Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

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?

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.

There’s a lot of chatter out there today but not a lot of hard news. Take your pick from the Dann, Cahill, Jagielka and Mertesacker exclusives, but they’re all reheated leftovers really.

There’s a new element to the Nasri story with Laurent Blanc confidently saying that he will be moving very soon. If Manchester City are really offering £20million or more Arsenal should take it.

Poor old Ian Wright has had to stop reading his Twitter messages because Arsenal fans have been giving a hard time. Sadly he will still be writing his Sun column. Well I say writing, I suspect he just has to dictate it to some junior hack who sits there encouraging him to say something more controversial. Still nice work if you can get it.

My own criticism of Ian Wright’s columns is that the are usually dull statements of the obvious. Apparently, if it all goes wrong for Arsenal and they crash out of the CL and top four then Arsene Wenger will be under great pressure. No shit Sherlock.

Nicklas Bendtner says he’s definitely leaving, still, he just can’t confirm which of the many clubs who are after him will win out. Andrey Arshavin on the other hand says he’s going nowhere despite all the Russians after him.

Quite a lot has been written about Arsene Wenger’s return to pace, with Miyaichi and Chamberlain joining Walcott. Whilst we have definitely lacked some pace recently, I’m not sure how much of the two teenagers we’re going to see on a regular basis. I’m assuming that two out of Arshavin, Gervinho and Walcott will be the usual starters.

That’s about it really. Hopefully there will be a defensive signing soon to add to the new found pace out wide.

Another dog day on transfer news. With the trail going cold on the Jagielka and Mata stories the media have stuck a couple of other names under the grill with speculative pieces about Scott Dann and Eden Hazard. No new details though.

Barcelona’s determined stalking of Fabregas and equal determination not to pay the going rate is surely the key to it all. Arsenal could have tentative deals under wraps for several players but obviously don’t feel they can jump first without knowing if Cesc stays or goes.

Barcelona, already champions of Europe can just sit and wait for Arsenal’s nerve to crack first. Today, Arsenal will put Fabregas in the official team photo, goodness knows how many they will have to take! “One more please, there’s still someone not smiling.”

Will they put Fabregas in the team for Benfica though? Maybe not, but presumably in this big poker game they must name him in the Champion’s League squad.

Meanwhile away from that hand of cards we still need a central defender. I’ve nothing against Scott Dann but I’m hoping for better.

What should we Gooners make of the world today?  Yesterday Arsenal showed some promise, but some familiar frailties too.

The papers have dutifully filled their pages, but not with anything new.  Some bloke called Fabregas wants to go and may be replaced by some bloke called Mata.  But some other club may hijack the deal.  Meanwhile Arsenal are poised to sign Phil Jagielka, Gary Cahill, Chris Samba and Scott Dann.  But not today.

The Sundays get the best football material during the season but lose out on breaking anything new on transfer gossip.  Some have wrestled a highly non-committal Harry Redknapp quote into a North London blood feud, but Harry’s more likely to be wondering what time to light the barbie.

Presumably today we will see Szczesny, Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen and Gibbs at the back and they will show us a bit more nous and composure.  Which doesn’t mean that the likes of Jagielka and Enrique wouldn’t be welcome additions.

Most impressive pre-season displays so far have been Frimpong and Gervinho.  Frimpong looks like he’s going to make up for his lost season.  But he’s still young and there is every chance of him and Song disappearing to play for their African national sides at the same time.  What happened to that Biglia rumour that flashed around the web last week?

Gervinho seems to have great pace and passing ability.  I like the way that he and Arshavin keep swapping sides.  His assist for Van Persie yesterday was inch perfect.  More of the same please!

Apparently Arsene Wenger has told Paul Lambert that Henri Lansbury is staying at Arsenal this season.  It would be good to see him on the pitch today.

Enough already, time to make sure lunch appears before the Grand Prix starts and plan when to reveal the existence of the second Arsenal game of the weekend.  ‘But it’s not even August yet!’

OK, maybe that’s a bit harsh, pre-season friendly and all that, but there goes a two goal lead.

There were some good signs too. The first goal saw a perfectly timed cross from Gervinho to reward Van Persie’s dart to the near post. One – nil. There was good stuff again from Wilshere who looks more than ready for the new season. He was replaced at half time by Ramsey who promptly scored. Two – nil.

So far so good. Another promising game from Frimpong who breaks up attacks and holds the ball well. Carl Jenkinson put his own goal behind him and did okay.

But if Arsene Wenger was having any doubts about keeping up the pursuit of Jagielka, Cahill or whoever, the last twenty minutes should keep him fixed on the task! Squillaci was dispossessed for Boca Junior’s first and Djourou, having initially looked to have recovered this situation gifted them the equaliser. Two – all!

Mid-way through the second half, on comes Emmanuel Eboue. Aren’t you supposed to be in Turkey by now?

Just a friendly, nothing to see here folks, but but but just two weeks to go now and still things to fix.

It looks like the move for Costa Rican wonderkid Joel Campbell is back on. Nothing on the Arsenal website yet but there’s an interview here (in Spanish but you can Google translate the accompanying text) which says that the deal is done.

More importantly for the season ahead, as the young Costa is likely to go out on loan initially, there are also credible sounding reports of a move for Juan Mata and an improved offer for Phil Jagielka.  The new bid for Jagielka, covered in The Telegraph and elsewhere, is rumoured to be £15million.  That isn’t quite what Everton are reported to want, but it’s getting close and sounds like serious talk is going on.

As I’ve said before, I’m slightly surprised that Jagielka is the preferred target given his age and injury worries, but he is a good, experienced player and having him alongside Vermaelen would be an improvement.  For all our avid following of multiple transfer rumours, we don’t really know how serious the prospect of a deal for Samba or Cahill really is.

Whilst I think improving our defensive quality is the top priority, a move for a player like Juan Mata would be exciting.  He looks a great player and if Barcelona did decide to offer the right price for Fabregas, we will need someone with Mata’s creative ability to replace him.  But do Barcelona really have the cash?  There are lengthy quotes in The Star today from Peter Hill-Wood confirming that a deal with Barcelona would be done if they offer enough money.

So come on Barca – show us the money or show some respect!

There are also mixed reports out there that Nicklas Bendtner has secured a deal to go to Sporting Lisbon.  If the doubting reports on this transfer are true, the obstacle is Bendtner’s salary.  He may have to take a pay cut, or Arsenal may have to subsidise his wages.  Probably a case of Sporting trying to wangle the best price which is fair enough.

So at last we have the prospect of some real transfer action and not all of it though the exit door.

Barcelona are apparently now setting Arsenal a deadline – they want the Fabregas deal done before they go on tour on Tuesday!

Well show us the b****ing money then. Fabregas on worth £40million and I suspect Arsenal would cut their losses at something showing a bit of daylight over £35million.

Arsenal need to move on, without getting ripped off, which is probably why Cesc isn’t in Germany. I suspect his injury will clear up once a decision is taken either way.

Meanwhile Arsene Wenger is keen to reassure us that the hunt is on for another defender. He doesn’t say whether it’s a central defender or left back he’s looking for, but then he’s already been more specific than he usually is.

There are some Arsenal bloggers out there who are writing pieces demanding that Wenger tells us what is going on or calling him a liar. I don’t know whether they’re just very naive people or feel that blogging is all about writing antagonistic pieces to get more hits.

Either way, they are barking if they think that any manager is going to reveal their hand completely when lining up multi-million pound transactions. Arsene Wenger is far from perfect but he’s also far better than most. But with many Arsenal fan bloggers he can’t win at the moment. They have a go if he doesn’t make bids and they have a go if he does.

I’ve said many times that we need another central defender, a more experienced left back and, preferably some cover and competition for Song. But I suspect Wenger’s biggest headache is avoiding the loss of Fabregas and Nasri at the same time.

On the Jagielka story, I’m slightly surprised that he’s the target given his age and fitness issues, but you don’t know to what extent Wenger is playing off Everton, Bolton, Blackburn or anyone else.

Anyway, another meagre ration of pre-season football today with pitch time for Henderson, Gervinho and Afobe.

So, Pep Guardiola promises to battle for a Fabregas deal up until 31st August and says that Barcelona has enough money stuffed down the back of the sofa to do it.

Except of course that their idea of enough money has so far been way short of what Cesc is worth and Sports Director Andoni Zubizarreta says that their number one priority is signing Alexis Sanchez.

All of this they describe as approaching Arsenal and Fabregas with ‘complete respect’.  What complete rubbish.  They won’t respect Fabregas or Arsenal by paying what Fabregas is worth and they will leave Arsene Wenger worrying about needing a last minute transfer deal to replace him, so screwing up the club’s transfer strategy.  Barcelona are just trying to get the pressure Arsenal into giving up Fabregas for less than he is worth.  Well fair enough, they’ve got their job to do, but please don’t call it respect!

Fabregas doesn’t say anything decisive publicly because he doesn’t want to offend either manager.  It’s a mess and it makes it very difficult for Arsenal to know what they need in midfield.

Meanwhile, we still don’t have the signing we need at the back.  The Mirror has reheated the Cahill story today, although only as a throw away line at the end of their Fabregas piece, and elsewhere suggestions are that Arsenal have baulked at the idea of paying £20 million for Phil Jagielka.

Jagielka surely can’t be worth £20million and yet this summer we’ve already seen Phil Jones move to Manchester United for something over £17million and Jordan Henderson go to Liverpool for £20million.  So maybe in this crazy football world he is!

Kyle Bartley has been quoted as wanting first team football at Arsenal and you can’t blame him for that.  He wasn’t one of four central defenders to go on the far east jaunt and it isn’t clear where he stands relative to Miquel.

Given that Arsenal did put in a big bid for Jones, I assume that Wenger is in the market for a central defender.  That would make Bartley sixth or seventh choice, so hardly surprising that he’s making some noise.

After last season’s performance I suspect most Arsenal fans would move him above Squillaci in the pecking order and some are beginning to wonder about Djourou.

Oh for goodness sake, now I’m debating who our seventh choice central defender is!  Bring on some real hard news and some football.

Three weeks after the end of the summer and Arsenal have made one signing.  Judging by the reaction of some fans you would think that they’d also announced that it will be the only signing of the the summer.

Carl Jenkinson looks a decent buy to me, he’s there to keep Sagna on his toes and presumably to let Eboue depart for regular starts elsewhere.  Of course if he does turn out to be the only buy of the summer, that will be depressing, but there is plenty of time left yet.

Most pundits seem convinced that Arsenal have also tied up a deal to bring in Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from Southampton.  Although he looks promising for the future, that doesn’t set the heart racing for next season – unless Arsene Wenger is planning to move Theo up front and centre straight away.

A few days ago there seemed to be a media consensus that Gervinho was definately on his way to the Emirates, but now they’re not so sure!  Happy to wait and see on that one as the real need is some better defenders and someone to back up Song when we’re clinging on to a result.

Over this weekend we’ve been linked with just about every conceivable English Central Defender plus Mamadou Sakho for good measure!

Apparently we’re in for Scott Dann and Roger Johnson from Birmingham City. I know we lost the Carling to them but really?

Alternatively we’re in for Christopher Samba, Phil Jagielka or Gary Cahill.  One of these is more likely and I think would be welcome.  I would hope for Cahill as the best option but if Manchester City are determined to have him as rumoured, there won’t be much Arsenal can do about it.  After that I would go for Samba over Jagielka.  I’m not sure that there is much between them on ability and Samba has more presence.

Most of the the Arsenal coverage though is about the apocalyptic exodus we apparently face.  I think that there will be a fair few on their way in this window but it’s far from crisis time.

Bendtner needs to leave for his own good and he won’t be overly missed.  If Clichy goes he will need replacing as I don’t think Gibbs is quite ready yet and seems a bit injury prone.  I had high hopes of Clichy, and his first season after Ashley Cole went promised a lot, but nothing much since and he seems to be in a rut now.  Leighton Baines has been mentioned by some and would be good.  But it’s hard to separate real stories from agent talk and page-filling at the moment.

So hold tight and don’t panic yet!