There is still very little in the way of positive Arsenal transfer rumours today. There has been no announcement about Laurent Koscielny which had been expected today, in fact Wenger said that a “defensive” signing would be made this week, so I suppose I should wait until tomorrow really.
The only bit of good news has come from Joe Cole’s agent, which seems to imply that the (ex-)Chelsea midfielder will be staying in London.
The agent, David Geiss, refused to say exactly who were the front-runners for Cole’s signature, be he did say that the rumours of an offer from AC Milan were pure speculation, and even more pertinently, he said: “Football is the most important thing to Joe and continuing to play in the Champions League is high on his priorities.”
As Man Utd have ruled themselves out, and Chelsea are not an option! That only leaves Arsenal and Tottenham as the possible destinations. The longer this goes on the more sure I am that Wenger and Cole really have come to an arrangement…..
Defenders are the main problem area for Wenger, and even if Kosciely does get announced soon, Arsenal will still definitely need at least one other centre-back. I thought that Pape Diakhate was nailed on to arrive, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside. Sol Campbell is obviously being kept in reserve if everything else falls through, but the Celtic manager seems quietly confident that his offer will convince Campbell his future lies in Scotland. Lennon said today: “It is early days with Sol, we have had contact over the summer. We were delighted to get him up and talks are ongoing at the minute.
“It is not just his experience, but his quality and calibre of player and personality.
“He’s had a great career, but I think he still has a lot to offer. He’s gone away to think about things and will be in touch over the next week or so.”
Campbell keeps going on about his “ambition” but I get the feeling that he just wants to see if Wenger will match the two-year contract on offer from Celtic before making up his mind…..
The latest defender to be strongly linked with Arsenal is the Germany international centre-back Per Mertesacker, but that one looks to be dead and buried today as well after the player himself said: “Werder Bremen is a good club with some challenges to go through,”
“Werder Bremen is a club able to achieve everything, we just need to show more consistency. I am going to stay a player of Werder Bremen.”
So that is another one we can forget about. It certainly looks like Wenger is running out of options, but I’m sure he will pull something out of the bag (okay let’s say I’m hoping instead!)..
The Mirror seems to think that the Algerian defender Rafik Halliche is another possible contender. Although he is an international player, the 23 year-old was not considered good enough to play for Benfica for the last two seasons, and they have loaned him out to Portugese minnows Nacional. That doesn’t bode well for his ability to hold down a place in the Arsenal team
Todays prize for the most unlikely Arsenal rumour goes to CaughtOffside as usual. They maintain that Jose Mourinho is preparing to offer Arsenal £35m for the Dutch striker Robin Van Persie in the next few days. Now I know for a fact that Van Persie is probably one of Wenger’s most loyal servants, and having just signed a new contract there is absolutely no way that he is leaving the Emirates.
But CaughtOffside rarely let the facts get in the way of a rumour that no-one else has heard before. In fact, now I think about it, they seem to have a brand new totally unsubstantiated rumour every single day! Does that seem a bit strange….
From justarsenal.com
