Arsene has a press conference yesterday in which he addressed all the latest things happening in the world of football. We spoke yesterday how Arsene seems to be kind of vaguely maybe targeting only one player. That player being Andrei Arshavin.
Arsene has reiterated many times that if he doesn’t sign anyone, he will keep the squad that he’s got and you’ve got to think that this stance is very much some sort of tactic in the transfer market to keep prospective fees down. However, if you were the director of a club in the middle of selling a player to Arsenal, you’d be a little confused at this statement, no doubt.
Here’s what Arsene had to say on Arshavin:
“[We are] nowhere. That means we are not close to signing anybody. We know what we want to do, but we are not close to signing today because I would tell you. But there is no basic news. There again, we are in negotiations yes but we want to respect our principles. I am very hopeful [of a deal]. We will know in days because the transfer window closes on February 2 and we have only crossed halfway. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. There again, we want to continue to improve here with the players we have.”
So, mixed signals in the summer and more mixed signals in the January transfer window. Do we need players or not? In summer Arsene said we were short of bodies, he said we needed a defensive midfielders – no further signings were made. At the beginning of this transfer window, he has commented that we need a defensive midfielder (and that it is a priority) and a creative midfielder to supplement the talent that’s been injured. So the fact we need these players has been established.
I started writing this article much earlier this morning but in contrary to earlier statements, Arsene has talked further on the matter, and mentioned that we are also “on” other targets.
“I don’t think it is worth to talk about [Arshavin] at the moment because we are nowhere near signing him. But he is one of the players we consider. He is not the only one we are on. Yes [I am still hopeful over a transfer]. But at the moment it is not an absolute worry because we have so many players who will come back soon. We focus on them. Also speaking about a player like Arshavin - he cannot play in the Champions League. If he comes here now he will have 15-16 games and it will take five, six, seven maybe 10 games to adapt. You don’t know.”
But who could these other targets be? Upson for Bendtner, I doubt it. Veloso, well he’s not leaving. Kaka, he’ll cost £107m. Hmm, I’m scratching my head. Interestingly, he’s also spoken down Arshavin’s impact, if he joins, and talked about the inability for him to play in the Champions League and adaptation period – is Arsene already thinking about next season, I wonder?
Talking about this season, Arsene has commented on the poor form which Adebayor has displayed this season.
“He has not had the same form. At the moment, he is working very hard to come back to good form and is on a good way. He had dropped off a little bit, but that can happen sometimes. Ronaldo scored 44 last year, and it does not look like he will score 44 this season, because he and Adebayor had exceptional numbers. What is important is that he works hard and contributes to the team – if he opens the way [to goal] for other player, for me it is the same [importance]. He is looking to come back to his best now.”
It is interesting how Arsene has decided to acknowledge the bumblingness of Ade’s football recently. Maybe it’s a public challenge to him to start playing properly and stop sulking over the failed move to Barcelona. I’ll be a happier man when Eduardo and Vela are chomping (not literally) at his place in the team.
Arsene has also spoken about Kaka and how the deal that is being discussed in very abstract from our world as Arsenal fans and quite the opposite in terms of the real world economics.
“It doesn’t look real to me at all. It is like an abstraction. If you say to me ‘I am a billionaire’, I say ‘OK but I don’t know what it really means’. It [the offer for Kaka] doesn’t look in connection with today’s world because on one side we have the economic situation which is quite worrying and for me this is abstraction.I don’t feel in connection with that at all because we live in a football club which lives in the real world. That means we spend the money we make from our income. The implications [of a £100million transfer] would be disturbance on the market. Inflationary trend in a deflationary world.
All in all, a good summation of what this irregular amount of money would do to world football. It’s interesting, as it looks like Milan would take the money but the player won’t move. Maybe Kaka will get annoyed that they’re willing to sell and thus end up moving anyway.
And finally, news on the injuries – Arsene says that Walcott will be the next back. Eduardo is a few weeks away still. Rosicky and Cesc don’t have a time line – but when they’re back – yes, you’ve guessed, it will be like…. we’ve signed 4 new players.
This was meant to be a Hull Preview, but I’ve waffled so much that I’ve not really touched on tomorrow’s game. So think I need to address that tomorrow with slightly more focus.
Til then…]]>
