Apart from last seasons crazy spending spree, Transfer Deadline Day is usually one of the quietest days for Arsenal Football Club. They are never usually involved in late deals for players coming in and going out. However this changed last year when Arsene Wenger brought 5 players in the last couple of days before the window slammed shut. A lot of people said it was panic buying because of the heavy 8-2 thumping they received at the hands of Manchester United, but either way, it saw the most exciting deadline days in Arsenal’s history. So what will it be like this year? This is my picture of what will happen….
Big story broke out yesterday about Theo Walcott declining a new 5 year deal worth 75k-a-week at Arsenal sparking rumours that Liverpool and Man City were ready to make a £12m bid for the Arsenal speedster. It is believed that Arsenal will not offer him anything higher than 75k a week, however they aren’t in a rush to sell him either as they believe he will eventually sign a contract extension because he is happy at the club. I expect a couple of cheeky bids to be made by the mentioned clubs just to test how much Arsenal and Wenger really rate the English winger. I don’t think he will sign a new contract within the next two days, but nor do I think we will see him leave the club.
However, I do expect to see Nicklas Bendtner finally leave the club after saying he never wants to play for Arsenal again over a year ago! This has taken a lot longer than Arsenal thought, even though Bendtner and his agent has said that there has been interest for him all over Europe….Not sure about that….But anyway, I expect to see him leave for about £5m and I am guessing it will be to Italy, with rumours that AC, Inter and even champions, Juventus are all interested. Regarding other fringe players at Arsenal, I don’t think any of them will leave. No-one has been interested in Squillaci, Chamakh or Park Chu-Young so I expect they will all stay at Arsenal. As for Arshavin, only Zenit have shown interest in the player, but nothing official has come from it, so I also expect him to stay.
As for players coming in, nothing is concrete or set for Arsenal as it stands, but there hasn’t even been any rumours either. This can be taken as a positive though. Apparently Gazidis and the head scout at Arsenal have had a couple of meetings recently talking about transfer targets. Yann M’Vila and Capoue are topping the list at the moment as they are both defensive midfielders and they will both be considered replacements for Alex Song. We have recently been linked with two Newcastle midfielders, Cheik Tiote and Yohan Cabaye. Wenger has ruled out Tiote coming to Emirates, but nothing has come out about Cabaye. So that could be another possibility.
In my personal opinion, I think we need a new RB. Bacary Sagna is still out and will be more a couple of months and from what I have seen Carl Jenkinson is not ready for the premiership. Angel Rangel has been firmly linked with Arsenal for a long time, but I don’t think he is good enough for Arsenal either. Gregory Van Der Wiel would be a great buy for Wenger, but whether that will happen, I don’t know.
For me, I think we need a CM and a RB. If we get someone in these positions, I will be satisfied with our transfer dealings this summer. So a couple of players might be leaving and a couple might be coming in. It won’t be as exciting as last year, far from it, but it still could be quite an exciting one to say the least.
Alex William Batt