Can Arsenal Pull Off The Falcao Deal?

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Reports earlier on tonight from The Guardian suggested that AS Monaco were offering Falcao to Manchester City for a fee of around £55 million.

Does that mean Real Madrid don’t want to buy him? This would seem strange after they managed to scam Manchester United out of £59.7 million for Angel Di Maria. With Falcao in their line up, they would be the best team in Europe by a mile – although I suppose they could feel they have too many attacking superstars, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and James Rodriguez all at the Santiago Bernabeu.

So that’s were we are, so we thought. Now The Guardian suggest that Arsenal could be in the running for Falcao, and all Arsenal fans know the pain from yesterday when the BBC were duped by a fake David Ornstein Twitter account and reported that Arsenal were in discussions with the Columbian striker for a £20 million one-year loan deal.

The problem Manchester City have, although they are keen on the striker, is that they are concerned about being within the FFP regulations. Reports suggest they would need to sell before they can buy, with time against them. Maybe Arsenal could put in an offer for Edin Dzeko? Who knows what’s going on behind the scenes.

The reports about Arsenal being in for Radamel Falcao are far from being based on any real evidence, with all of the major news outlets putting two and two together and getting five. The “reason” why Arsenal are in for Falcao is because of the response of Arsenal fans after the disappointing defeat to Leicester City this afternoon, and the poor performance from Giroud’s replacement, Yaya Sanogo.

The fans are far from convinced that Sanogo can filled Giroud’s shoes with any real competence and believe Arsenal will struggle without a top class striker.

But when has Arsene Wenger ever listened to the fans?

The only way Arsenal will sign Radamel Falcao is if the higher ups at the football club don’t trust Arsene’s judgement and bring him in without his consent. We saw what can happen two summers ago, when Arsene lost 8-2 at Old Trafford and brought in Andre Santos, Per Mertesacker, Park Chu-Young and Mikel Arteta. Even though Mertesacker and Arteta have done well for Arsenal over the subsequent years, you cannot say categorically that they were all Arsene Wenger signings.

So what does the next 24 hours hold for Arsenal?

We are all either going to be hugely disappointed when no-one comes in, or we are all going to be massively surprised when a player like Falcao or Cavani rocks up at The Emirates.

And if it does happen, like with Özil last summer, you will have to wonder if it was all planned just to get the Arsenal fans excited and giddy for the new season.

Like last season, it would give the club, the fans and the players a huge lift, so who knows?

There’s one thing I do know for sure though, if Arsene delivers an Arsenal team that includes Mesut Özil, Alexis Sanchez and Radamel Falcao, I will jizz my pants. Repeatedly. In my bosses face. With this face:

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[Credit: ITV Sport]

Podolski Out? Cavani In? Falcao To City? What Are Your Transfer Window Predictions?

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It’s pretty clear what type of player Arsenal fans want to arrive at Arsenal, but what are your Transfer Deadline Day predictions?

On the final day of the summer transfer window, Arsenal pulled off a massive transfer coup and brought in World Cup winner and Real Madrid playmaker Mesut Özil for £42.3 million, although the summer before that we had no excitement as no-one arrived at the end of the window.

The summer before however, after the 8-2 massacre at Old Trafford, we did have some transfer deadline day excitement as Andre Santos, Per Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta all joined Arsenal. And of course, who could forget the signing of Park Chu-Young, probably the greatest Arsenal player of all time.

But what about this years transfer deadline day comings and going?

For me, after what happened at Leicester City and how Lukas Podolski was only given 14 minutes of normal time to help win a game where we needed his introduction a lot earlier, shows the bubbly German is on his way out. I wouldn’t be surprised if we managed to secure a last minute signing in the striker department and let Poldi go. Arsene clearly doesn’t have any faith in him (although I’m not sure why) and he should be free to leave.

But who are we going to sign? Falcao’s move to Real Madrid looks all but tied up, Remy has completed his move to Chelsea and the only “realistic” target (even though it’s still out there) is Edinson Cavani.

The latest reports regarding Falcao are that he is being offered to Manchester City for £55 million by AS Monaco. If that really is the case (although it’s probably a plot to get Real Madrid to get him sooner) then they are going to need to sell some of their strikers before bringing in the prolific Columbian. So that could theoretically mean Dzeko, Jovetic or Negrado are available for a quick sale.

Like you, I’ll be glued to Twitter and Sky Sports News to find out the latest news, but what are your predictions?

Do you think Arsenal will be active on transfer deadline day, or do you think Yaya Sanogo is destined to be Arsenal’s talisman for the foreseeable future? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!

Leicester City Prove That Arsenal DESPERATELY Need A Striker

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In the end a frustrating game where Arsenal couldn’t beat a newly promoted Leicester City side.

Having lost to Chelsea and drawn to Everton, Leicester were not intimidated by the arrival of Arsenal and a draw was probably a fair result – although it could be argued that the home team had the clearer chances on goal.

Arsenal looked lively at times and but the home team were content (and quite rightly so) to sit back and hit us on the break. Just like at home to Crystal Palace and away to Everton, we struggled to get our passing game going and we greatly missed the presence of Olivier Giroud in the side.

With various options in the squad, Arsene opted to start Yaya Sanogo and his inexperience showed. His touch was poor, and he couldn’t hold the ball up and bring others into play.

And if you were connected to Twitter during the game, you would know that the majority of Arsenal fans were not happy with the fact Arsene decided to miss out on Remy, who ended up going to Chelsea.

It is clear that even against a side such as Leicester City, we struggled to take our chances and you wonder how we are going to fair leading up to Christmas without a decent striker.

The fact is, we desperately need a top class centre forward.

But what are we going to do? Falcao is off to Real Madrid, we’ve missed out on Remy… Our options are quickly dwindling and the number of decent strikers available must be into the single figures. The sad thing is, we have a decent defence and midfield, but not top striker. With one in the squad, we could probably do great things this season.

As ever, Arsene is being extremely stubborn and it’s clear we’ve made our one marquee signing per summer with the arrival of Alexis Sanchez. The Chillean was excellent today, and by far our best player – he showed fight, desire and determination throughout the 90 minutes and tried to make things happen.

The other players however, were poor. Ramsey tried but couldn’t get his passing going, as did Cazorla, while Özil looks like he’s still suffering from a World Cup hangover. Flamini is not the defensive midfielder we need and Yaya Sanogo had a glorious chance to put us ahead but shot straight at Baby Schmeichel.

Chambers was excellent when he came on for Koscielny, and Per, Debuchy and Monreal all had solid games. But the problem was in the final third where Arsene decided not to use Podolski or Campbell.

Sanogoals is not the answer and it’s unfair to have him as the scapegoat for Arsene’s inability to see that we need to bring in a top striker. Chelsea already have Diego Costa and what do they do? They strengthen as they obviously have aspirations to win something this season and bring in Remy, who is a decent player. We desperately need a striker and don’t get one, it really is mind baffling.

So where do we go from here? Without a decent striker we struggled against Leicester City, and that does not bode well for the rest of the season.

The excellent Sanchez got us out of jail today in a game we could have conceivably lost. Without a new striker, we could struggle to get 4th place this season.

Arsenal Are Going To Struggle Big Time Without Olivier Giroud

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After the debacle of the non-signing of Radamel Falcao to Arsenal, it seems certain that we will start the new season without a top class striker in our squad.

Arsenal fans were excited about the new era, with Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez as our big money signings over the last 12 months, but with Olivier Giroud out until at least the New Year, things look pretty bleak.

Before Özil arrived last summer, every Arsenal fan was begging for a top striker to arrive at The Emirates. We were linked with Gonzalo Higuain, Luis Suarez, Stevan Jovetic, Loic Remy and a load of other strikers, as the media believed that was what Arsenal needed to add to their squad. The Arsenal manager of course, had other ideas and signed an attacking midfielder instead – typical Arsene.

We signed Alexis Sanchez this summer and while he is usually a wide attacker, like Thierry Henry, he wants to see the Chilean as a central striker. With Olivier Giroud in the side, Arsene’s initial plan was to ease Sanchez into the central role but now the target man is out injured, he is going to have to rush his development in that position.

That’s a lot to ask and we are going to struggle with that. Against Manchester City and Besiktas in the first leg, when Sanchez played wide on the right, he put in excellent performances. But in recent games, against Everton and Besiktas when he played centrally, he struggled. He scored a massive goal against Besiktas putting us through to the Champions League proper, but couldn’t impose himself on the game.

So that’s where we are. Despite Arsene claiming that Yaya Sanogo, Lukas Podolski, Joel Campbell, Theo Walcott (when he returns) and Alexis Sanchez can file the central role, every Arsenal fan knows he’s clutching at straws. Yaya Sanogo is the only player after Giroud who can play the main striker role, but he’s raw and yet to score a goal for Arsenal in a competitive game. Podolski, Theo, Campbell and Sanchez are all wide players with pace and not really suited to holding the ball up and bringing others into play.

Giroud was excellent at bringing players into the game, such as Ramsey, Özil, Cazorla, Wilshere and Rosicky (remember some of the amazing team goals we scored last season? Giroud was heavily involved in most of them) and make no mistake, his absence will be greatly missed – even more so if we don’t bring in a decent replacement, which looks less and less likely as time ticks on.

Falcao Not Coming To Arsenal – BBC Fall For Fake David Ornstein Twitter Account

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As Arsenal fans were excited about the possibility of Radamel Falcao coming to Arsenal, it turns out it’s all a piss take which the BBC fell for.

On the official BBC Football website, it reports that Arsenal are in talks with Falcao for a years loan move but it turns out that the “source” David Ornstein, who is a respected BBC Sport reporter wasn’t from his official Twitter account, but from a fake David Ornstein account

As of right now, the official BBC Football website still has the “Falcao to Arsenal” transfer news, but I’m sure that will be removed once they realise their massive mistake.

With the thousands of ITK Twitter accounts, and people making fake accounts to spread even more shite, you just wonder if anything will be done by Twitter and the crap that’s being spouted to a large audience.