We are only days away from the Euros beginning, so
unsurprisingly Arsenal have been linked with a plethora of players. The aptly
named Sabotage Times has linked us to 2 wingers: one from the Ukrainian
international side and one from the Swedish international team. I have to
confess I don't know much about either. Yevhen Konoplyanka is a nice easy name
to pronounce isn't it. Not! The 22-year-old is currently playing for Dnipro so
we will watch with interest as he takes the field for his international team.
You'll be wearing the number 19 shirt and will probably start for the Ukraine
on the left wing. He's a bit taller than our very own Andrey Arshavin, but I
can't see Arsene Wenger plunging in the transfer market to buy another eastern
European wideman, no matter how exceptional he is.
Could Arsenal bring in a Scandinavian wideman though? Anders Limpar anyone? The man
in question is Christian Eriksen of Denmark and Ajax. He doesn't necessarily
play wide though. He's been compared to Michael Laudrup by the great Johan Cruyff
and is expected to play just behind Denmark's main striker. He wears the number
8 and is considered to be Denmark’s best player, so we shouldn't be able to
miss him, should we? But would we miss him if he didn't come to Arsenal. I will
let you know after Euro 2012. In fact, I would be very surprised if we bought
playmaker this summer, after watching Chelsea and Manchester United strength in
that area of field, I'm sure our club's policy will be to watch, to pray and to
avoid touching the coffers.
The Daily Express meanwhile is running the story and we are
in talks with Argentina international Lucas Biglia. The 26-year-old Anderlecht
skipper could be on the move apparently for £8 million and we may swoop for
this defensive midfielder. I don't believe a word of it, then does not had much
luck with Argentinian football players. Does anyone remember Nelson Vivas, who
wasn't too bad? And Fabian Caballero, who wasn't that good? I thought so.
That's why it's very unlikely that we'll be buying Argentinian players while
Wenger is in charge.
The good news is we have some extra money for transfers, now
that Oguzhan Ozyakup is joining Besiktas for £570,000. According to the Daily Star, Arsenal have inserted a
25% sell-on clause, which should see us reap some of the benefits should the
midfielder come good later in his career. He certainly has some talent, but
appears to have some attitude to go with it, some of which may not be good for team
spirit. I base this assessment on what I saw at Stevenage in the pre-season
last year. Ozyakup was really on the case of one of his teammates, and
personally I couldn't see the point. Often players know when they make a
mistake, especially when it's an obvious mistake. They don't need to be
castigated for it. And they certainly don't need to be told what it is by a
teammate. That is what Ozyakup appeared to do, which is why I am not so sad to
see him leave the club.
Some may feel similarly about Andrey Arshavin. An article in
FT.com suggests that our lovable meerkat is ‘unpopular’ in the dressing room. I
would imagine that Andre is not Wenger’s favourite player due to his propensity
to speak his mind. Even that alone could make him unpopular in the dressing
room when Wenger is there also. The article is about Robin van Persie ostensibly
and I suggest you read it as it is very informative and interesting. I'm left
feeling that Robin will leave in pursuit of trophies elsewhere. Hopefully, I
have jumped to the wrong conclusions and the man who can't bear to lose at
table tennis will consider third place in the league as an acceptable state of
affairs. If he really is an Arsenal fan and he should learn to accept that just
like we have to! Seriously though, I won't blame Robin if he does leave. As
long as he does not join another English club, he goes with my blessing.
No comments:
Post a Comment