Arsenal have money to spend and gaps to fill, so the media is hard at work trying to figure out who’s in and who’s not.
The Mirror kicks off with a double raid on Lille for attacking midfielder Eden Hazard and defensive midfielder Yann M’Vila, plus another crack at landing Everton’s Phil Jagielka. Meanwhile various on-line sources say we are in for Lazio’s Argentine striker Mauro Zarate. It’s going to be a long week, but at least the gossip is about the right sort of players.
Except for the Kaka story that is! That’s almost as pluasible as Arsene Wenger claiming that he didn’t no exactly what the rules are for a touchline ban. Which is why he now has a ban for the next two European games as well.
Caught Offside would have us believe that Arsenal have offered Nicklas Bendtner to Werder Bremen as a swap for Per Mertesacker. Per Mertesacker says that he’s staying where he is. Nicklas Bendtner appears to have stopped listing all the clubs where he might be headed!
Meanwhile, many are reporting Mancini issuing an ultimatum that if Nasri plays in the Champions league for Arsenal then the deal is off. The real question though is why it hasn’t already happened. Most popular speculation is that Manchester City are bulking at the Agent’s fees involved. On the one hand this seems odd given the that City have so much money, but you could see their point. Given that they are shouting from the rooftops about who they want to buy and offering mountains of gold, what exactly is there for an agent to do?
