Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

Time was when we knew nothing about transfers until they randomly appeared. Then we just followed them through the the transfer window. Now the rumour mill spins on whether the window is open or not.

So what are the Arsenal stories out there?

Van Persie
Well Arsene Wenger gave the mill a nit of a spin himself this week, pointing out that the likes of Van Persie need their contract renewing this season.

The Mail on Sunday duly follows up with a story that Manchester ‘Top Trumps’ City will toss in a £30million bid if Van Persie shows any reluctance to sign a new Arsenal deal before January. They don’t actually have any Man City sources to back this up, trotting out the ‘sources close to Van Persie’ as the only hint of verification. Which is to say, no verification at all.

Others are running the same story with Juventus or Inter-Milan as the interested parties. This is easy copy and we’re going to see it time and again this season.

Dani Parejo & Raffael
Various media sites are linking Arsenal with these two midfielders and with doubts over Wilshere’s fitness and Benayoun obviously a short-term option, this sort of story obviously has plausibility even if the players named are not the right ones.

Paco Alcacer & Ibrahim Afellay
Also touted are efforts to sign another forward such as Valencia’s Paco Alcacer or Barcelona’s seemingly out of favour winger Ibrahim Afellay. That last one seems pretty tenuous to me. It’s just the Metro picking up on the fact that Afellay has got injured and re-running and old story.

We’re a long way from the next window so this is all pretty speculative. The grain of truth lurking beneath though is the number of key players whose contracts need renewing.

Most encouraging rumours out there today are that Arsenal are still in the hunt for a new central defender.  The Mertesacker story is still there plus now there is talk of Udinese’s Zapata as well.  Personally, what I’ve seen of Mertesacker worries me.  I don’t think he has any pace or that he reads the game that well.  I know he plays for Germany but I think that says more about the German central defenders available.  Plus, Germany’s excellent midfield play shield their back four.

Zapata I know less about though what’s out there on video looks good.  Is this a really story or just his agent trying to get him a move?  It reads a bit like the latter but who knows.

Anyway at least the word is that Arsene Wenger is still looking to strengthen at the back. Obviously no deal is done yet, hence the talk of how well Nordtveit is doing – to manage our expectations of more big transfers.

Less exciting is the story that young Dutch midfielder Afellay may be heading for the Emirates.  Obviously he’s a good player but a young attacking midfielder just ain’t the priority right now.

Hopefully the appointment of Hughes at Craven Cottage means that the Schwarzer deal can be decided one-way or the other and we can take some step forward on the quest for a new goalkeeper.