Arsenal Transfer News: Senderos could stay, Matuidi linked – One week to go

On August 26, 2009September 4, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Injuries, Transfers3 Comments

Arsene Wenger yesterday hinted that Senderos may have a future at Arsenal this season. Spending last season on loan at AC Milan, he has been suggested as Everton’s replacement for Joleon Lescott, and hasn’t been part of the team sheet so far this season. Wenger commented:

“There is no change with Senderos. If he has not moved before the deadline then he will be considered as any other player in the squad.”

This suggests that he still has a place in the squad if he decides to stay.

Wenger has also stated that we have not placed bids for any players, with just a week to go until the close of the transfer window.

“I have not bid for Matuidi. The only thing I can tell you is that at the moment we are not close to signing anybody. We have still one week.”

We have again been linked with Matuidi, whether there is any truth in these rumours is doubtful, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Wenger has his eye on at least one target to bring in before the week is out.

In other news Lescott has finally signed for Citeh for £22m, taking their spending to over £120m this summer. That’s about a third of all the Premier League spending, which shows how heavily they are investing. That may push Everton to now place a bid for Senderos.

Ex-Gunner Sol Campbell has also signed on at Notts County, seemingly lured by the long term project at the League Two club, and the presence of ex-England manager Sven Goran-Eriksson. The move surprised Wenger, as it is a step down from Premier League football, but Campbell has the chance to play for several more years, and help the club progress.

In any case Arsenal look strong, but like the past two seasons, when injuries strike: we will suffer. The team needs more depth if we really want to be strong contenders for trophies.

Gibbs’ Goals for England U21 Video + Vermaelen and Dzeko

On June 9, 2009January 12, 2011 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Highlights, Transfers6 Comments

Kieran Gibbs put on a lovely performance last night for England U-21s in their friendly against Azerbaijan, and was in a class of his own. He took two goals, and you can see them in the videos below. Good stuff from the young guy, cue newspaper articles on Arsenal’s ‘production line’ of quality left backs..

A friendly against Azerbaijan isn’t much to go by, but I think we all know that Gibbs is quality, and the more experience he gets the better he will get. I’m not expecting too much next season from him though, Wenger won’t be putting undue pressure on him.

In other news it looks like we may have signed Ajax defender Thomas Vermaelen. The rumours surrounding the story have been growing, and now the Guardian are reporting that we are going to spend around £10 mill on the 23 year old.

We’ve needed a new central defender for some time, and I think everyone knew that Silvestre’s signing last season was not the answer. I think that defence is the key for a successful title challenge next season, lets just hope that if he does come in that Vermaelen can do the job.

Meanwhile it looks like Milan are going to snap up Dzeko, the striker linked with us, and Senderos apparently wants to stay at AC too. If we get some cash from him then it should go straight into reinvesting in another defender.

“As far as I am concerned I would like to stay in Milan because I do not think that there is a place for me at Arsenal.”

If Senderos stays at Arsenal it wouldn’t be a bad thing, but I think we should look for someone of higher quality.

Wenger won’t sign defenders – What does this mean for Arsenal?

On June 13, 2008September 4, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Transfers4 Comments

Wenger’s recent comments about not needing a defender suggest that he will stick with what we’ve got there. He was talking about Vincent Kompany, the Belgian centre back, he played down the speculation saying:

“I have decided that defenders are no longer necessarily needed for next season.”

So it seems very possible that there will be no signings to bolster our defence.

On the flanks we have the best in the Premiership, Sagna and Clichy, I love them both and they are both world class players who are young, no need to strengthen there.

The main weakness is cover rather than replacement. Senderos and Song were the players who started when Gallas and Toure weren’t availiable last season, and Eboue, Toure, Traore and Hoyte sometimes covered on the flanks. This didn’t work brilliantly last season, and was one of our main problems. I am a big fan of Senderos he can be error prone.

There have also been questions over whether Toure and Gallas are a strong enough partnership.

I think we should strengthen the defence, but Wenger seems to be trusting in what we’ve got. The fact that Song got a new deal, and started so many games at the end of last season, suggests to me that he has put himself above Senderos in the pecking order, and Wenger has hinted that he won’t play Song in midfield.

So we will probably see the same defence lining up in the current season, but expect to see more of Song, and maybe players like Norveidt gettign a few games this season.

I hope that Gallas proves himself as an Arsenal player and captain this season, and that Toure gets his form back. If that happens then Wenger will be proved right, and we will have a top quality back four, with decent coverage.

So in the end I think Wenger’s decision may pay off, but it is a gamble, ideally we need a quality centre back to challenge for a place, many would argue that neither Song or Senderos are good enough.

What do you think?

Senderos Rumours, Henry Only Loves Arsenal

On April 25, 2008April 25, 2008 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal1 Comment

I’ll start this morning by telling you that it is rumoured that Phil Senderos might be leaving this summer. The 23 year old defender might have played his last game for us at Anfield.

This is just speculation, but added to the possibility that we may also lose Flamini, Hleb and Gilberto, our squad will be streched, as I said before. I think that Senderos will become a good defender, if given the right amount of time. That may be too loing for Arsene though!

Henry has been linked with a move away from Barca, he says the only place he would go to is in England is Arsenal.

“I’m happy – I don’t regret leaving Arsenal. “But there’s only one team in England for me. Everybody knows the love and affection I have for Arsenal. I was so into it, I became a fan.”

“There has been since I arrived here a lot of speculation from day one but, hey, go back where? There’s only one team for me in my heart. It took me a while to understand what that club, Arsenal, meant.”

I don’t believe he will leave them, I believe that Arsenal means a great deal to him, you could always see it when he played. Possibly the best player we have ever had. It’s good to hear him talk about the club in this way.

Toure wants to stay at Arsenal and help us win trophies. Good one Kolo, I hope that certain players follow your lead! Click Here.

He also says he really wants to be captain. It must have hurt when Gallas got picked this season, but his position is now under speculation.Toure would make an excellent captain, and the guy will work really hard to get where he wants to be.

Rosicky is on the mend. We still don’t know when he will be back though. Click here.

How many players are we missing now??? Click here to find out.

Finally, Wenger says here:

“Maybe I’ll have to give the players who go to the European Championships a little breather before they go.”

So we may see some squad rotation in these last 3 games of the season. I have no problem with that. It’s been a very hard season, and players need a break, because if they play all summer then they won’t perform so well next year if overtired.

Arsenal Transfer Rumours Plus Senderos, Traore

On April 17, 2008December 14, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Transfers22 Comments

The season is not yet over and already the transfer rumours have started in earnest. David Villa is suggested as a transfer target here.

He wants to play in England and he is a proven goalscorer: (David Villa Video). He probably would cost £20 million but would be a worthwhile signing. He’s also linked to Liverpool due to his partnership with Torres in Spain Internationals, so I hope we get him.

“I watch the Premier League a lot and the team I’m most attracted to is definitely Arsenal. If an offer comes in I’m hungry to test myself in England.”

The Sun links us to Gomes, whilst Ben Arfa is linked with us but has dismissed the rumours, till the end of the season at least. Feyenoord’s attacking midfielder Jonathan de Guzman this is a bit less likely really.

Good analysis of the media coverage on Wenger recently, click to read Arvind Gooner’s article .

Arsene reckons Man Utd will overcome Henry and Barca here.

“It will be an English team that wins the Champions League. I wish that Thierry Henry wins it but Manchester United will be super-favourites against them.”

Traore On the Wing

Traore is to switch to the wing. He says he wants to follow in Eboue’s footsteps, I hope he doesn’t because right now Eboue hasn’t been a great conversion.

Traore is promising and used to play on the wing anyway. He is a pretty attacking player and he looks good he played well on the wing in the Reserves’ 5-1 win against Derby on Monday.

Senderos Anguish

Senderos has been calling home to his parents every night because he is so upset after we lost to Liverpool in the Champions league. Wenger gave him Sunday and Monday off, that’s why he didn’t play against Man Utd. Click here. His father said:

“He was not feeling too good after Arsenal went out of The Champions League.”

“Firstly because he is a winner and his team had been knocked out, and then because he was angry with himself.”

“Knowing his character as I do, I can fully imagine him bursting into tears in the dressing room.”

Eduardo injury news

He’ll be having treatment alongside Ronaldo in Rio, he was pretty excited about that! His cousin commented on his progress:

“When he took away the plaster, on the 31 of March, he was only managing to move the big toe of his foot. Today (Wednesday), he has already moved the foot a bit”

It’s good to hear Eduardo is progressing, we’ve missed his goals since he has been injured, I hope he can make a good recovery.

Not so good to hear about Senderos, he does seem a bit low on confidence at times, hopefully he can recover too because he has a lot of potential for Arsenal, many good centre backs struggle at first, he’s still young, and I’d like to see him mature at Arsenal, not elsewhere.

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Gallas Gets Us There

On November 26, 2007September 4, 2010 By jamesgillespIn Arsenal2 Comments

A good 2-0 win over Wigan this weekend. We were without Fabregas (suspended), Flamini (thigh), Diaby (back) and and Gilberto (fatigue). Also we lost Hleb for 3 weeks, these Opta stats on Setanta are interesting.

The match itself was not particularly entertaining. I went down to the Armoury to get a stripy scarf before the kick off, but they were all sold out! They are really popular right now..Its great when all of the North West corner start jumping and swinging them, the atmosphere is improving all the time in Ashburton Grove.

Wigan came out to defend and that is what they did with little in the first half of note. Diarra and Denilson in the centre of the park looked ok, but not as incisive as Fabregas & Flamini who are the centre of the team when they play.. We missed that a bit I felt.

Second half, more and more frustration from the crowd and players.. A dirty tackle on Denilson from Bent a few minutes after a shove was the cause for a bit of a scuffle.. Bent got off with a yellow.. We came close a few times but Wigan still defended well. I started to think we wouldn’t score. Adebayor was very quiet. It looked bad when Walcott went down and was stretchered off after a bad tackle from Heskey, it seems he is ok and not badly injured, he played well which was very pleasing. The Boss brought on Eduardo and Bendtner (who looks very promising). The in the 83rd minute a good passing move saw Gallas play the ball near their area and continue with his run forward, making it to the near post as Sagna put a great cross in.. The header was immense and the celebrations were great, Gallas ran over to us as he seems to a lot now and all was happy, the frustration over, within a minute we broke again, Bendtner making an excellent run and playing it to Rosicky who played a good shot just inside the penalty area in off the post.. Wigan were undone from then and it was a great feeling when we heard Man U lost, so top of the table by 3 points and a game in hand. Not Bad..

I really am warming to Gallas, Toure says here about how great it is to be playing with Gallas as captain! I was sceptical about him but he really is showing his worth. Leading the side, scoring goals when we need them most and looking solid in defence. The resilience and patience of the team is amazing and there is an interview with Wenger here.

Meanwhile, Gilberto going the other way, out of the team with transfer stories rife, the Sun has story on him wanting to go to Juve.

“I would adapt myself well to the Italian league, however Juve should know that I have no intention of starting a war with Arsenal.”

This is fair enough for Gilberto, not in the team now, he obviously wants to play and if that means moving in January so be it. I worry about this as he brings experience and consistency to the team, and while we are playing well it is fine without him in the team, but what happens when we are facing tough opposition with a weakened midfield and little cover. It does seem a bit dodgy, but ‘Arsene knows’ what hes doing!

Our Premiership next game at home is Chelsea on the 16th. That will be a cracker! Cashley Cole says in an article here:

“Compared to what happened to the England guys, I am sure I will get much worse when I go back to Arsenal”

I’m sure he will, he’s a complete idiot and I have very little respect for him. What a *£$%.. Clichy is better than him, as has been shown this year..

Anelka, good on him for the goal on Saturday, has said:

“If you look now at the situation Arsenal are in and look at where I am, then you could say maybe I should have stayed.”

That is so funny, I remember how petulant he was, the whole saga, him joining Real.. What an idiot, now look at him, played for Man City, now Bolton, fighting relegation. Just shows how some players don’t realise how great Arsenal is to be at till they leave. Anyway glad we sold him cause since he left there have been some excellent seasons I wouldn’t change!

Finally a little on the trial of Tresor Mputu, loads of people are reading the articles on this guy, Wneger says here: