With the season now officially over for Arsenal, we are apparently after quite a few players (as usual) and if you believe everything you read, then it would seem we’d be bringing in about 10 new players for next season. Here I analyse the “transfer targets” and the likelihood of them actually happening:
Gonzalo Higuain (Likelihood: 1/10)
If you would believe the reports, we are going for the Argentine striker for around £19 million.
There is no doubt he is an excellent player, but he’s never coming to Arsenal. People have seen that Arsenal have this “war chest” and have started linking us to various names and put two and two together to make five. We have Podolski and Giroud, as well as Theo Walcott as options up front and while we probably do need a real finisher at the club, it’s hard to see anyone coming in without getting rid of the deadwood like Chamakh and Bendtner from the squad. Plus his wages would be a big stumbling block.
Stevan Jovetic (Likelihood: 3/10)
Another striker that we’ve been linked to for a while now is Fiorentina’s Stevan Jevotic. And apparently we’re in “advanced talks” with the player, as the Italian side look for around £20 million for his signature.
This is slightly more likely than Higuain but not by much. Like Higuain, he is a player that is looking to play elsewhere and if he does move to Fiorentina then it’s likely to be to one of the top Italian sides rather than North London.
Ashley Williams (Likelihood: 3/10)
Apparently a deal has been done and we’re bringing in Ashley Williams for around £10 million. The apparent logic is that we need to strengthen our central defence as Thomas Vermaelen is supposedly going to leave this summer.
To be honest, I haven’t seen much of him at all but this is probably another player who wants to leave his club and the media have just speculated all of this up.
Christian Benteke (Likelihood: 4/10)
No doubt a talented player, and the right age for Arsene to be interested. At 22, he has the potential to be even better and joining from Aston Villa, his wage demands wouldn’t be too bad.
But as I’ve mentioned before, we have a lot of attackers at the club already and you feel Arsene is going to keep faith in Giroud and hope he builds on a decent first season.
Cesc Fabregas (Likelihood: 1/10)
There have been rumblings that Cesc is unhappy at Barcelona and the theory is he would want to return to Arsenal where he would have a regular starting place. But he’s just won La Liga and when interviewed, he has actually stated he loves it at Barcelona. Also, he isn’t the kind of personality to just give up and there’s the fact that Xavi and Iniesta are entering the twilight of their careers so he knows he’ll be the main man in midfield in the coming years.
Overall:
The fact is, Arsene and Arsenal like to keep all of their transfer business top secret. With the vast majority of players Arsene has signed, we haven’t heard anything until it’s been announced official on the Arsenal website.
Arsene knows that making interest public automatically inflates prices and encourages bids from other clubs, so it is in our interests to keep everything quiet.
So sit back and wait for Arsenal to officially announce any deals, if there is any!
So many rumours that have been generated by agents to raise the price of their players and stimulate interest.
However, players of Higuain and Jovetic ability are just what Arsenal need and this is where Arsen should be pitching.
The problem is all the very best players will go to City, Chelsea, Utd, Bayern, Barca and Madrid so who is ever available after that, will not be the cream, it’s the way of the Euro!
We maybe faced with up and coming players like Benteke, which may not be a bad thing, but don’t expect a Falcao or Cavani as it just aint going to happen!
I don’t think Arsene will be spending big, I’m more worried the amount of money that has been waisted on less than average players & sack who ever gave these contracts of £50,000 plus to them we have no chance of getting rid of them, look at all the dead wood that have been out on loan just sucking money from our Great club till their contract have run down then their off spungers, i wouldn’t give’ um house room, look at Santos, Denilson, Bendtner, Arsarvin, & all the other rubbish so bad & not seen i’ve forgot their names SACK THESE BOARD MEMBERS
arsenal have always been linked with super players and actually arsene can affodr them the problem is the salary structure that we have. The best we can do is what we always do go for upcoming good guys or buy guys away from the big four leagues (Germany, england, spain and italy). So benteke is not a bad choice or even Michu.
Wenger would use only the money given to him to purchase quality for less amount not this huge amount. am only saying this please wenger spend some f**king money
I expect a signing like Loc Remi from a relegated club. But Benteke is too much like Giroud to interest us.
And perhaps a young midfielder, left winger, to allow Podolski to lead the line and to back up Cazorla there. I expect Giroud to be a super sub and to start against the diminishing number of long ball clubs. I expect Walcott to stay out right where he is one of the world’s best. I expect Ox to slowly become the new Ramsey of the first half of this season, filling in wherever needed all over the pitch.
Any other signings will be to replace important members of the team who leave, Sagna, TMV, Coquelin, etc.
Accepted as an unquestioned truth is that we must buy a strong, Vieira type DM. I would be very surprised if Wenger did this. He has been experimenting with replacing the single deep lying sweeper type, mainly defensive midfielder fielder with a more technical attack minded midfielder and replacing the lost defense with pressure higher up the pitch and more team defense for at least two years now. And in the last half of this season he has found the personnel and the tactics to do it in the double pivot of Areata and Ramsey.
Most commenters start out by hand waving over clearing out the ‘deadwood.’ For one thing the ‘deadwood’ everyone refers to are part of our team. This is a terrible expression to use to refer to them. And it takes two to tango, it is not enough to just want to sell off these players, you have to have someone to buy them. We would be very lucky to sell two to three of them.
My conclusion is that I don’t expect a lot of signings this summer.
Arsene is extremely loyal to his players and won’t bring anyone in as it will “kill” players already there, like Ramsey, Diaby, etc.
He needs to realise that having competition increases the performances of the players.