Arsenal Transfer Window Preview Part 1- January 2009

What's up everybody? As there is only one day left in 2008 and we move to 2009, I figured I'd take the time today to put together a little bit of a transfer window preview, looking at some options that could come in. Obviously Arsene is one who normally surprises everyone and buys players that nobody expects and/or have never been heard of before, so this could be way off but like I said, it's just possibilities and will hopefully start some good discussion.

So to start off, we have to figure out which areas of the squad need to be addressed. I think the two glaring holes are in the center of defense and in midfield. Some people say we need a keeper but I think Almunia has shown that he is a quality keeper worthy of his spot in the team.

So for the defender, we have to look at what we have and what we need in turn. William Gallas is a 31 year old smaller center back who has shown a penchant for scoring goals and also allowing goals on set pieces. Sometimes he looks great and others he looks like the worst player on the pitch. He's not getting any younger, and his leadership has certainly been questionable. Kolo Toure used to be a very stable defender for us and is in the same mold as Gallas in terms of size and style. He seems to have lost some of what he had before in terms of quality in the past year. Mikael Silvestre is pretty bloody awful and shouldn't really ever play in a team that has title ambitions every year. Johann Djourou looks quite good and is still young. He's bigger than Kolo and Gallas and should only get better with time. Fairly good on the headers and pretty good at marking.

I think what we need in defense is another player in the style of Djourou who can win the long balls that have become a staple of the Premiership. An experienced player who maybe wouldn't command a huge fee. Sol Campbell's departure, while he was getting old, really did take a lot of experience and physicality out of our defense. We need somebody who can rough up opposing strikers. Now who that is I don't know. In the summer we were linked with Raul Albiol, who plays for Valencia. He's got good size and speed and can play in defense or as a defensive midfielder. Valencia have also had some finanacial troubles so they would probably sell if the right offer came in. Steven Taylor is a young player with Premiership experience that has good size and strength and looks to have a bright future as well. Hard to tell how much he would cost but it could be an option. Cristian Zapata is another player we have been linked with in the past year and could still be an option. I think any of those three could be real possibilities due to the fact that they are all currently playing at top level clubs in top leagues which gives them the experience to play for a club like ours in a league like the Premiership. They all have size and strength and will probably all get better over time.


If you have any others you can think of feel free to leave them in the comments.

The other main area we need to address as soon as possible is in midfield. We've been sorely lacking in the holding role since the departure of Mathieu Flamini AND Gilberto Silva left in the summer. Looking back, that was not the best idea to let Gilberto leave after Flamini left, but now we have a hole there that needs to be filled. I have seen mention of Scott Parker, since he can play in that role and he is used to the Premiership since he plays for West Ham. He's 28 years old so that might reduce the fee for him some, but I don't know how he would fit into the Arsenal style of play. Of course we had all the talk of Xabi Alonso in the summer, but it never worked out, reportedly because of a 2 million pound difference in what they wanted for him and what we offered. Let me tell you, it's not going to happen. Liverpool are fighting for the title and he's been playing quite a lot for them this season. I doubt they'd sell him and even if they wanted to then the fee would be higher now than it was and I don't know if he'd want to come and battle for 4th instead of a title. Marcos Senna of Villareal has also been linked with us, and he could be an affordable option because of his age. He wouldn't be a long term solution by any means but he could be at the top of his game for another two years or so.

That's about it for part 1 of the transfer preview. I'll get to part 2 tomorrow. If you have any ideas of who YOU would like to sign, feel free to leave it in the comments or any other thoughts you want to put out there. One more day in 2008, enjoy it!

Cesc Speaks About Hleb and Adebayor, Senna Linked

Morning all. Sorry I haven't been updating as recently as I'd like, I've just been really busy lately.

So Samir Nasri hasn't been officially signed yet, which makes my prediction from two days ago wrong. I'm positive he will sign though, but I am going to stop predicting when. I would assume it will be this week but every other time anyone has guessed it's turned out to be wrong so I'll just wait until it's officially announced. Marseille's president seems to agree with me.

Setanta Sports reports that Pascal Cygan has heard about Arsenal's interest in his team mate Marcos Senna of Villareal. I wouldn't understand that move at all. People say Gilberto is too old at 32 but Marcos Senna is 31. That's certainly not a typical Arsenal signing. He's a good player and all but how much do you shell out for a 31 year old? He was sensational in Euro 2008 but in my opinion he's too old and I can't imagine that Arsene is really interested in him.


In other BS stories, Adebayor's agent says that his client is not greedy. HA! You're having a laugh.

“Emmanuel is a man of heart, not of money. He is not greedy. He is a kid from the street, has sensibilities and is humble.

“If this was a money problem, then he would have asked to leave. I know that Arsenal’s political position is that they don’t pay high salaries.”

“It is important for Emmanuel that Arsenal show their motivation to keep him,” Courbis said. “Whatever they will decide, the decision will be taken with respect.”

Well if this isn't about money, then what were all those statements a few days ago about how he deserves to be compensated the same as Thierry Henry was at Arsenal? Why would he be interested in a move to Milan (who have pulled out of the race to sign him) who aren't even in the Champion's League next year? I think he's all about the money. He pretty much said that when he said he needed to start thinking about his retirement already. His agent is a twat.

Cesc spoke about Adebayor and Hleb and said he hopes to see them both when he arrives for preseason training. It's tempting for me to say, well since Cesc wants them both to stay I should want them to stay too, but I just can't. I think it would be awkward for them to come back at this point. When you make all the statements that Hleb and Ade's agents made you don't just walk back all happy into the locker room and everyone think the same about you. Players want to know that all the other players are just as committed to giving 100% as they are. You think Kolo Toure or Gilberto, who never complain about money, are going to be really happy with these two? They won't say anything about it because it's not their style but I can't see Kolo especially being thrilled with them. Kolo remember came to Arsenal in very much the same way as Ade. The both were born in Africa and ended up at Arsenal for fairly small transfer fees because they were not developed players. Arsene made them into what they are now. Kolo has been here since 2002 and not looked for a move, Ade has been here for 2 years and now he's ready to bail when people finally think he's a good player.

All I can say is if they do stay I hope it doesn't really upset the locker room chemistry, because that would be a far worse problem than not bringing in Samir Nasri on time or losing Mathieu Flamini.

Goonerholic's article is great today. I think the transfer season would still be a lot better without newsnow honestly. People just sitting there watching it all day, waiting for Nasri to sign, it's terrible.

That's all I've got today because I've got to go prepare for the second podcast which we should be doing today! So look forward to that, and remember that we have arrived in the month where we start the preseason, so we have something to look forward to! Cheers!