Feed me some transfers, Arsene, I’m hungry.

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So England have slunk home sheepishly, and the inquest has begun in earnest as to quite how it went so calamitously wrong.

I’m not going to get into that inquest here though, what with me being thoroughly bored of our biennial national slip-up, and this blog being of a club hue. A club, incidentally, that might not have won much in recent years, but can at least pass the ball.

If you do want to wallow a bit more in the sheer horror of it all though, then there was a very good piece in The Times by Matt Dickinson (‘Mutiny and misery: the inside story of a failed campaign’ – available free online, if you register), and amid the many excellent pieces of podcastery are this one from 5live – ‘Out of Africa: where next for English football’ – and a lighter look at things from Baddiel and Skinner. I suspect the latter two are UK only.

Right, well the good news is that inevitably, club news will begin to take over soon. I recall reading some time ago that both Gallas and Silvestre had deals taking them up to 30th June, and I read today that Laurent Koscielny could sign on July 1st. On these anecdotal snippets alone I am predicting a whirlwind of transfer activity at the tail end of this week. At least, that’s what I’d like.

Should he arrive, it’s fair to say Koscielny is the absolute nailed-on classic Wenger signing, and not just because he’s French. Wenger loves to sign a player whose skills have not been touted far and wide in England, someone with youth on their side and with the potential to get better and better.

I know nothing about him – another classic sign. Over on Twitter, @arsene_knows tells me he’s got bags of promise, and made the highest number of clearances in Ligue 1 last season. That might explain why his price is apparently £8.5m.

When we paid similar sums for Vermaelen last season, it was fully expected that before long he’d be first choice. As it turned out, he went straight into the team and was one of our players of the season. So I wonder whether Wenger will be expecting Koscielny to head straight in and partner Vermaelen, or whether he’s one for the future? It’d be a lot of money to spend on a reserve. With Djourou fit again (and presumably keen to play), and perhaps even another centre-back coming in, there should be some serious competition for places.

Looks at the same time as if Campbell – a fabulous stop-gap last year – will look for pastures new. I can see how that makes sense for him.

The Telegraph has us then turning our sights on Fulham’s Schwarzer, who is undeniably experienced, but also undeniably not a glamour signing. Does it matter? Not if he’s going to be better than Almunia it doesn’t.

So all in all, things could start nicely ticking. We’re only 18 days away from the traditional curtain raiser at Barnet.

That, as they say, is ace.

Jim

Arsenal since about 1979. Thick, thin and all that.

This Post Has 14 Comments

  1. ADZ

    I REALLY WUDNT WANT COLE ANOTHER GREEDY SCUM ASKING 80,000 WEN HIS NOT PROVED HIS WORTH AT ARSENAL AND NEVA WILL BY BEING AGED 28 U MITE SAY WELL GALLAS WAS OLD WEN HE MOVED 2 ARSENAL BUT HE WAS AN EXPRIENCED CENTRE BACK COLE HAS JUST COME FROM AN INJURY IF SO BUY BABEL WE NEED 2 SEE THE LIKES OF WILSHERE,VELA AND GIBBS MORE SO IWUDNT BE TOTALLY BOTHERED ABOUT ANOTHA STRIKER ACORRDING TO WENGERS PHILOSOAPHY HE MAKES PLAYERS NOW HE REALLY NEEDS 2 PUSH DA LIKES OF YOUNGSTERS DAT REALLY NEED TO BE PUSHED MAYBE ANOTHA DEFENDER SHUD BE BROUGHT HANGELAND OR VERMAELENS X PARTNER WHICH WUD GET US ANOTHA MASIVE GOALS FOR NEXT SEASON
    JOE HART
    SAGNA HANGELAND VERMAELEN CLICHY

    GOURCURF FABREGAS NASRI
    BABEL CHAMAKH
    VAN PERSIE

  2. eduardo

    young guns say arsenal have booked the agent of Benfica’s Algerian central defender Rafik Halliche into a north london holtel as talks on a move for the 23 year old take place, it seems he is seen as a 4th or 5th choice CB to add depth to the squad – silvestre’s replacement if you like

  3. countryman

    ADZ

    Any chance you could

    a) write in English

    b) stop shouting?

    I think you may have a decent point buried in there but to be honest it’s difficult to tell …..

    b)

  4. Danish Gooner

    Made most clearances,yes he did play for a team under much pressure but is this really the only reason why we signed him i mean there is much more to being a defender then just make clearences,can he attack the ball under pressure,is his crunch tackle a wet tablecloth in the face or as crunching as a rhino coming through,how does he do when challenged in the air,has he got any positional sense(by God that would be an improvement on many before him)Is he strong physically,is he strong mentally or another softie like so many before him in the current Arsenal side ??? so many questions so little answers.

  5. PTangYangKipperBang

    Is there more to being a defender than making clearances? If you are always in the right place at the right time and can effectively clear danger; as a defender you are superb. As long as you are paired with a “ball playing” centre back. TV5 and Djourou are both ball players. Makes sense to me.

  6. baz

    classic wenger signing.. but one thing that raises an eyebrow in my opinion is that wenger is replacing several EXPERIENCED and seasoned CB’s with a player unheard of and relatively inexperienced. Now this aint a personal grumble, but didnt wenger say at the very beginning the main thing we lacked was experience and that he was prepared to spend the right money to rectify this? This transfer juxtaposes this hugely. Rumors are also circulating that schwarzer is close to signing, this will add experience at 37 but i don’t think these will be the end of our transfer period.

  7. RotorGoat

    Very good point about the experience – we should be ramping up in that department.

    Though not with Silvestre quality…

  8. Graham

    Laurent Koscielny is 24 and has played averaging 35 league games a season for the past 4 years, that’s experience, Simon Kjaer who some people want is younger although has similar experience, but in the world cup he was beaten in the air everytime by people smaller than him. Laurent Koscielny is bigger and better in the air and looks much tougher and also has a knack of getting goals. I think he’ll be a very good signing, Wenger doesn’t usually spend 8-10 million on bad players and i”m sure he has been watched numerous times by Wenger/Scouts before a decision was made rather than 3 games at a world cup like some of signings people on blogs are raving about

  9. StevieG

    T think DanishGooner should be able to relax slightly.
    Koscielny looks to be of the Vermaelen mode in build reading of the game with an ability to be in the right place for the second stage of corners plus he has made it clear he wants to come to us and why would’nt he.
    His success could be measured in international recoginition since it looks like France also has a deficiency in that area with ageing centre backs.
    The fans segment of Lorient FC websites has gone into overdrive with this one.
    Its al ot of money for a relatively unknown player but if you consider what we would have spent out on renewing Gallas’s contract at £80k a week it makes good investment sense.
    Whilst Gallas was a superb player those comments earlier this season about further dressing room unrest aroung Gallas and a number of players not talking to him then this seems a vastly positive mood.

  10. clockendrider

    Last pre-season the interweb was awash with experts, both paid and unpaid, queuingup to twell us that Vermaelen was too short/lacking in quality/experience/Belgian to be be the kind of defender we needed.
    I seem to remember a marked lack of humility and humble pie eating when all this proved to be incorrect. Let’s give Koscielny a chance.
    Just because interweb “experts” have never heard of somebody it doesn’t mean they’re not good enough.

  11. San Diego Goon

    More strikers please, if last season taught us anything.

  12. PD

    >Wenger doesn’t usually spend 8-10 million on bad players

    Exactly. I can’t believe that people are questioning this guy already.The problems with Wenger’s transfer activity the last few years has not been the quality of the signings but the lack of numbers. (and the inability to address problem areas)

    I’m getting a very good feeling about this summer. With Chamakh we’re done with strikers imo. Koscielny & Schwarzer looks like certainties. Personally I think one more centre-half (or even none if Sol stay which I still think is a possibility) & another defensive midfielder (one is simply not enough) & I think we’ll be done & in a very strong position for seasoon’s start.

  13. Feverpitch

    The return of club football is not only ace but skill too. As Frank Skinner says on his podcast, we should retire from international football (supporting). Best if we concentrate on The Arsenal from now on and ignore that chav, spud, manc, scouse shambles. We have a lovely new shirt too.

  14. aitchem

    nice blog

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