After a couple of days of thinking about it, I’ve compiled my personal list of players who I think we could be likely to sign in the summer - in no particular order:
Yoan Gouffran: Pacy and tricky little winger / forward who currently plays for Caen could be the creative player Wenger is speaking of. Rumoured to have turned down a move to PSG in the January transfer window and many believe that he resisted and is waiting for Arsenal to come in for him. Fits the bill perfectly - young, quick and versatile, and relatively unknown so he wouldn’t cost too much money (£3m - £5m).
Joleon Lescott: To be totally honest, I can’t see this really happening, but I have no idea who Wenger is going to sign. I wouldn’t be surprised if Wenger stuck with the four centre backs we currently have, but he has come out and admitted that we lacked height at the back this season so hopefully that is a big enough hint that we’re going to buy a big, powerful centre half (£10m).
Chris Kirkland: Probably the only realistic goalkeeper we can expect to be challenging for the position of number 1. However, I’m not too convinced Wenger is going to sign a 1st choice keeper, as he does seem to have a lot of faith in Almunia and Fabianski. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 3rd choice keeper come in – someone cheap and old, Mart Poom like (FREE).
I’d like us to sign Ben Arfa, Benzema, Sebastian Frey, Lucio, Kaka, etc but I think they’re all way off the mark regarding “typical Wenger signings”, and for that reason I don’t believe we’ll sign any of them. As for the Gattuso rumour, don’t make me laugh, this is the most ridiculous rumour of the transfer mill so far.
Who should we sign, and who (realistically) will we sign?
5 Comments
May 31, 2008 at 7:34 am
depends on who leaves, if hleb and ade go, then we should go big on a striker, winger and 2 midfielders - we should have the funds with the sale of these two. actually, we may prefer benzema(who actually doesn’t want to leave lyon at this time) to nasri who may be a bit slight for epl. however, if we can call on our billionaire backers usmanov and kroenke and we can then pick up arfa, nasri, makoun and benzema(if ade goes), then we can compete with manu, chelsea. but if we just buy two quality players and hleb and ade leave then we haven’t strengthened the squad, just replaced(send young guns out on loan). if we don’t strengthen then we will be unable to compete with top epl sides and another empty season awaits with more grumblings among players and fans with players more likely to jump ship for better pay and trophies elsewhere. Flamini represents the massive downside of developing vs buying a few BIG players who unfortunately will likely have big names as well. Ben arfa has arsenal quality written all over him and he has size as well, can be an big asset. makoun if he’s as good as advertised, we definitely need some steel in midfield where now we are as soft as my belly(not good). That said, I say nasri and makoun are definite signings and maybe another if ade goes - roque - no, gomez - maybe, villa - no, vela is no henry but who is, benzema is the guy we want if ade goes but wenger will have to uncharacteristically cough up a big pile of dough to pull it off, but at just 21 benzema is worth it. transfer fees rec’d from hleb and ade 30 million, transfers paid for afra, nasri, makoun and benzema 65 million, net cost is 35 million.
May 31, 2008 at 7:39 am
oh, did i forget flamini already, oh well that’s development for you,
May 31, 2008 at 7:56 am
I totally agree about Benzema, I personally believe he is the best striker in the world - I’m only basing that off one season though. He reminds me of a young Alan Shearer, very, very direct and doesn’t mess around in front of goal.
June 7, 2008 at 3:21 pm
[...] is one of the players I thought we should and could realistically sign in an article I posted on 8th May. He’s a quick and lively winger who is just as comfortable up front, and he’s very much [...]
September 1, 2008 at 2:22 am
Good day!,
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