Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

Today we should see some official announcements as the better quality rumours of yesterday are turned into solid stories.  We should see confirmation that Park Chu-Young and Andre Santos are now Arsenal players.

Both of these deals represent some rapid footwork on Arsenal’s part, in stark contrast to the rest of our dealings this summer.

Fenerbahce’s punishment for match-fixing was announced last week, creating the possibility that they would be open to deals on star players and that the players themselves would want a move.  Now Santos is an Arsenal player and Traore is being offloaded to QPR.  Nice work for a change.

Some quick work also allowed Arsenal to hijack Lille’s deal for Monaco’s Park Chu-Young and secure what looks like a very decent back-up striker to Robin Van Persie.

Of course, that still leaves the long drawn out saga of filling key vacancies in central defence and midfield.

So what are the quality rumours of today that will be the solid transfer deals of tomorrow?

Over the last twenty-four hours, Arsenal have been linked to loads of players as the media and players’ agents try to help spend the sizable transfer budget.

In the last twenty-four hours, Arsenal have been linked with:

Eden Hazard, Yossi Benayoun, Gary Cahill, Leighton Baines, Marouane Fellaini, Alex, Kaka, Eljero Elia, Park Chu-Young, Yann M’Vila, Mikel Arteta, Adam Johnson, Mateo Kovacic, Mario Goetze, Florent Malouda and Sol Campbell to name but a few.

Most intriguing perhaps are the three Chelsea players.  What’s going on here?  Presumably, someone has leaked some sort of contact with Chelsea but nobody really knows who it is about.  Or is Arsene about to play some kind of Chelsea Supermarket Sweep and have them all!

Or is it just simply made up stuff from journalists who haven’t got any copy and so they’ve trawled the list of out of favour players.  Of course there are plenty of out of favour players, just at Chelsea and Manchester City.  The combination of huge budgets and rapid turnover of managers has left quite a few decent players warming the bench at both clubs.

As far as a central defender goes, I still think there is a good chance that we will see a deal for Gary Cahill.  Despite the hostile rhetoric of the last few weeks the logic is there.  Bolton need cash to bring in a striker, they are massively in debt.  We have the cash and Cahill could leave on a free next year.

There is some talk that Spurs want him too, but nothing of substance and at the moment Arsenal could outbid them if we really want him.

Benayoun or Malouda?  I can’t see that Malouda has anything that Gervinho or Park don’t already bring.

Benayoun as Fabregas replacement?  Maybe. Not as good obviously, but the endless saga of Cesc’s departure has probably blown the chance of an equal replacement.  There is also an argument that spreading the budget over more than one replacement could give Arsenal a more balanced side.

We shall see, and soon now – less than two days to go.

Arsene Wenger usually says very little about future transfers, so when he says he’s looking for a player then he really is looking to buy.  But is he looking for a stand-in or thinking long-term?

Personally I hope that he isn’t thinking very short-term.  I don’t think that another Silvestre or Campbell fits the bill.  We are still in four competitions (just) and not all of our existing central defender are guaranteed Hall of Fame contenders.  So if he can get the right player then I hope Wenger and the Club are prepared to splash the cash.

One player who seems to be ruling himself out is Per Mertesaker.  If true I think that’s good news.  I’ve never understood why people rate him so highly.

Anyway, Wenger says that ideally, if you have to buy in January you really want someone already in the Premiership.  If he sticks to that, the shortlist probably comes down to Cahill, Jagielka, Agger and Samba.  That would be my order of preference too, but I have my doubts about whether the last two are good enough.

If he can’t get one of the first two I think he should look further afield.  Someone like Jan Vertonghen at Ajax.

What do you think?

The BBC seem pretty certain that Sol Campbell is on the way to St James Park.  He is said to be there for a medical today.

If so, I hope that Arsene Wenger is still in the hunt for another central defender. Djourou could be good for the future, but Arsenal need more established players right now to win the title.

The only real rumours about are that we are still just about to sign these two. Well at least it isn’t rumoured that they aren’t coming after all I suppose! Let’s hope these finally come off this week.

Cole would be a good bit of business on a free. Koscielny looks strong from what little can be gleaned on-line. I hope that the Koscielny deal can be sealed so that Arsenal can get on with signing another central defender after that. One will not be enough.

Campbell may yet stay, and he was surprisingly solid when he played, but he is clearly no longer a week-in week-out player. Djourou may yet prove himself but over the last few years we’ve had to rely on too many players on the verge of proving themselves.

Arsenal really do need another mature central defender so hopefully there was something in the, now quiet, rumours of Subotic or Vertonghen. Maybe even Mertesacker, although I still reluctant on that one.

Maybe I’m just being bone-headed on the German, given their progress in South Africa but I still maintain that he has yet to be really tested.

The other gossip out there is a re-run of the Van der Vaart story. I think he’s an excellent player, but do we need him for a big fee? Unless Fabregas is going that is!