Wednesday Transfer Speculation

Good Morning, as we start to plod toward the end of the World Cup the focus of the media has begun to shift back in the direction of club football. The process has of course been helped by England's exit as well, which means English fans have turned their thoughts back to their clubs and next season. I covered yesterday the seemingly imminent arrival of Laurent Koscielny at Arsenal from Lorient, today our focus is on a departure as it would seem Sol Campbell is very close to agreeing a move to Celtic. Indeed Sky claims that Sol is already a free agent and therefore no longer an Arsenal player.

I'll wait for an official announcement before writing any kind of obituary for his Arsenal career, but nevertheless I consider Sol's loss a blow. His return to the club highlighted exactly how profoundly some of our players attitudes need to change in future. He's been a model of professionalism, and deserves a lot of credit for his contribution. I'm sure I won't be alone in wishing he was staying one more season, good luck to him at Celtic, or wherever he chooses to play his football next season.

Sol's departure will leave a gap to be filled, even with the arrival of Koscielny. The manager seems to like four centre halves in the squad, no more and no less. This leaves us with three, unless the time of morning has robbed me of my elementary counting skills. Vermaelen, Djourou and Koscielny would seem to make up our first team options in that position next season. Beyond that it's the youth players like Kyle Bartley. I would say the addition of another defender will become a priority. Jan Vertonghen of Ajax is one that we were fairly strongly linked with recently, so if we have serious interest in him, I would hope the club presses on with following that up.

The Mirror  report that Aston Villa have emerged as candidates for the signature of Eduardo. I have to say I'd be surprised to see him stay in England, I would have thought he'd prefer a move to a slower paced league, perhaps Italy. Time will tell I suppose.

We are not far now from the squad meeting up for pre-season. I would have thought the manager would be keen to have as much of next season's squad as possible in place for that so they can begin the process of fitting the new additions in. In fairness we're not ever so far away, with the addition of another defender and a goalkeeper I think we'll have a squad capable of doing the things we want it to.

There's still speculation that we're in the market for another attacking option though. Obviously we know all about the Joe Cole rumour at this stage, but yesterday also saw us linked with Inter Milan misfit Mario Balotelli . His attitude problem is well known of course, and having seen how a player can divide the dressing room with William Gallas, I think we'd do well to avoid troublemakers at the moment, no matter how talented they may be.

Arsenal.com have revealed that the fans player of the season for last term was Cesc Fabregas . No surprises there then. The captain had a magnificent season, probably his best so far and it's not hard to see why he's so sought after by Barcelona. He didn't get on the pitch though for Spain last night, and once again those three Barcelona midfielders (plus Xabi Alonso) were the men keeping him out of the side. Something for Cesc to think about surely?

Newcastle want Henri Lansbury on loan next season. I don't see why not, I'm sure he'd like some Premier League football, and obviously that would benefit us in the long run.

We should finally see some progress on the transfer front in these next few weeks, which will be something of a relief after all this speculation! In the meantime though, I have to make my way off to work. Have a good one, speak to you tomorrow.