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They say Arsene Wenger doesn’t buy in January. Not true. He has made a clutch of significant signings during the mid-season transfer window in the New Year sales.
Abou Diaby, Emmanuel Eboue, Emmanuel Adebayor, Theo Walcott and Andrey Arshavin all arrived in the winter and more could follow next month.
Here we take a look at five possibles...
EDERZITO
The Guinea-born striker – at 6ft 2ins – would be a powerful addition to the Gunners’ stuttering front line.
He has netted five times in 13 games for Portuguese minnows Academica Coimbre, and Porto are also believed to be lining up a move.
But Arsenal have reportedly monitored him for some time, with chief scout Steve Rowley travelling to Portugal and reporting back favourably.
He certainly fits the Wenger profile: he’s young, African and, whoever gets him, will get him on the cheap – Ederzito turns 24 today, which means he can now leave on a free transfer while wages also wouldn’t be an issue.
MARIO GOTZE
Germany’s next big thing has lit up Borussia Dortmund, but rumours persist that the tricky attacking midfielder with bags of pace and skill will soon say Auf Wiedersehen.
Arsenal are rumoured to have bid £35m last summer for him and Manchester United are long-term admirers. Now, with the German champions out of Europe, he could be off-loaded in the new year.
Last month Gotze – capped 12 times already by his country – limped off the pitch during his side’s 2-1 Champions League defeat at the Emirates.
Afterwards Dortmund director of sport Michael Zorc snapped: “I am 99 per cent sure that Mario Gotze will play next season at Borussia Dortmund.”
Hans-Joachim Watke, Borussia’s CEO, reiterated that this week: “We want to play football, not to open as a bank. We want to make our five million fans happy, we can’t do that by selling players.”
But money talks...
GARY CAHILL
The deal may have died in the summer, but Cahill is almost certain to leave Bolton in 2012, and can go on a free transfer in the summer, so Wanderers will take what they can get for him in January.
Wenger is a noted admirer of the England defender, and although he has stated he is happy with his centre-backs, the defensive injuries are piling up.
With Spurs believed to be cooling their own interest due to the imminent return of Michael Dawson from injury, the Gunners could easily sneak a cheeky bid of around £5m for a player who has greatly impressed for his country this season while his club languish at the foot of the table.
Wenger will need to move fast if he does resurrect his interest as Chelsea and Lokomotive Moscow are also in the running for the former Aston Villa man.
LUKAS PODOLSKI
Germany striker Podolski, 26, has been in sensational form for his beloved Cologne with 14 goals in 15 Bundesliga games, but he has admitted that the time may be right to leave his hometown club for a second time – after a previously unsuccessful stint at Bayern Munich.
“My family and friends may live here, but if I am in top condition, then I think I could fit into any side in Europe,” said Podolski this month.
“I am not forced to stay only in Cologne,” added the striker, who was born in Poland but moved to the Cologne area when he was two years old.
That said, he has flatly refused to move to another German side again – paving the way for a transfer abroad.
He described Arsenal as a “top club” earlier this month and could come for as little as £15m with just 18 months left on his contract; a potential bargain for a Germany international with 43 goals in 95 games for his national side.
FERNANDO TORRES
Well, why not? Andre Villas-Boas clearly doesn’t rate him and rumours persist Chelsea are prepared to take a big financial hit to offload him.
It may be a risk too far to let him go to one of your main rivals.
But with colossal wages of £150,000-a-week and no sign of getting out of his rut in front of goal, something has to give.
The Chelsea striker cost a cool £50m in the last transfer window but, ahead of their clash with Tottenham tonight, has netted just three times in 25 Premier League outings for the Blues.
One report this week said they’d take as little as £20m for him.
This may be the most unlikely of January moves involving Arsenal, but far stranger things have happened in football. And if he could find his form, he’d certainly take the pressure of Robin van Persie and bring a new attacking dimension to the Gunners.
anonymous974860 - November 17th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
The Arsenal system of play leaves them vulnerable to counterattack and even the world best defenders would look average in this style. Having said that ,leaking so many goals to set peices is a sign of poor defending which won’t be remedied by young and naive players (albeit very talented ones).
anonymous810563 - November 17th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
I dont think we need another centre back because we already have Vermaelen(who is obviously our best centre back), Koscielny (who is in a decent form and I cant see it stopping) and Mertesacker( who is well known and has about 70 cap for germany)
anonymous664054 - November 17th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Midfields where the problem be brothers, Wenger needs to be locking peeps down in there
anonymous666900 - November 17th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
We need fullback, Santos ain’t good enough. May as a back-up.
Jan Vertonghen (solves our Defensive Midfielder problem also)
We need creative midfielder (next summer). Wilshere is very good but too injury prone (bad luck of course, but half season is always half a season)
Mario Götze / Eden Hazard
And a pure striker. We can’t rely too much on RVP, he needs to be rested once in a while.
Lukas Podolski / Roberto Soldado / Seydou Doumbia (risky)
These 3 players would cost us about 60£ mils, but selling our deadwood we should gain this January about 15£ (Chamakh, Squillaci, Almunia, Diaby). But if we could get 15£ offer for Arshavin, we should take it and go SERIOUSLY for Hazard.
Next summer we sell the rest deadweights: Denilson, Bendtner, Rosicky, Fabianski and get 20£ mils.
anonymous730114 - November 17th, 2011 at 9:34 pm
LOL loving how the guy says are arsenal are complete at the back!
anonymous304655 - November 18th, 2011 at 4:08 am
If Vertonghen can play DM as good as CB, go and get him, Wenger.
Vermator can play as left fullback as back up.
Imagine if Mertesacker, Vertonghen and Vermalen (as leftback) play together.
anonymous666900 – November 17th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
We need fullback, Santos ain’t good enough. May as a back-up.
Jan Vertonghen (solves our Defensive Midfielder problem also)
anonymous583776 - November 18th, 2011 at 11:15 am
Arsene Wenger will NOT play two left-footed centrebacks together. Vertonghen will be used as a DM. I’m also impressed with Koscielny’s form this season, shame it took the entire previous season to get him up to scratch with the Premier League.
Hazard will not be coming to Arsenal, the lure of “childhood dream” clubs like Real Madrid or Barcelona will be too much for him.
Santos should be used where he can do most damage, down the left side of midfield, he’s powerful, fast and has a decent shot on him. Let him worry defenders more. That being said we should sure up with an out-and-out LB.
And a striker is a must. van Persie has already said he would much prefer a free-role behind a striker, where he is most effective. Why Wenger’s not playing Park over Chamakh I have no idea – That said last time I watched either of them play they both looked like ghosts on the pitch.
Get rid of the dead wood – any offer is better than no offer, plus its gets them off the wage bill. Wouldn’t be a bad idea to use some of the surplus wages saved to offer the star players better salaries either