Will Arsenal add to their Lucas collection?

Of course, one of the names that Arsenal fans have been talking about this summer is Lucas Biglia. We've been tracking the Argentina international midfielder for some time, apparently, and this summer we saw him in action for Anderlecht in the pre-season tournament down at St Mary's.

I wasn't particularly impressed, to be honest, but some say you can't read too much into friendly games. I mean, Lukasz Fabianski had a nightmare against Barnet in the first game I saw him play. And what's he been like since? I'll keep quiet on that, I think!

Lukas Podolski, meanwhile, was electric against his former employers, Cologne. So we're expecting big things from him, without wanting to heap too much pressure on his Teutonic shoulders!

Anyway, I think you can gather that I think some information about a player can be gleaned from a friendly. Based on what I saw, Biglia will do an okay job in the Premier League. He'll be an adequate replacement for Alex Song, but I'd like to see us aim higher than that. Yohan Cabaye would be a step up, but if we get Biglia it will be a step sideways. And maybe we can expect a lot of crab-like running and passing too!

Inevitably, Southampton have been linked with Biglia too. The theory being that they've had a good look at him in pre-season too, so must be interested! The story goes that Biglia wants European football, so that rules the Saints out. The same goes for Everton, who judging by their purchase of Kevin Mirallas, like to buy Arsenal transfer targets!

Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Paris Saint Germain are reportedly other options for the 25-year-old midfielder, who's only going to cost £6.3m. Maybe he's worth a gamble for that price, but I won't be jumping up and down celebrating if we get him. He might find himself walking in Ju Young Park's shoes rather than walking in the park playing for Arsenal!

Carroll might but Biglia wouldn't suit Arsenal - plus more friendly firing squad victims!

Hello again Gooners. This is a time in the pre-season where I can't stand the anticipation and end up going to a reserve game. Borehamwood FC is my next port of call. 

I didn't make it to St Mary's Arsenal's double-header against Anderlecht and Southampton, but I managed to catch up with the matches on Arsenal Player. As much as I disagreed with Stewart Robson's comments about Theo Walcott, I really miss his tactical analysis. For some reason I'm always confusing Stewart Robson with Stewart Houston, who was our caretaker boss 1995 and 1996.

As a result of the confusion, I feel the time is right for some historical digression! It was a major surprise to me when George Graham brought Houston in as his assistant manager in 1990. I couldn't stop associating Houston with Manchester United and I'm assuming that's where George met Stewart. Of course, professionally they had a lot in common, having played exclusively in England despite their roots north of the border.

Although I was delighted when we bought Alan Ball for a record transfer fee in the early 70s, I didn't realise that we would have to sell George Graham to Manchester United. Arsenal must've thought it was good piece of business to sell "Stroller" for £120,000. We paid £75,000 to Chelsea and threw Tommy Baldwin in for good measure back in 1966, so it was a decent profit on a player who had given six year's worth of sterling service to the club.

Anyway, getting back to the point, ha ha! I didn't exactly welcome Houston with open arms when he came to Highbury. However, when appointed caretaker boss, he proved critics like me wrong by taking us to the European Cup Winners' cup final, where we were unlucky to lose to a last-minute goal from Nayim - cue jeering from Spurs fans who loved to sing: "Nayim from the halfway line".

Then, of course, I was grateful for the stability he offered the team during a turbulent time. Bruce Rioch kept him on when he became boss, and as the fellow Scot's time was short-lived Houston had to grab the managerial reins once more.

When Arsene Wenger was appointed Arsenal boss, Huston resigned and resurfaced at QPR as boss. Huston showed his loyalty to Rioch by appointing him as his assistant, but it didn't work out and he ended up getting sacked about a year later.

Then Houston had a spell at Spurs with George Graham, but he left that job after Graham was sacked in March 2001. There were rumours in 2008 at Houston was back as a Scout at Arsenal, and now thanks to my confusion many people may think he has a job as a summariser for Arsenal player. Maybe that's not such a bad idea!

Sorry about that. What a long digression!

Anyway, I missed Stewart Robson's astute comments while watching the Anderlecht and Southampton games on Arsenal Player. Stephen Hughes did a reasonable job, but my favourite summariser is Robson followed by Perry Groves. I'd love to hear Paul Merson's views or Ian Wright's, but that's never going to happen is it? We just don't pay enough money for talent, which could bring me nicely on to the transfer front. But like Arsenal, I'm not going to give in to temptation and I'm going to continue to talk about the pre-season friendlies!

So what did we learn from the Anderlecht game? I think we can see we have a good substitute goalkeeper in Damien Martinez. The 19-year-old Argentina youth international kept a clean sheet and showed a good pair of hands. Based on this performance, he should be Szczeny's new number two.

We also learnt that Arsenal Player can't spell: Ignasi Miquel is spelt with a "q", not a "g" as in 'San Miguel"! It's a shame that Miquel is off to Brighton as he's versatile and good enough to be in the first-team squad. He looked a bit rusty at the beginning, but improved as the game went on. Some of his short passes bordered on the criminal as he adjusted to the game, but the Spaniard reads the game so well that I think his future should be at Arsenal. If we sell the 19-year-old I will be absolutely gutted.

Kieran Gibbs was captain for the first game and did okay. Carl Jenkinson set up Henri Lansbury's goal, and, quite predictably, Marouane Chamakh was the Arsenal player who contributed the least, despite going close to scoring with one shot. He really seems destined for a move elsewhere. Fiorentina have been mentioned in despatches, but they're not prepared to pay £44,000 a week in wages. So the question remains, who will buy him? Or loan him? Perhaps we can loan him to Newcastle who are hoping to bring back Andy Carroll to St James's Park. I would prefer it if we offered him to Liverpool plus £18 million to bring Carroll to the Emirates Stadium. Carroll is much better on the ground than people give them credit for and, of course, he's a real handful in the air. However, his alleged off-the-field activities will prevent Arsenal making a move for him. It's never going to happen, it's wishful thinking on my part. Some fans might say we should let Theo Walcott join Liverpool with Andy Carroll joining us in part-exchange. I'd hate to see Theo leave but, with just one year left on his current deal, we might have to bite the bullet.

Back to the friendly again! So who's going to be in the first-team squad next season of that starting 11 against Anderlecht? Let's call the casualties of my cull: "friendly firing squad victims" shall we?

Obviously, Jenkinson and Gibbs will be included in the squad, so they won't be "friendly-fired". To that I would add Craig Eastmond probably. If it were up to me, Miquel and Martinez would be shoe-ins. I'd have Nico Yennaris on standby for first-team duty, as he never lets the team down, but I'm not too sure about the rest. They still have the rest of the pre-season to prove me wrong, and although Lansbury scored a good goal I'm not quite sure he will make it at Arsenal. I wouldn't be surprised if he returns to West Ham before the season starts.

Daniel Boateng proved he's a solid centre back, but I don't think he will make the step up at Arsenal. Sanchez Watt, for all his pace, will probably be loaned out again and Thomas Eisfeld needs at least another year before he can be considered as a member of the first-team squad.

All in all, we were very lucky to beat Anderlecht. The Belgian champions were much sharper and that was not surprising given their season kicks off quite soon in comparison to ours. Lucas Biglia, and Arsenal transfer target, was good on the ball but perhaps slows up play too much to be a viable proposition in the Premier League. The slower pace of European football suits Biglia better and that's the reason I hope we don't sign him.

Looking at the second game against Southampton, we actually played much better as a unit. I'd love to know the name of the guy working for Sky Sports who claimed that Gervinho was the best player on the pitch. Although Gervinho scored, he did little else.

The match went to spot kicks with Kyle Ebecilio missing the crucial one that resulted in a defeat. The Dutch youngster should hold his head up high as he contributed much to the cause. I'd have him on the fringes of the first team this season, personally, as I think his attitude is admirable as is his technical ability and versatility.

Kyle Bartley also impressed, and I think we all know he should get some first-team outings in this forthcoming season. I'm assuming Francis Coquelin will also get quite a few runouts, but apart from that only skipper Johan Djourou, Vito Mannone and Andre Santos are likely to be in the squad.

Mannone had a poor game, in my opinion, but I would still keep him in and around the squad as I feel he is a better option than Lukasz Fabianski.

Jernade Meade did okay at left back, but I don't see him getting much playing time for Arsenal's first-team. The same goes for Chuks Aneke, who got crocked in the 29th minute. He was replaced by Martin Angha, who looks a bit too raw for now. But his fellow substitute, Kristoffer Olsson, was determined to impress after a shaky start and even had the audacity to take a penalty in the shootout. I was very impressed with Olsson's attitude and, although I don't see him making an impact this season, I don't think it will be that long before we see him in an Arsenal first-team shirt.

I just want to add that it's very difficult to judge young players and also very harsh. Their ages mean they always have a chance to prove critics wrong, usually through hard work, dedication and belief. The mere fact that they have played for Arsenal will always reflect well on their CV's, so even if they go on to play for other teams they should always be proud that they have played for arguably the best club in the world. So to all youngsters who don't make it at the club, I wish you all the very best for the future.

Half a million banked? Who will Arsenal spend it on?

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.