Arsenal's 'asset-stripping' continues, rebuilding waits

It may be financially prudent to asset strip before embarking on rebuilding, but it seems kamikaze to the extreme on the pitch. The latest 'assets' to go include Ignasi Miquel to Leicester on loan and Marouane Chamakh to Crystal Palace.

Miquel is probably not quite ready for Premiership football, so it's hard to argue with his loan move to the Foxes. Hopefully, he'll get plenty of game time there. That's all he needs. Once he's got that under his belt, I feel sure he'll make it.

Chamakh, meanwhile, is a completely different story. Of course, I've heard all sort of rumours, none of them publishable. All I can say is I'm so disappointed that a player who started with a goal at Liverpool has been offloaded without making a significant impact at the club. He's been a huge disappointment. We can only rue what could have been. I'm a great believer in the mantra that 'good players do not become bad overnight'.

Chamakh has made me question that belief. Yet, I seem to remember him having a decent game at Reading in the Carling Cup. Maybe he just needed more opportunities.

One thing's for sure: whoever's left will have plenty of opportunities to play!

Arsenal's Higuain deal hijacked? Ryo not off to Feyenoord, yet!

Don't shoot the messenger. It hasn't happened yet. But Arsenal's protracted signing of Gonzalo Higuain could hit the buffers, in my opinion, if a certain other London club come in and offer him better terms. I don't think Spurs will do that, but Chelsea are certainly capable of it, financially, especially now that they've been outbid by PSG for Cavani. We need to get this Higuain deal done a.s.a.p., but Arsenal don't do 'asap', unless the 's' stands for 'slowly'.

Maybe we're waiting to offload Park, Campbell and Bentdner before we sign Higuain so we can save on wages. Bendtner is inching ever nearer Frankfurt, we hear. He'll probably be loaned out. Surely one of those 'six' interested clubs can put a deal together. Obviously, German clubs are keen to take our players on loan: Djourou's got a German club for next season as has Coquelin. So while Djourou's going to Hamburg for the entire season, 'Coq-au-vin' will be out in Freiburg.

Mannone was quick to get a club, wasn't he? I wish him the best of luck at Sunderland. Not sure they'll do well under di Canio, but I think our ex-keeper will do his bit (if given the chance) to help them stay up. Surely, his exit means Cesar's arrival. It's been much heralded, but the trumpeters are sick of tooting the same tune! Bring Cesar in, Arsenal! Stop faffing around!

Another player we've been linked with and lost, it seems is Tin Jedvaj. With a name like that, he's got to be good...for a laugh. Let's hope Spurs are not getting the last laugh, if they sign him for £6.5m, as has been reported. They've already signed Paulinho, who had a decent Confederations Cup tournament, so might be a good acquisition.

One player who wasn't a good acquisition was Park Ju Young. It looks like Celta Vigo won't be having our former number 9 back, which isn't surprising given he went AWOL at the end of last season. He won't be doing that for 4 weeks, as he's doing some obligatory military service. If only the South Korean Army would pick up the bill for his wages, we'd be in an even better financial position to sign someone.

But no. I have more exits to report . . .

Ryo Miyaichi. Don't worry, folks! I don't believe he's leaving. Not yet, anyway. Wenger's been waxing lyrical about Ryo's attitude pre-season. If he impresses in Japan, I reckon we'll keep him. If he doesn't, that's when I'll take the Feyenoord link seriously. Of course, they want him back, especially as they have a sudden wideman shortage: Boertius has a serious knee injury and Sekou Cisse could be leaving. Nevertheless, Ryo's not their first-choice replacement for the pair. The Dutch side want Liverpool's Oussama Assaidi. The problem is the Reds won't loan Assaidi out, they'd rather do a permanent deal.




And that's where we come in! Well, only if Ryo is up for grabs on loan and right now he's not! He's even been pictured on the official Arsenal.com website with Fabianski. So unless we're flogging the pair, two-for-one, it's as Hall & Oates would sing: 'Say No Go'.

Meanwhile, that very player, Sonogo has a number 22 shirt to go with his ready-made song. His arrival could mean curtains for Joel Campbell, though. The Costa Rican striker is unlikely to rejoin Real Betis, apparently, so the media are linking him with Crystal Palace and West Ham. The question is how will our London rivals get Campbell a work permit if we couldn't manage it? I'll leave the media to ponder that, as clearly they haven't thought it through.

Talking of shirts, Diaby takes the number 24. Finally, a sensible number. Let's hope he plays more sensibly, and manages to string a few decent games together for a change now.

Despite my lack of faith in him, Diaby's staying at Arsenal, of course unlike Emmanuel Frimpong,who could be on his way to Fulham. Then there's Gervinho off to Marseilles and Chamakh to Levante.

And Wenger to PSG. Next year. I don't believe it, personally, but Le10Sport are reporting it, so it must be 'vrai'!

Arsenal's Cazorla 'work' & Lloris 'wind-up' + ESPN's Kos criticism

This time my Dragon software converted "Hello again Gooners" to "Hello again during this", so if you see more typos you will know why!

When it comes to the name Santi Cazorla, I'm guilty of making a lot of mistakes myself! Arsene Wenger himself claimed he didn't know who Santi is, when asked by a member of the media in the UK. However, when asked a similar question by the Asian media he replied that although a deal was "not close" he was "working on it", allegedly. I'm never been one to doubt the existence of Santi, although I don't necessarily expect him to drop down Arsenal's chimney immediately.

This could end up being another transfer saga, but I think we will see movement on the Santi front by the end of the month. By then we will know if he is going to come to Arsenal or whether or not he will stay at Malaga. The Spanish club needs the money as their debts could result in relegation if not addressed on or before 31 July 2012. I cannot imagine Sheik Al Thani wasting his €150 million investment by allowing that to happen. That's why the Guardian are claiming it's a done deal, and the Sun says the deal will be complete before the weekend, while the Daily Mail has proclaimed: "Santi is coming to town".

Let's hope those media sources are correct as €20 million sounds cheap at the price for such a talented Spain international winger, especially as a buyout clause written into his contract is more than double the amount. His versatility and experience will be welcome at Arsenal and that kind of signing may convince Robin van Persie to stay at the Emirates Stadium. According to Sky Sports, Arsene Wenger has "re-irritated" his desire to keep the striker at Arsenal. An interesting slip of the tongue!

Meanwhile, Arsenal have been accused of a "disingenuous bid" for Hugo Lloris. All sorts of skulduggery may have gone on, according to Spurs, who are apparently accusing us of offering £16 million for the Lyon keeper. Of course, former Arsenal utility player Remi Garde is now Lyon boss and therefore has been implicated in this "scandal". Spurs are genuinely chasing the France international goalkeeper, where is our interest is just to inflate the price. Or so the story goes. We expect developments on this story on Saturday, as Lyon's chairman Jean Michel Aulas has claimed the decision about the player's future will be made by then. Lloris didn't exactly cover himself in glory during Euro 2012, so perhaps Arsenal should give him a wide berth.

Another player we won't be signing is Loic Remy of Marseille. The 25-year-old France international looks to be heading to Newcastle United £15 million. The Magpies should get half that amount for the sale of Demba Ba to Rubin Kazan.

A lot less money than that has been received by Arsenal for the sale of Pedro Botelho to Atletico Paranaense. The Brazilian left back was loaned out to all and sundry in Spain for five years, but has now returned year to his home country without making an impact for Arsenal. Let's hope a better fate awaits Joel Campbell.

Another player who could be on the way out, perhaps, is Emmanuel Frimpong. The popular Arsenal midfielder is in trouble again, due to something he wrote on his Twitter account. I don't disagree with most Arsenal fans who love the fact that Frimpong wears his heart on his sleeve, but he will have to be careful in future on social networking sites. I only hope he's learnt his lesson now.

Apart from Lauren Koscielny signing a new long-term deal, the other good news concerns our friendly performance against a Malaysia XI. Two goals in the final few minutes turned defeat to victory and the youngsters who performed should be very pleased with themselves. Thomas Eisfeld got the equaliser, which was good going considering the brevity of his cameo appearance. Chuks Aneke grabbed a deflected winner and it was "high-fives" all around, apart from in the case of Marouane Chamakh - who was largely disappointing, despite going close to scoring twice.

Abou Diaby played in fits and starts, yet the commentary team on ESPN were full of praise for the France international midfielder. Back in the studio, ESPN's Steve Nicol more or less said the whole Arsenal team were suspect, apart from Mikel Arteta. I wonder if Nicol has met Arteta, as both spent a lot of time in Liverpool, Nicol playing for the red side without Spanish maestro on the blue side.

Anyway, Nicol's praise of Arteta was far from shocking. However, I took issue with his criticism of Thomas Vermaelen and Lauren Koscielny, especially as the commentary team had revealed that this pair had made more last-ditch tackles than any other defenders in the Premier League. Those statistics speak for themselves and not in a negative way either.

To keep things on a positive note, I should mention the possibility of Thierry Henry returning to Arsenal as a coach. I suggest we get him to coach our strikers. He might even be able to get Chamakh scoring goals again!

That's all for now, up the Gooners!

Three leaving Arsenal - no tears shed

As well as Arshavin and Coquelin, three other Gunners could be heading for the exit in January, we're told. Less tears will be shed for these three.

Sebastien Squillaci is for sale, priced at £2m apparently. But who will pay that?

Marounane Chamakh could finally get his move to Sunderland, we hear. Any fee will be a profit, but I'd expect us to hold out for enough to buy a replacement for him.

Meanwhile, Manuel Almunia could be off for just £300k. West Ham, where he's been on loan, sound like the most likely suitors.

I won't be unhappy to see any of them leave. They're just not good enough for Arsenal sadly.

If van Persie leaves Arsenal, will it be worse than Cesc going?

Robin van Persie's not being used properly at Arsenal, according to Dennis Bergkamp. As a former wearer of the number 10 shirt, he should know. Perhaps Bergkamp could be a future manager of Arsenal. Comments like this won't endear him to Arsene Wenger, so we won't be seeing Dennis the Menace Manager for a while then!

Dennis has a point. Van Persie's not an out and out striker. Like his shirt number suggests, he more suited to playing as a deep-lying striker. The question is who should lead the line? Marouane Chamakh is the only contender that comes to mind, if a prerequisite is aerial power.

As Stewart Robson says in 'Talking Tactics' on Arsenal Player, Chamakh is showing glimpses of his old form at the start of last season. However, in my opinion, Chamakh's not exactly on fire right now. He's just playing better than he did in pre-season and during the second half of last season. So don't expect Wenger to drop van Persie deeper, especially at a time when we're desperate for goals. Van Persie is a proven goalscorer, so naturally we're going to rely on him to get us out of the brown stuff. Even if it means not utilising him in his best position.

Meanwhile, there's a rumour circulating that van Persie is selling his house in London. Perhaps that could mean a move away from Arsenal, or it could be just coincidence, or it's possibly only muck-raking on the part of the media.

Whatever happens regarding van Persie, I'm not that bothered. Yes, he's been a very good player for Arsenal over the years. Well, he's been very good when he's been fit, anyway. His injury record still concerns me, so if we do sell him for decent money perhaps we can find a more-than-adequate replacement.

When you think of the talented players we've lost over the years, what difference will one departure more make? In my book, Cesc Fabregas was always going to be the toughest recent Arsenal talisman to replace. Even Samir Nasri (dare I say it) was always going to a tough act to follow. In the past, we've lost the likes of Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira and it felt like the end of the world.

We have to accept that with the business model at work at the club, there will be a turnover of star players. We buy low and sell high. Potential stars come in and proven stars go out. The only problem is can we still bring in adequate replacements for outgoing stars?

Well, it's unfair to judge the attributes of the recent signings as, for reasons that are beyond me, we bought five of them at the last minute on transfer deadline day. So the good news is we haven't seen the best of them yet.

The bad news is we're unlikely to ever see the very best of players who have been around a while like Andrey Arshavin, Theo Walcott and van Persie, while are consistently played out of position by the boss.

Before AKBs decide they want to lynch me, I just want to say I'm not yet in favour of getting rid of Wenger. I just want him to reconsider his position and take notice of former players like Bergkamp. Of course, he can't listen to everyone, but Bergkamp clearly knows van Persie inside out.

However, even if Wenger thinks Bergkamp is right, he can't really strengthen the team by dropping van Persie deep and playing Chamakh ahead of him. Wenger's now paying the price for his parsimonious approach to squad rebuilding. It's resulted in a lack of personnel options. An inflexible approach to spending money has led to inflexible team selections.

Come January, Wenger really needs to address the problems at Arsenal. Finally. Otherwise it could be his final season at Arsenal.