Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

There are plenty of names doing the rounds, Jadson, Mata, Hazard, Martin etc.

But looking at these options I was struck by how small some of these guys are and, indeed, how small some of our midfielders last season were. So I started looking up heights….

OK, so I’m just a bit of an empiricist at heart (if that’s at all logical) who was at a loose end so here it is! (High anorak content)

Take The Invincibles – we played 4-4-2 that season so two central midfielders.

First choice pair Viera (1.93m) 43 starts and Gilberto (1.85m) 40 starts. Average height weighted for games played 1.89m.

Second choice pair Edu (1.89m) 28 starts and Parlour (1.83m) 27 starts. Average height weighted for games played 1.86m.

Last season – we played 4-3-3 so not exactly like for like.

First choice threesome Wilshere (1.73m) 44 starts, Song (1.84m) 39 starts and Fabregas (1.75m) 29 starts. Average height weighted for games played 1.77m. I discounted Nasri and Rosicky because they mostly played out wide, though neither is particularly tall.

So there we have it, last season’s central midfield 10cm shorter than the first and second choice Invincibles.

Denilson played 20 games too and he is only 1.78m.

Does this prove anything? Maybe. But maybe not! Still, kept me occupied for a while anyway.

Arsene Wenger says that his main focus is on a new defender but it isn’t easy. No kidding. I’m sure he’s right but then again he’s a top manager so that’s what he’s there for!

Defender talk in the Sundays is about renewed bids for Jagielka or Dann.

At his last press conference Arsene Wenger appeared to rile out Mata and Jadson. I think he was quite explicit on Mata, but all he said on Jadson was that no bid had been made. Doesn’t mean no discussion.

Anyway, the papers today are concentrating on midfielder Marvin Martin from Sochaux and winger Andre Ayew from Marseille. Both interesting prospects but I would have thought we had wingers a plenty now.

Interesting to note that the stumbling block to Adebayor’s loan move to Spurs is his £160,000 a week salary. Spurs want City to carry on paying more than half. That’s the trouble with inflating the market as City have been doing for the last three years. It makes it more expensive to move on the out of favour players because, naturally, they don’t want a pay cut.

It was bound to happen. With heavy hints that Arsenal are about to part with Fabregas and Nasri the media are falling over themselves to spend the resulting cash.

Wenger meanwhile has been damping down talk of particular signings.

Most exciting rumour has to be The Sun’s Tevez Nasri swap. A deal made in heaven as far as they are concerned with two want-away stars to shift. It’s rounded off with the obligatory quote from a senior Arsenal source. No mention about how the difference in value would be dealt with.

The Mata and Jadson stories both get another run out, plus a repeat mention of every central defender tipped so far this summer.

As an alternative to Jadson, some, particularly The Mail, are tipping FC Twente’s Bryan Ruiz.

Meanwhile the only hard news is that Arsenal have agreed terms for the young Costa Rican striker, Joel Campbell.

To my mind, the root cause of Arsenal’s transfer deadlock this summer has been the way Barcelona gave behaved. What they have done over Fabregas has been straightforward extortion. But the Arsenal management’s handling of it hasn’t been too clever either.

I appreciated the decision to hang tough on the price, but the price that has been achieved isn’t that brilliant. If reports are accurate it is still short of want Cesc is worth. Now, given Fabregas’ own position, and likely motivation to play another season for us, a sale is the right choice. But you can’t help thinking that this price might have been achieved earlier, which would have freed up Arsenal’s transfer-making earlier than the day before the first game.

Did Arsene Wenger believe that Cesc could be talked round again? Did the new relationship between Wenger and Kroenke lead to dithering?

Likewise on Nasri. Did they think he was equivocal about where he played the next season? Whatever. They are now going to have to get a wriggle on. The tentative deal options they will have set up need to be pressed to conclusion double-quick.

Whatever the problem has been, this is a transfer window where you feel Arsenal have had little real control over events and with so little time left I fear it’s going leave us with a big hole somewhere.

The media seem convinced that the players on question are Mata, Dann and Brazilian midfielder Jadson. I’ve reservations about Dann but the clock’s ticking and Vermaelen needs a better partner than he has.

The good news is that the injury list for tomorrow is apparently shorter than feared. Only Wilshere joins Diaby on the sick list.