Arsenal Transfer Talk: Injury Issues and a Brief Transfer Roundup

Arsenal missed out on the only trophy that it has been carrying for eons, and the fans booed the team as they left the pitch. I’ll take the loss of the Emirates Cup as a good omen and blessing in disguise for Wenger’s men because if they go trophy-less again this upcoming season, it would mean that they had nothing to offer for the entire campaign.

Regarding transfer news involving Arsenal in the past two days, Tony Pulis and his Rugby goons set their sights on Nicklas Bendtner with a proposed £9m move. As audacious as it might sound, Nicklas Bendtner fits the bill to play for a Rugby outfit like Stoke City. All he needs to do is to position himself in the opposition’s penalty area when Rory Delap does his pelting thing. In the height department, he can contend with Mamady Sidibe, John Carew and Kenwyne Jones, but selling him to Stoke will be a step in the wrong direction for the rangy Dane.

Arsenal is all about its profits and Bendtner has stated that he wants to leave, so if an enticing offer is brought on the club, I’m pretty sure that Gazidis and Wenger would hold a nice meeting regarding Bendtner. He’s a player I admire, but if he wants to leave he can be my guest.

Manchester City came back again for the services of the want-away greedy boy Samir Nasri with an enticing £22m offer. Wenger has reiterated his desire to keep Nasri at the club and may probably keep him at the club for an entire season before letting him go on a Bosman. To be frank, £22m is more than enough to purchase an attacking midfielder who’s better than Nasri, but the major problem is the player’s proposed destination—a club that will contend with Arsenal in all competitions that football as a sport has to offer. And I mean all competitions, because Man City is also involved in the Champions League.

The Arsenal faithful can boo Nasri all they want when he visits the Emirates, but Nasri will be very influential for Man City in their remaining 37 league games, FA Cup, Carling Cup as well as Champions League games, so it's a risk worth not taking. We should remember that Arsenal isn’t in dire need of money so I won’t take that risk as a football manager and I’m pretty sure that Wenger won’t do the same. The transfer window will be shut in 28 days time so Wenger has to hold fort until then.

Newcastle’s Joey Barton had his contract rescinded after his activity on Twitter regarding the club, so the media vultures reported that Arsenal and Tottenham are on the alert for his cheap free services. Signing a player like Barton will only add an extra wrinkle to Wenger’s face. On the pitch, he’s a ruffian who has no regard for his opponent when making a tackle.

When Arsenal visited St. James Park in February, we all witnessed his rash tackle on Abou Diaby that incensed the player enough to exact a small measure of revenge that saw him see a red card. A player with softer bones would have had his tibia and fibula probably snapped in two. Of the pitch, Barton is a brawler who is more or less a volatile nuclear reactor that’s about to meltdown because you can’t predict what he might do. There was a point in his footballing career that he was sent to jail and that’s not the kind of influence youngsters in the Arsenal squad need.

Let me add that I hate Joey Barton’s hairstyle—it reminds me of Adolf Hitler.

Moving over to today’s news, there are concerns emanating within the club that Kieran Gibbs might be having ankle problems. With Wenger showing no signs of signing a left-back, Armand Traore might be drafted back into the squad as Arsenal’s chief left-back for the start of the season. The club has been linked countless times with Leighton Baines and Jose Enrique, but Wenger knows what’s best for his squad—I hope that it wouldn’t come back to haunt him as the season progresses. We all know that the media vultures are good with the "I told you so" news headline to Arsenal.

Regarding transfers, Phil Jagielka has cleared the air concerning a move to Arsenal by saying that he’s ready to snub any offer brought to the table for him for the Gunners. This means that Wenger is back to the two-man transfer hunt with Cahill and Samba as the prime suspects. The media vultures have reported that Birmingham’s Scott Dann is the likely replacement.

The issue of the center-back situation has been ongoing since the days Osama was still alive, and it’s becoming very tiring. Bolton has priced Cahill at £17m while Samba can be purchased for £12m or so. If Wenger wants the players, he should wipe out the dust from the club’s cheque book and buy them to allow this saga to end. If he still has plans for Koscielny and Djourou, he should come out and say it so that the media vultures would hold their peace concerning the issue.

They also report that Arsenal has been linked to Lazio’s attacking playmaker, Mauro Zarate. That bloke is very good in Football Manager, but I don’t really watch the Serie A much so I can’t really judge him. I prefer to see Italian sides do their thing on the European stage and they have been very disappointing.

Seven-time Champions League winners AC Milan couldn’t even jump past a little hurdle called Tottenham, previous Champions League holders Inter Milan lost 5-2 at home to Schalke 04 after struggling hard to win Bayern Munich, and Serie A record holders Juventus had six consecutive draws in their Europa League group last season. Italy also had a messed up World Cup campaign in a group that had Paraguay, New Zealand and Slovakia. In World football, Italy’s status has seriously waned and their clubs are not helping matters at all.

After selling key players like Cassano and Pazzini in January, Sampdoria got relegated. It doesn’t get any worse than that.

This was written by Toni Okike, the writer of an Arsenal blog called Gooner Daily. You can follow the blog on Twitter @goonerdaily and you can also visit the blog's Facebook page and like it. 

Cheers