Arsenal Transfer Talk: Advocaat Unveils Arshavin's Manual and Transfer Roundup

Arsenal’s transfer activity has been very impressive in recent weeks with player departures and arrivals being the order of the day. I’m the kind of guy that prefers the good news before the other so I’ll start with the transfer speculation involving the player’s that are likely to wear the Red and White next season.

There are fresh reports emerging that Arsenal has been linked with Roma’s skillful Montenegrin Mirko Vucinic. Give me Football reports that Vucinic’s price tag is a staggering £26m, but his agent has already arrived on the shores of England to hold talks with Arsenal and Manchester United over the bloke.

The 27-year old made 33 appearances for the Giallorossi last season, and he scored 10 goals. His natural position is the center forward role, but he’s also adept playing on the left wing or in the hole behind the striker. He has amazing dribbling skills, and his technique with the ball is top-notch. His off-the-ball movement is a constant thorn for defenders, and he’s a good finisher too.  The lad has been with AS Roma since 2006, and he has been the subject of constant speculation regarding his future at the club, but he has never been vocal about leaving the Italian giants. When Arsenal played Roma in the Champions League knockout phase in 2009, Vucinic did well against us, but he was the player that sent Roma packing with his penalty miss against Manuel Almunia.

I don’t believe that Wenger would cough out £26m for Vucinic because Arsenal is on the verge of signing Gervinho, and we all know that the Ivorian’s introduction to the squad is likely to bring healthy competition so Vucinic’s introduction will certainly mean that another Gunner may have to pack his bags.

Arsenal has been linked with two Premier League center backs in recent weeks Chris Samba and Gary Cahill. Arsenal has already approached Blackburn for Samba’s services, but Cahill’s £17m price tag has been a stumbling block for Arsenal. Wenger wanted to try a new approach which involved sending Ignasi Miquel on loan for an entire season so as to reduce the transfer fee, but Bolton’s boss has said that he’ll do everything in his power to keep Cahill.

I ran a poll on my blog’s Facebook page to get the fans opinion about Samba and Cahill. Thirteen percent of the gooners wanted only Samba,  37 percent wanted only Cahill, while 50 percent of the gooners that voted wanted both players at the club. Thomas Vermaelen is a centre back that’s also adept in the left back position, but I’ll prefer to see the Verm strut his stuff in the heart of Arsenal’s defense than to see him run up and down the left flank because he clearly doesn’t have the pace to do that. Being a left back would also mean that Vermaelen will have to do a lot of crossing, and we all know that it’s been ages since Verm had the chance to cross the ball consistently from the left flank.

Vermaelen is a defender that leaps like a frog, anticipates the ball superbly, tackles excellently and has an amazing sense of positioning. He also has a cool composed head, and he orchestrates the defense very well. Let’s not forget that he has an eye for goal because he scored eight goals in his debut season at the club while Tottenham’s Defoe scored four goals in 22 matches.

These are the attributes that won Vermaelen a place in the PFA Team of the Year in 2009, so I’m strongly in the opinion that Wenger should sign only Samba and forget about that English overhyped bloke. Owen Coyle has said that he’ll turn into a gladiator to keep Cahill, and I sincerely hope that he wins the battle to keep his prized asset.

Moving over to player departures, Gael Clichy is the only name that has appeared in the spotlight by the media today. There was a point in time when they reported that Roma wanted to offer Jeremy Menez in a part exchange deal for Clichy, but his agent, Alain Migliaccio has said that those claims are rubbish.  He said a lot of stuff, but the pick of the bunch was,

“Swap deal with Arsenal’s Gael Clichy? I’ve known Wenger for a long time, he’s a friend but I know nothing about this.

All I can say is that at the moment we are waiting for AS Roma to contact us to let us know about the future of the player.”

Clichy has refused to sign the £80,000 per week contract tabled for him, and he has also refused to give us the reason why he doesn’t want to. I thought that Nasri’s reason for not signing the initial £90,000 offered to him was best known to the Aliens that are about to attack Planet Earth, but they’re scared because Chuck Norris still lives, but Nasri cleared our doubt and said that he wanted more money. You’ll have to understand the angle Nasri came from because football is more or less a business where the players care more about the money than the passion. Wayne Rooney needed more money for a thing or two so he came up with a brilliant money-making tactic called,

“Threaten to go away and earn more”

And it worked for him because by the end of every month, £1,000,000 will be sitting pretty in his green account. Nasri tried to turn the tables by saying that he was waiting for Wenger’s transfer activity, but we the gooners have decided to plead with the club to soothe his greedy demands. My friend and fellow Arsenal blogger Omar Almasri ran a poll about Nasri’s wage demands, and a staggering 82 percent of the gooners voted in favour of Nasri’s wage increase.

Wenger has already told everyone that he’ll only favor a move abroad for Clichy, but the media Vultures have wasted no time in lining a replacement for Wenger. Everybody’s favorite has been Leighton Baines, but the newest name in the tabloids in Newcastle’s £8.5m rated Jose Enrique. When I was a kid growing up, I knew two Enriques, Enrique Iglesias the musician who sings about how women can run and hide, but they can’t escape from his love, and Luis Enrique the Barcelona defensive midfielder I adored in his playing days because that’s my preferred playing position in football. Although, I’m more or less like an aggressive Flamini that has a Pirlo approach. Luis Enrique is presently the manager of the AS Roma.

Jose Enrique on the other hand is a 25-year-old left back that has a knack for getting forward whenever possible. He’s also in the mold of players that use their right leg for support, but in football, it’s extremely useless. Superstars that are ranked in this category are Arjen Robben, David Silva, Angel Di Maria, Juan Manuel Mata and the world’s best left-footed chimpanzee, Gareth Bale.

Jose Enrique started his career in Levante’s B team in 2004 before having single season stints with Valencia, Celta Vigo and Villarreal. Newcastle snapped him up for £6.25m in 2007, and he has been ever-present for them averaging at least 25 league games per season. The only silverware he has in his cabinet is the npower Championship medal he won with Newcastle in 2010. That’s one more than many Arsenal players who are yet to experience what standing on a podium feels like, and I’m not writing about the Emirates Cup. As a player, he’s not ranked among the best crossers in the galaxy, but he has an amazing work rate and a never-say-die attitude. He’s also a composed lad that doesn’t buckle under pressure from opposition and he’s quite fast.

Should Clichy decide to leave the club, I’ll prefer Wenger to set his sights on Leighton Baines instead of Jose Enrique. For what it’s worth, Robin van Persie has killed too many birds that have flown past the Emirates with his free kicks so Baines is the kind of a player that would convert those free kicks to goals because he all know that he’s a gifted dead ball specialist.

Andrei Arshavin scored 10 goals and laid 17 assists last season, but he wasn’t fully appreciated by many gooners. I can’t also deny that I’m among the angry gooner mob that wanted his head on a plate at some point in time. Russia’s boss Dick Advocaat worked with Arshavin in his Zenit days so he has decided to show Wenger and the fans how to use Arshavin next season.  Two months ago, Rafa Benitez released Fernando Torres’ user manual to Chelsea, but it was too little too late because my birthday mate Carlo Ancelotti got the boot at the end of the season.

Advocaat says,

One of his problems is that he plays 20 minutes per game. Arsenal head coach Arsene Wenger uses him as a player who can be fielded in the second half and who can refresh the game.

Andrey is showing willingness to give the team the best of what he has. I worked with him for over two years at Zenit and I know who he is. A brilliant player of a single episode.

At Arsenal it is not enough to be a player of an episode. Expecting from him a ninety-minute running means not knowing and not understanding Arshavin.

This manual will come in handy next season because Arshavin has the likes of Nasri and Gervinho to contend with next season.

The tweet of the day goes to the Red Detective,

“@Detective82: A back five of Szczesny, Sagna, Samba, Vermaelen and Jose Enrique doesn’t take prisoners. Power, pace, aggression and class. Arsene Wenger, make it happen”

At the rate he’s going, I’m sure he will.

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Sayonara.