Arsenal Transfer Speculations Continues

Good morningm albeit a touch later than usual this morning as I decided to catch up on some of the sleep I had being missing recently.

I'm playing football straight after work tonight and I decided I needed to recharge my batteries just a little before attempting to play. I had 90 percent of my work done on my iPhone on the journey to work, but there was a problem with the site and I lost all of my work which is very frustrating, to say the least.

The rumours and speculation about Mark Schwarzer joining us from Fulham continued yesterday and they're still going strong today. There are still three days to go before we play Blackpool at home and that's plenty of time to bring him in if an agreement can be reached by all sides, but there still seems to be no movement at all.

There is always the possibility that Fulham are waiting until they have a suitable replacement lined up and there are suggestions that Given will join his former manager at Craven Cottage. City's manager told him yesterday he could go if he wanted to, but that they would like him to stay at the club. With Given stating last week that he would look to leave if Joe Hart got in the team ahead of him, I can only assume that he wants to leave.

The biggest obstacle to him joining Fulham might well be whatever fee City are looking for as I'm sure they could price him out of the market if they want to keep him. There is also, of course, the amount of money he is on at City and there is no way that Arsenal will match that and absolutely no way Fulham will do it.

City have already shown that money is of no significance to them as they allowed Bellamy to join Cardiff on loan rather than let him join the Spuds as they see the Spuds as rivals. I don't know all the details of the deal but I'm sure City will continue to pay most of his wages despite the fact that he will play for Cardiff.

With that in mind, I just cannot see any way that City would let Given join us on loan or on a transfer. We will have to try to get Schwarzer or look elsewhere if we're to get that keeper we so desperately need.

With that in mind, Ajax have admitted that they will have to sell some of their top players if they fail to beat Dynamo Kiev and qualify for the group stages of the Champions league. They did get off to a good start last night with a 1-1 away draw and they must now be favourites to progress next week. 

If they don't progress, Arsenal would surely have to be interested in both Stekelenburg and Vertonghen as they would fit the bill for the two positions that are most pressing in our team/squad at the moment.

Ideally, I would like Arsenal to sign some defensive midfield cover for Song, but at this stage I will settle for a centre back and a goalkeeper as I think we can mount a genuine challenge in the league if we get the right two players in these positions.

Benfica are said to have made a bid for Armand Traore and Arsenal are supposedly in discussions with them about the move. He is well behind both Clichy and Gibbs in the running for the left back berth and I can't see him getting a look in unless we have another enormous injury crisis like last season.

He didn't feature at all in the preseason games, if my memory serves me correctly, and a move would probably be the best thing for him at this stage in his career. He's a very good attacking full back but the defensive side of his game leaves a lot to be desired and that is the most important thing for a defender n my opinion.

I watched a new comedy on the TV last night and found it very amusing although it didn't end quite as I had hoped. It starred a twitchy man, some Spuds, and a bunch of underrated Young Boys. At one stage, I was almost in tears of laughter, but unfortunately the Spuds got themselves back in the tie and only ended up losing 3-2.

With the home leg next week they are favourites to progress, although Young Boys did win away to Fenerbache in the last round to progress. The Spuds are learning quickly what the pressures of Champions league football are and if they progress let's see how they cope with two games every week. They will do very well to get through to the knockout stages and finish in the top four in the league like we do every single season.

That's it for today but I'll try to get back to my usual early slot tomorrow.

Here's a look at what Rosicky can do when he's not injured.

See You Tomorrow.