Arsenal Transfer Prospect: Why Gunners Need a Player of Yann M'Vila's Quality

Arsenal fans are no strangers to transfer speculation.

The media always goes on a frenzy publishing articles linking a million and one players to a club that sells headlines, such as Arsenal.

Unless you're living in a far away cave with no access to the Internet, colored TV and civilization, you must have heard about the rumors linking Rennes' Yann M'Vila to the Gunners.

If Arsenal succeeds in purchasing the much sought-after 21-year-old, the midfield will improve tremendously, bearing in mind that a 4-2-3-1 tactical setup is employed.

The midfield has a large outlay of personnel starring Alex Song, Aaron Ramsey, Francis Coquelin, Mikel Arteta, Tomas Rosicky, Jack Wilshere and Abou Diaby.

The club still has the unfortunate Brazilian, Denilson, and a deep reserve of potentials such as Oguzhan Ozyakup, Conor Henderson and Henri Lansbury.

From my knowledge of mathematics, you can predict the outcome of a future event by looking at the history of previous events, or by interpreting the repetitive nature of previous occurrences —probability and variables.

Alex Song has played consistently this season without rest. If you analyze it from the above permutations and recall how Jack Wilshere was burnt out last season, then you can predict that Song will not last the whole of next season at this rate he is playing.

When Mikel Arteta made his transfer deadline switch from Everton early this season, many Gooners argued about the transfer because of his niggling knee injuries.

He has silenced the doubters with consistent performances all season long, but if I’m allowed to predict again, do you honestly think he will survive the whole of next season without injuries considering Arsenal’s perpetual injury worries?

I don’t want to sound cynical but Abou Diaby is just a minute away from the next injury. Can we rely on him to deputize for Song as our defensive midfielder for the whole of next season? In fact, we should be happy he has made his annual Arsenal appearance.

Wilshere is a fantastic player and prospect. He has been injured since preseason with a stress fracture to his foot. Arsenal hasn’t really told its faithful fans what is completely holding him out of the first team, as we all know that he has been back since late January.

From my knowledge of materials fracture analysis, fractures are as a result of micro cracks which coalesce into big voids that eventually lead to fracture or failure. When a material has cracks, it is rendered not fit for purpose until it is completely repaired.

The bone is a composite material and a natural material which is self-healing, but it takes time to actually heal. I have a hunch that Arsenal is being cautious with Wilshere because stress fractures don’t heal easily—it takes time.

We need to see him in full preseason to be sure he is ready to be burdened. I still suggest we handle him with care because the injury he has is extremely dangerous.

The question is whether we are going to rely on him to put up his consistent performances next season. He was listed to play a closed-door reserve game on Wednesday, but I learned that he wasn't deemed fit enough.

If you study Arsenal critically and objectively for the last seven trophy-less campaigns, you will find out that the club has gone through the barren spell because of injuries, bad luck, poor officiating and squad indiscipline in vital moments of each campaign.

There’s also the part of poor decision making or a costly tactical gamble made by our beloved coach, Arsene Wenger.

We are back to that year when we did not sign Xabi Alonso or Gareth Barry, or back to this summer when we couldn’t add an extra quid or two to buy Juan Mata.

The club allowed Mathieu Flamini leave and put its hopes in Denilson and Diaby, instead of going for the likes of Gokhan Inler.

Do we want to make that mistake again with Yann M’Vila?

I love our rich reserve of talent but if we really want to end the trophy drought, we have to reduce our gambles to the barest minimum.

A season-long loan for Yennaris, Ramsey and Henderson to a team like Bolton would not be a bad idea considering the good work Owen Coyle did with other youngsters (Daniel Sturridge, Jack Wilshere and Ryo Miyaichi).

In fact, Ramsey could turn out to be like ex-Gunner Sebastian Larsson—or even better.

The legendary Marcel Desailly amongst others has stated that M’Villa will be better than Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira and for a deigning fee of £15-£20 million, I would like to find out.

Wenger has gambled with flops like Denilson, Bendtner and Vela amongst others; he should at least gamble with this highly rated 21-year-old star.

I don’t see any reason why he can’t play alongside Song. In my opinion, Song will have the liberty to roam and offer the attacking option he loves.

Another critical point I’d love to make is the quality of Arsenal’s second tier squad. In the second half against AC Milan in our last UEFA Champions League game, we ran out of ideas and personnel when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott got injured.

More recently against Queens Park Rangers, when the whole midfield was having a bad day at the office, Wenger must have looked at the dugout and thought in his mind that there isn’t any adequate backup.

And this goes out to other departments like defense and strike force. Honestly, I think that Robin van Persie and Laurent Koscielny have played more matches and they deserve some rest at some point.

Imagine a rich bench with the likes of Yann M'Vila, Lukas Podolski and Jan Vertonghen. They will offer us so many options.

Signing M’Villa will not be a bad idea, but I guess I have to resign to the famous phrase—Arsene Knows Best.