Arsenal Transfer Talk: Lille Confirm Talks and Transfer Round-Up

Transfer speculations have dominated the headlines in recent times with Fabregas and Nasri being the biggest names that might go out. Bids have been made for Bendtner and Denilson so the blokes are probably in relaxing somewhere in the planet while their agents do the main work. Denilson’s agent is probably in Spain discussing terms with Sevilla while Bendtner’s fagent (father and agent) is in Turkey.

Denilson’s agent will probably tell them that his client must get a better offer than the one he’s earning at Arsenal and they should give him a bonus anytime he doesn’t take on his escort-in-chief role. Sevilla is a side that has decent central midfielders so Denilson might find out that the grass is not that green in Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. They have the old experienced Renato, Eboue’s compatriot Romaric and that left-footed genius Ivan Rakitic, who moved in January from Shakhtar.

The bid amounts to £8m but there are reports that Arsenal wants to use Denilson as bait to land that Black Eyed Peas singer that plays for Shakhtar, Will.i.an.

The English Press say that Arsenal are about to make a £12m bid for Will.i.an and the club also wants to add Denilson to the deal in a part exchange. A move to Ukraine will be more favorable for Denilson because there are a lot of Brazilians in that squad so he’ll feel at home. He has also told the world that he’s a frustrated figure at Arsenal so a move to Shakhtar will be a very good escape route for the bloke.

Will.i.an Borges da Silva was born on the 9^th of August, 1988 in the city of Ribeirao Pires in Brazil. He started his career in SC Corinthians in 2004 and stayed in the club for three years before making a £12.25m move to his present club Shakhtar Donetsk.

In his time at Corinthians he didn’t win any trophy at club level but he won the Under-20 South American Championships in 2006 with Brazil. In his time with the Miners, Will.i.an won the Ukrainian League and Cup double in 2008 and won the UEFA Cup (Europa League) a year later. He was present in the UEFA Super Cup final loss to Barcelona thanks to that Pedro Rodriguez goal in 2009. He also won the Ukrainian league in 2010.

Will.i.an is a player that thrives well in the hole behind the striker but he’s also adept on the left wing and the right wing as well as attack. He’s a technically gifted player that has amazing dribbling skills, a deft first touch as well as an eye for shooting surface-to-goal long-range missiles. I’m pretty sure that when/if he joins Arsenal the surface-to-goal volleys will reduce. Tomas Rosicky is a living witness to that.

In his Borussia Dortmund days, Rosicky fired four shots for every five passes he received outside the box but when he joined Arsenal, he gave six more passes for every five received. It’s so bad that an extra pass comes out from nowhere. Rosicky scored his first goal since the days Uther Pendragon ruled Camelot with a header against Leyton Orient.

Will.i.an is also a flamboyant player that has lots of pace to burn.

Should Arsenal decide to get him for £12m and a want-away player, it will be a great move by Arsene Wenger. Fabregas has been linked away to his hometown club but I believe he's going to stay but Will.i.an’s presence would mean that Fabregas could be rested for some games because that bloke plays too many games for Arsenal. His hamstring got tired last season and it gave up on him many times.

Gary Cahill has been the media’s favorite to be the messiah that will save Arsenal’s defense next season but his £17m price tag has been an issue for Arsenal, so reports are emerging that AW wants to bid for the bloke but send Arsenal’s Ignasi Miquel on loan to them for an entire season as part of the deal.

Ignasi Miquel made his debut when Arsenal visited Brisbane Road to play Leyton Orient in that FA Cup encounter but he wasn’t too confident in that game. The fact that he was playing with Squillaci didn’t help matters at all. The young lad is currently the captain of the Reserves side and he has been doing well for them. It’s not yet his time to make the big step for Arsenal so a loan move to a Premier League club like Bolton will do wonders to his confidence.

Now that Miquel is part of the mix-up, the £17m tag is expected to drop but I’ll still prefer Arsenal to get Samba and forget about this Cahill bloke. There’s Vermaelen who is probably better than two Cahills and there’s the Djourcielny combo with the Squisha somewhere behind the scenes so buying two defenders will be a wrong call by me and a waste of good quid. Samba is older than Cahill but cheaper than him too. Wenger has the final say though.

LOSC Lille Metropole won their first League and Cup double since the days Napoleon Bonaparte ruled France and there were some players that contributed massively to that magnificent achievement.

Senegal’s Moussa Sow flew Africa’s flag as he damaged the nets of the opposition with a ton of goals. Ludovik Obraniak and the Eden Hazard were also the tormentors-in-chief to many French sides but there’s a player in that Lille squad that has impressed Wenger more than the rest, Gervais Yao Kouassi.

Twitchy Ol’ Harry Redknapp decided to go to SkySports radio station so he probably heard about Arsenal’s link to Gervinho because we all know that Harry does his scouting on radio. Tottenham made a bid for Gervinho but the winger has decided that he’ll prefer a move to the eed half of North London. The media vulture headline for that article was very catchy:

“It’s Gunner be a Gervi-no to Spurs”

Lille has confirmed that Arsenal is in talks with them about the services of Gervinho. Gervinho might not be in the mold of superstar signings that the fans and some players want but he’ll be a very effective player for us next season because he’ll be keen to impress his new employers.

Nasri had told the Arsenal hierarchy that he wanted pay parity with Fabregas and it seems as if the club is going to give in to demands so that he’ll stay at the club for another four years or more. My buddy and fellow Arsenal blog writer Omar Almasri set up a poll in his blog about Samir Nasri because he wanted to know the fans’ opinion on Nasri’s wage increase demands.

Sixty-nine percent of the Arsenal fans that voted want Arsenal to give in to the bloke's demands, 25 percent of the fans feel that Arsenal should say no to Nasri while the remaining four percent didn't care.

Stan Kroenke probably read Omar’s post and there are reports emerging that he’s going to add the remaining £20,000 per week that Nasri is asking for. This now means that we the Gooners can’t use Andy Reed’s proposed approach to pay Samir Nasri. Andy Reed suggested that 20,000 fans following Samir Nasri would contribute £1 per week for the bloke to soothe his greedy ambitions.

That’s all for today Gooners.

I’m proud to write that I’m now a sports writer for America’s fourth-largest sports media website, Bleacher Report.

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Sayonara.

This article was culled from Gooner Daily, Toni Okike's Arsenal blog.

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