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!

Lots of Carlos Vela

Morning all. Decent amount of stuff to cover today so let's get right to it because I've got to mow the grass. I don't know how the weather is over in London but right here in Florida my thermometer currently says 99 degrees Fahrenheit. I don't know what that is in Celsius but let me tell you it is way too hot to be mowing the grass. End of story.

As you know Carlos Vela is an Arsenal player, and he's also Mexican. Giovanni dos Santos is now a Sp*rs player, and is Vela's friend from the Mexican team. So when the press asked Carlos about his friend moving to Tottenham, he had the absolute perfect answer:

"I am happy for him, he is a very good player and let's hope he can then move on to a better team."

That's just what we need to here from you Carlos, truly a legend in the making. Clearly he knows that Tottenham is a second (or maybe third or fourth) rate club and he's hoping his mate can get out of that scum pit as fast as possible.

In other Carlos news, he's apparently been arrested in Chicago for listening to his music too loudly in the hotel. It was after their 4-0 victory over Peru in the early hours of the morning when they were jamming to Julieta Venegas. They were asked to turn the music down twice but they didn't so the police were called. Oswaldo Sanchez argued with the police and they were taken into custody. Vela was released without any charges this morning while Sanchez was given a $1,000 fine and a court date. Oh and if you didn't see Vela's goal against Peru you can see it here. It's the third one for Mexico in the game and it reminds me a lot of Adebayor's third versus Derby at the end of this last season.

There's another link saying that Adebayor is going to AC Milan but I won't even cover that. I've already said that I think he's staying. He's already come out twice and said that he loves the club and wants to win trophies here next season. We might as well take him at his word. I don't think Ade has met with AC Milan representatives at all. Maybe his agent has or something because that's just what agents do, but I'd imagine that Adebayor is sipping Togolese cocktails somewhere and enjoying the time off. Nobody deserves it more.

There is a follow up to yesterday's Aaron Ramsey story, with Ramsey explaining why he chose Arsenal instead of ManUre. It followed up with some good quotes from him about having to work hard to break into the first team and all of that. Cardiff seems pretty pissed about him not going to United, I guess they really wanted him back for next season on loan. I know I said I don't go by Youtube videos to rate players, but honestly I want to see SOMETHING on this kid. Does anyone honestly know anything about him? I have no idea what he can bring to the table and even a highlight clip right now would suit me. So if you are a youtube master go ahead and make a video. Thanks.

Udinese have told Arsene Wenger that if he really wants Cristian Zapata he's really going to have to bring the pain. Or at least 16 million quid. That's a lot for a defender, I don't care who it is. Can't we fing some 21 year old that nobody knows about that will only cost about 5 million quid? That's way more of the Wenger mold plus it leaves us more money to sign a really brilliant player. No I'm not talking about Samir Nasri, who I'm not all that excited about, I'm talking about the brilliant David Villa. If we let Liverpool get him, I'm going to have to kill someone. Possibly Fernando Torres. Imagine those two playing together every week though. It's a potential nightmare. I couldn't tell you if Liverpool can afford Villa or not, but the rumors say that he'd like to go play with Torres and that would be a scary, scary proposition. Cesc wants him though, and you know how the boss likes to keep his star players happy, so maybe, just maybe...


Alright that's about it. I can't find much else that is of any significance or relevance. Phillipe Senderos plays for Switzerland today. Let's hope he does better than he did last game. Congratulations to Cesc Fabregas for getting his first goal for Spain, and we'll hope for many more to come. I've got a new thing just for fun. On the right you'll see the funny picture of the day. I'll try to find a new one to put up every day. If you like it then chuckle a bit and if you don't tell me to piss off. And another quick thing, since Barca is doing a clear-out...what about Andres Iniesta? Cheers.

New Kit Leaked and More!

Morning all. A special shout out to Dr Whiff today for being such a cunt. Thanks. Top bloke there.

To start off with we've got the new home kits for next season! I for one have to say that they're good looking kits. I know the sleeves aren't all white this time around but I think they still have enough white to keep them traditional. It seems like there's extra white down the sides too which is cool. I'm going to be getting one, just not sure if I want a Sagna one, a Cesc one, or a Clichy one. Or maybe even Adebayor. The away kit I've only seen low quality pictures but they go back to the yellow with a bit of blue. I'm not as much of a fan of those but I haven't seen any really good pictures. What do you guys think?


Sky Sports reports that Arsenal had a 10 million pound bid rejected for Cristian Zapata of Udinese. He's their star defender and captain even though he's only 21 years old. He could be just the type of defender we need to bring in and if we really did bid for him then that is great news to hear. He's 6' 2" (I don't know metrics well enough to convert, sorry) and is big and strong enough to challenge for the long balls, which has been what we couldn't do in the past seasons.

This morning one of our readers, Joshua, and myself were talking about if you could sign ONE defender in the whole world, who would it be? He said Per Mertesacker and I said Sergio Ramos. Who do you think our best defensive option would be if you could choose one from anywhere?

Everton have also joined the race to sign Aaron Ramsey, and have had a bid accepted. So it's really up to him to decide where he wants to go now, but I think he'll probably end up and Man United. I don't really care though. We have 17 year olds that are coming up that could probably do most of what Ramsey has done in the Championship. This article says that he will wait until he is able to speak to Arsene Wenger though.T

Bacary Sagna signed a new deal, so my favorite player gets to stick around longer.

"I love Arsenal, they are a great club," Sagna stated.

"The manager is also very good and next season we will be fighting for all the trophies."

Sounds like he actually enjoys it here, who would have thought? If you read other stories you'd think everyone hated Arsenal.

Here's a story that Gilberto washed his Visa in the laundry and that made him late for training. Sounds like Gilberto needs to come up with better excuses.

There have been several reports such as this one in the Telegraph saying that Emmanuel Adebayor has agreed personal terms with AC Milan. I think it's probably all bollocks. He just said he loves the club and will be back next year a few days ago. It's all sources from Italy saying it so it's probably just trying to unsettle our best striker. I think he'll be here though.

Alright that's a wrap on this one. Apparently posts are only good if they get comments but if you actually have a life and are too busy I understand. Till tomorrow, cheers!