Arsenal Transfer Window Preview Part 2- January 2009

Morning all. Last day of 2008 has come and I'm still alive and if you're reading this so are you so congratulations on making it through another year. Yesterday I ran down the first half of our January transfer preview for Arsenal and today I'm going to finish that off with the second half of who we should buy and maybe even a little who we should sell. We did central defenders and central midfielders yesterday, so that leaves us our wide and attacking players for today.

Let's look at what we have so far out wide. We have Nasri, who is certainly a quality player as long as he can stay healthy, which hasn't been as much as you'd like. There is Eboue, who is really a right back and has been forced onto the wing and really isn't very effective out there. Rosicky is ALWAYS hurt and probably won't play for us anymore barring a miraculous recovery from his injury that has kept him out for a year. And of course we have Theo, who is out for a couple more months but he really looked great at the start of this year until the time of his injury. Diaby is also used out wide occasionally but he is a central midfielder and we really shouldn't accept having to play someone out of position so much.


So it is clear that we really could use a wide player, at least to add some depth while Theo is out and hopefully to create some competition for places with say, Eboue. There has been a ton of talk about Andrei Arshavin ever since Russia's run at Euro 2008. He was good at the Euro's, yes I'll give you that, but do we really know how he would adapt to the Premiership? He's 27 years old and would command a huge fee, yet he hasn't been tested in a top flight league. I'm going to come right out and say that I don't want Arsenal to buy Arshavin. Sp*rs bought Pavlyuchenko because of his performances in the Euro's alongside Arshavin and he hasn't worked out great for them. I just don't see him as the best option and I hope we look somewhere else. That somewhere else could be Mikel Arteta of Everton. Reports are in already that we will make a 12 million pound bid for him, which could be enough to get him from Everton. He's a huge player for them who they won't want to part with but for the right price they would have to accept, especially since the player would most likely want to come play for Arsenal. He's been playing in the Premiership for a long time so he has that needed experience which would hopefully mean he could make an immeadiate impact. He is very versatile as well meaning that he could play in Cesc's role while he is injured and move out wide or alongside him when Cesc returns. He's also good on set pieces and he really just looks like a better option to me. Another option I could think of hasn't had as much talk as the other two but as I said yesterday, Valencia are strapped for cash and a very good player on their team just happens to play on the wing. I'm talking about Silva, who plays with Cesc for Spain. I have no idea what kind of fee he would command but he is a great player and would surely benefit any team he was in.

Moving on to the strikers and you'd have to say that if we were totally set for players in a posititon then it would be at striker. We have two good strikers in RvP and Adebayor who can get the job done at the top flight as well as Eduardo, plus some youngsters like Carlos Vela and Nicklas Bendtner in waiting. I'll admit though that I'm not a big Bendtner fan. I think he gives off the impression that he is not trying hard a lot of times when he is on the pitch and it really bothers me. A lot of times when he plays it is up front by himself and when you're up top by yourself it really requires a lot of movement from you, which he doesn't seem to have. Sure he scores the odd good goal sometimes but I think his attitude of entitlement is a problem and if we received a decent offer for him I suggest we take it. If we were to bring in a striker, which we won't, then my personal choice would be Sergio "Kun" Aguero.

Last but not least we need to talk about which players we want leaving if we had our choice. Players that are not Arsenal calibre who are playing for Arsenal and should not be. Alex Song immeadiately springs to mind. He's not good enough in midfield or in defense to ever be a first eleven player and really makes me nervous even when he comes on in reserve or as a sub. When you look at other top clubs do you see players of Alex Song's skill level? Not really, and if there is one, then they don't play nearly as much as Song does for us. I also think Eboue would do well with a change of scenery. He hasn't really improved on the wing ever since he was moved there and he certainly won't ever be better than Sagna at right back. He's decent cover but even when Sagna has been out the boss has chosen to use other people instead of him at right back, which should tell you something. As I mentioned, I don't think Bendtner has much of a future here at Arsenal and I think an offer for him would see him gone.

Now by point behind this is that we can't afford to sell ANY players without having signed or having every intention of signing quality replacements for them. Our squad has shown that it is too then and we really need to grow it not sell more. We sold Hleb, Gilberto, and Flamini (I know, he left, he wasn't sold) without really bringing in any replacements and we can't have that again.


So that's about it. The transfer window opens in 12 hours, while we'll all be ringing in the New Year. I hope all of you have a fantastic 2009 and that Arsenal do as well. Everyone drink up, hook up, do drugs if that is your thing, just make it a great start to the New Year! Make sure you check out the forums if you never have or leave a comment and let me know what your thoughts are! Cheers! I'll leave you with this video to go into the New Year. Warning: Semi-offensive and also hilarious material.

Sergio Aguero Could Come To Arsenal

Morning all. You know when you sleep for like a pretty long time and you really shouldn't be tired but you're tired all the same? That's how I am right now. I'm also in the mood to eat some Subway, but that's another story entirely.

So on to the news. What news you might say? Well it seems Sergio "El Kun" Aguero has been linked with Arsenal after some quotes from his agent.

"I can't say more until I've spoken to the club about the offer. All I can tell you is that it's one of the best teams in Europe and it's not Chelsea"

Interesting quote that is. These days agents usually tell you every club that is interested by name to try to work up more speculation and to try and draw other parties into the mix. I don't know exactly why everyone thinks it's Arsenal after such a broad statement but we have been linked with him in the past. He's a player with absolutely astounding skill on the ball that could certainly help out Arsenal, as long as he could handle the physical nature of the English game. We just saw how Alexander Hleb got sick of the physicality after only three years and Aguero is even smaller than Hleb. He is a brilliant player though and any team would love to have him. So keep your fingers crossed and maybe, just maybe, we'll sign him.

Arsenal Legend Nigel Winterburn has joined Blackburn's coaching staff as a defensive coach. I guess Arsene Wenger didn't think he could help out our defense or surely we would have given him a job. Winterburn is class. I hope Blackburn is still shite though.

Gilberto Silva looks to be on his way for 1.2 million pounds to Panthinaikos in Greece. Arsenal Analysis reports that the papers have been signed and sent to Athens for everything to be finalized and Gilberto is having his medical on Wednesday. I'm sad to see him go. You were a good player for us Gilberto, good luck to you mate.

Here's a picture of Cesc in our new away kit. I'm not sure what to think of it. I don't think I'm a fan though. It is definitely a lot more Arsenal than the white one last year for sure.


The Arsenal interest in Gareth Barry was very real indeed. According to Martin O'Neil, Pat Rice called Villa to ask how the transfer to Liverpool was going because Arsenal "might be interested." When Villa told Rice how it was going, Pat (according to O'Neil) said "That's fine, we'll let you know." So it seems that Arsenal were interested but it doesn't look like are going to follow up on it with a bid. Villa want about 17 million for him and Wenger will never pay that for him. Interesting to see that we did make the call about him though.

That's about all I have. Discussion is good, so get on the forums and chat it up. What do you think about Aguero and the Barry situation? On a scale of 1-10 how sick are you of the Adebayor and Hleb stories? I'm at a 10. Cheers all!