Arsenal Transfer News: Latest on Sami Khedira, Arsene Wenger's January Targets

Arsenal’s pursuit of Sami Khedira is a bit like their Premier League season so far—not going anywhere and forcing fans to scratch their heads.

The Real Madrid star was heavily linked with a move to the Emirates during the summer, but the deal reportedly fell through over the German’s wage demands.

Arsene Wenger had been hoping for a second chance at signing the midfielder, whose contract expires in the summer, during the January transfer window, but it seems they’ve now been dashed.

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As Alex Harris of the Daily Star revealed, Khedira wants to remain at the Bernabeu for the foreseeable future and told Carlo Ancelotti as much. The Real manager said: "Khedira is fine. I have confidence in him and he wants to stay. He told me so. We’ll try to renew his contract and he wants to stay here. Over time that will be sorted.”

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The news will be a major blow to Gunners fans, whose call for a world-class defensive midfielder are louder than ever. Piers Morgan reflected on how the standard of players in the role has diminished over time via Twitter:

Arsenal need a player whose bite is as big as the club’s bark, so who’s the next target for the north Londoners?

Well, according to Sam Cunningham of MailOnline, Hamburg midfielder Tolgay Arslan is the man Wenger wants to come in and fill the void in front of the back four.

The 24-year-old has been the shining light in an otherwise gloomy campaign for Hamburg so far, and it’s little surprise that he’s attracting interest from the Gunners.

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Cunningham writes that Wenger is keeping tabs on Arslan, who is out of contract on June 30, 2015 and can make the switch to the Premier League on a free transfer.

With a wage bill of just £40,000 per week, the Turkish star is very much a cheap alternative to Khedira, but that much isn’t mirrored on the pitch.

The fact that Arslan started out his career as a striker has somehow made his drop back to the holding role an easy one, as his awareness of forward movement is so finely tuned that he reads the game perfectly.

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What Arsenal need is someone tenacious at defensive midfield, someone to do the nitty-gritty work and allow their attacking stars to show what they’re made of—Arslan is certainly the man for that job.

He’s a tough tackler and extremely hard worker—two attributes that elude current holding players Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini.

It’s all looking like a case of getting the negotiations sorted, but if Wenger can strike early, then the benefits of the Hamburg man could be reaped at the Emirates come the 2015/16 campaign.

Elsewhere, the Gunners are reportedly lining up another move for Ipswich Town’s Tyrone Mings.

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As John Cross of the Daily Mirror reports, the 21-year-old has impressed Arsenal scouts with his performances at left-back this season and Wenger is ready to lay an offer on the table in January.

However, it’s believed that Mings, who has only spent a matter of months in the Ipswich first team, is valued at £10 million by the Tractor Boys. So to say that they’re going to be stubborn in January is an understatement.

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Manager Mick McCarthy echoed such a sentiment, saying to Stuart Watson of the East Anglian Daily Times that it’ll take a staggering fee to lure the defender away from Suffolk:

"

He’s on a four-year deal, [until 2017] or something like that isn’t he? So good luck to them. He’s great, but if one of them came in and offered a bonkers amount of money it’s going to turn his head. It does to everybody.

There we are, ‘Mick McCarthy said Ty will have his head turned’. You can put whatever you want on it. I’m not saying that. If somebody comes in with an unbelievable amount of money—if it’s Chelsea, Man United, any of them...phew, my head would turned by that. And I’m a damn sight older and wiser.

"

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Although Mings is a left-back by trade, it’s his credentials as a centre-back that have made him so desirable to Premier League clubs.

He’s powerful in the air, has a great turn of pace and is an expert at reading the game. As Ipswich Town fans sing from the terraces: “He’s here, he’s there, he’s everywhere...”

That he is, but parting with £10 million for a player who’s unproven at the highest level and unproven in his likely future position is a bit of a head-scratcher.

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The fact remains, though, that Arsenal desperately need to invest or their status as a top-four Premier League club will slip through their fingers.

Solidifying the team with a holding midfielder and a fresh centre-half will be job No. 1 for Wenger come January, but they need to be players of Arsenal quality, or the club will be right back at square one.