented player," Arnesen said, per Hamburg's official website (h/t ESPN). "We must and will give him the necessary time he needs to continue his positive development."
Tore had significantly closed the gap in quality between him and Mario Gotze.
| League Only | Gokhan Tore 11-12 | Mario Gotze 11-12 |
| Games/Minutes | 22/1,489 | 17/1,213 |
| Goals | 0 | 6 |
| Shots Per Goal | 0 | 4.2 |
| Shots On Target % | 19 | 52 |
| Assists | 6 | 5 |
| Key Passes Per Game | 1.9 | 2 |
| Passes Per Game | 25 | 32.6 |
| Pass Accuracy % | 82.2 | 78.4 |
| Dribbles Per Game | 5.3 | 3.5 |
The adulation, fame and glory began clouding Tore's judgement.
"It is understood that coach Thorsten Fink is unhappy with Tore's attitude," per Daniel Jovanov at Goal.com. "Galatasaray and Rubin Kazan are monitoring Tore's situation."
Was there a Romario-like incident from Tore at Hamburg?
When the late Sir Bobby Robson was managing PSV, he was critical of Romario's aloof nature towards training.
Unable to have a meaningful conversation with Romario, Robson called in Arnesen to be the translator (this was pre-Jose Mourinho), per Robson's autobiography:
"Romario didn't say a word.
All he did was stare, like a cobra, into Frank Arnesen's eyes, quite aggressively.
Frank was getting edgy. He was being defied. He was beginning to feel humiliated.
[...]
When Frank finally snapped, he picked up this book, slammed it down in front of Romario and roared [EXPLETIVE].
In that language, apparently, it's the rudest thing you can say to a man's face.
"
Hamburg sold Tore to Rubin Kazan for €5.8/£4.6 million.
Tore never settled at Rubin and his time was marred by allegedly being involved in a €400,000/£315,410 fraud case, per RIA Novosti.
Besiktas became the latest club to bet on Tore's upside, signing him for €4.5/£3.6 million.
The move emboldened Tore's attitude, which mutated into a warped view of being above the law.
Just ask Tore's compatriot Hakan Calhanoglu, per ZDF Aktuellen Sportstudio (h/t Emre Kaya at Besiktas-International.com):
"Gokhan went right past me and went to the other kid [Omer Toprak's friend].
Later, another person came in from behind [Tore]. The real story started there. That guy came in and took a gun out of his jacket.
He walked [towards] Omer and said to lie down or he'll shoot him.
Here, he [gun-toting associate] was aiming to control us so Gokhan could solve the issue.
They [Omer's friend and Tore] got into a fistfight.
[...]
The event ended and Omer's friend was covered in blood.
"
According to Calhanoglu,
- Toprak's friend flirted with Tore's ex-girlfriend.
- On one night, Calhanoglu, Toprak and his friend were in the same hotel room.
- Tore and a gun-toting associate find out and muscle their way into the room.
- Gun-toting associate threatens to shoot Calhanoglu and Toprak.
- Tore makes a beeline towards Toprak's friend who is roughed up.
In response, Turkey national team manager Fatih Terim did a Roger Goodell.
"Gokhan has apologised to Calhanoglu and Toprak on three occasions," Terim said, per Alberto Rubio at Marca. "I don't think that the solution is to kick him [Tore] out of the team, so I have decided to give him another chance."
In April, Tore was shot in the shoulder "at around 4 am" in a night club, though Besiktas claimed "Tore had no connection with the attacker," per Anadolu Agency.
Was this spin from Besiktas to protect one of their most valuable assets from speculation of involvement with the underworld?
Or, was Tore a victim of a random attack and the media using the night club incident to lambaste him an example of gutter journalism?
October 23, 2014.
Partizan Belgrade vs. Besiktas in the UEFA Europa League.
Besiktas centre-forward Demba Ba—a former Chelsea player—splits open Partizan's defence with a through ball to Tore, who finishes past Partizan goalkeeper Milan Lukac to make it 4-0.
At Hamburg, Tore tore apart German defences yet never accumulated a Tor (goal) in the Bundesliga.
Tore's goal for Besiktas vindicates the trust of manager Slaven Bilic.
"The things that are being said [about Tore] is like a movie script," Bilic said, per Lig TV (h/t Emre Kaya at Besiktas-International.com). "We're not going to oppose him by listening to the rumours."
When Tore encountered problems, Bilic remained firm.
Whereas, Arnesen folded at Hamburg.
"It's always sad when you have to let a young player [like Tore] go," Arnesen said, per Hamburg's official website (h/t RIA Novosti). "But we made a good deal."
Arnesen also unwittingly made sure it was a "good deal" for Chelsea.
- Arnesen signed Tore from Chelsea for €1.3/£1 million.
- €2.9/£2.3 million of the €5.8/£4.6 million Hamburg received for selling Tore to Rubin was wired into Chelsea's bank account due to a sell-on clause Abramovich's brains trust negotiated with Arnesen.
The by-product of working with Arnesen netted Chelsea an easy €4.2/£3.3 million on Tore, who has a penchant for being around guns.
Statistics via WhoScored
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