Zenit St Petersburg have told Sky Sports News that talks are taking place between the two clubs over the transfer of playmaker Andrei Arshavin.
The Russian Press (via Arsenal Analysis) are reporting that Arsenal have opened the bidding at £12m, with Zenit holding out for £20m. I’m sure Arsene wouldn’t authorise a fee quite that high, but if a middle ground could be reached in the region of £15m then a deal will surely be done - it’s simply a case of showing Zenit the money.
Zenit are reportedly confident of agreeing a deal within the next couple of weeks. A key factor in any transfer could be the player’s own desire to move - he has more than once declared his intention to leave the club in this window, inciting the fury of some of his countrymen.
“What I want, if we do add somebody, is really special class. If the right player comes in, even if he is not available for the Champions’ League, the class is more important.”
“Somebody”. “The right player”. Not some people, not the right players. Just before the turn of the year, he said:
“The transfer window opens (on Thursday) and, although we are not close to signing anyone at the moment, if we do buy I think what we need is maybe someone with a bit of experience … Cesc is a long way from playing again, so are Tomas Rosicky and Theo Walcott, and these are three creative players that we count on at the start of the season. So what we might need is someone who can create a little spark.”
Again, the manager is talking in the singular. Elsewhere, although typically I can’t find the exact quote right now, he suggested a creative player was the priority and that another midfielder might follow “eventually”. “Eventually” doesn’t really suggest “in this window”.
That, to me, suggests that we’ll be lucky if we get the tackling midfielder or towering centre-back we asked for at Christmas. It looks, instead, that we may well get an attacking midfield player, in the mould of Andrei Arshavin or, if we don’t have the funds, Alessandro Rosina:
Since that short film was made, Rosina has fallen out of favour, and could now be available on loan.
My opinion (and it truly is nothing more substantiated than that) is that there is a genuine interest in Arshavin. The Russian is keen to play for the club, and would certainly add to our options in creative roles. Arsene’s remark about being Champions League cup-tied is just the latest in a string of comments which have done little to quash the speculation that the Zenit playmaker could soon be joining.
I suspect, however, that we would be unwilling to pay anything more than around £12m for a player who is already 27 and would command reasonably high wages. If a deal can’t be agreed, a loan option like Rosina seems entirely sensible.
Is it, however, ‘entirely sensible’ for Arsene to be plotting a transfer strategy which leaves us without reinforcements in the areas of the pitch where the long-term need is the greatest - central midfield and defence?
Well, that depends on your perspective. In the short-term, yes, it’s lunacy. We are very weak in those areas and with injuries piling up all the time we have become increasingly reliant on youngsters like Johan Djourou, Aaron Ramsey, and Denilson.
But if I’m right, and Arsene is thinking along the lines of bringing in just one creative player, he obviously sees it differently. I can only think that he accepts that we will not win either of the major competitions this season, and wants to use it to give the younger players the experience they need to be major players next season. I’m thinking of Djourou and Denilson in particular. The squad will then be readdressed and majorly overhauled in the Summer - which, let’s face it, is a far more appropriate time to do such a thing.
A strategy like that would be a massive gamble - the principle gamble being that we’d be able to make fourth place with such a weak squad.
This is all guesswork on my part, so don’t take it too much to heart. It is, I suppose, my “prediction” for this window. It’s not what I want to happen: I want a defensive midfielder AND a creative one, dammit. And if anything, it is the former that I consider the priority.
The fact remains that what Arsene says to the press simply cannot be trusted, and any transfer strategy would change dramatically if anyone were to leave - just as his plans must surely have been affected by Cesc’s injury. If we can predict anything about Arsene with any certainty, it’s that he’ll surprise us.
Wait and see. As Man City inject money into the market this week, business could start to pick up.
Arsenal 3 - 1 Plymouth (Van Persie 47, 84, Gray 49 (og) Duguid 52) Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here
A fairly routine win over Plymouth, and it’s a trickier looking tie away to last year’s finalists Cardiff in the next round. I have to say, it was a rare delight to see an Arsenal side who were comfortably better than their opponents. We used to see that on a regular basis in the league, but sadly those days are gone.
It was also pleasing to see us taking the competition seriously, with only Manuel Almunia and Emmanuel Adebayor rested. The FA Cup probably represents our best chance of a trophy this season, and I am eager to see us play at the new Wembley. Credit also to the Plymouth fans, who were plentiful and vociferous.
There is a fairly comprehensive write-up of the game on the official site - I made several mental notes during the game, which I’ll do my best to regurgitate below:
I’ve seen that Aaron Ramsey has come in for a lot of praise this morning. For me, there are evident upsides and downsides to his game, all of which could be said to arise from his admiration of Steven Gerrard. The Welshman has alluded to basing his game on the (disgraced) Liverpool captain, and there are undoubted positives to that: Ramsey is willing to drive at defences and take shots on from range - something we often lack in the centre of the park. However, Ramsey also shares Gerrard’s tendency to try the heroic lunging tackle when tracking the man might be more beneficial; to shoot when a team-mate is better placed; to play the ‘Hollywood’ pass when a man is free square. I am reminded of an incident in the first half when a corner was cleared away to Ramsey on the halfway line. Under pressure from two men, the only sensible option was to pass back to Fabianski, but instead he tried to beat his man and lost the ball. Of course, time is on Ramsey’s side, and many of these errors can be put down to inexperience. His potential remains enormous.
If, in three years time, Ramsey is anything like as mature as Samir Nasri, then we will be extremely fortunate. This guy is 21: the same age as Amaury Bischoff, and a full year older than Abou Diaby, and yet he is an automatic selection and one of the more mature players in the side. His stocky frame and running style remind me of Carlos Tevez, and when he shifted into the ‘Number 10′ role behind Robin van Persie for the last half-hour of yesterday’s game he caused havoc every time he got the ball. Nasri is proof positive that when Arsene buys, he still has an eye for a player.
I mentioned Abou Diaby. This boy is a conundrum. I can see the obvious potential the Frenchman possesses, but to my mind he lacks one of the most essential attributes for any player claiming to be a central midfielder: accurate passing. The impression one gets with Diaby is that as a child his size and skill enabled him to dribble round entire teams and walk the ball into the net, meaning he simply never developed the ability to pick out a man. Credit to him: yesterday was obviously an audition for the defensive midfield role, and he showed more positional discipline than usual. However, on several occasions he carelessly gave the ball away, and there was even one incident where a pass aimed at Sagna went straight into touch - even Diaby held his hands to his face and gasped at its awfulness. I don’t know what will become of this player, but if central midfield is his destined position, then it’s vital this element of his game improves.
Johan Djourou started alongside William Gallas, and put in another assured display. However, I refuse to believe are problems at centre-half are in any way solved. First of all, both of his potential partners, William Gallas and Kolo Toure, seem to be on their way out of the club. Secondly, I think we all agree that what we need is a defender who is aerially agressive and dominant. Djourou is 6′4″, and yet doesn’t get sent forward for corners. Does he sound like that player? I’m not convinced: the Swiss is more a Ferdinand than a Vidic.
Kieran Gibbs replaced the injured Mikael Silvestre, and immediately showed that he deserved to start. Sometimes Silvestre’s experience can be an asset, but I’m not sure that this was one of those occasions, and Gibbs gave an exuberant display of which he can be very proud. A loan move to a Premier League club is the next step for this lad.
Lukasz Fabianski was at fault for the goal, and generally terrifies me. I’m sure those who champion him mistakenly identify his erratic charging out of goal as ‘commanding his area’ or some other nonsensical phrase. I am much, much happier when Almunia is between the sticks.
Anyway, just some things that struck me.
You may have noticed I’ve been unusually quiet on the transfer front. All of that ends next week.
1. Find Cesc a partner. With the Spaniard out for the next four months, central midfield is a bare stage, ready to receive auditionees for the permanent position of playing alongside the skipper. Denilson has had a fair crack already, but seems to lack the defensive know-how neccessary. Hopefully this transfer window will see another pretender arrive to have a crack at replacing the much-missed Mathieu Flamini.
2. Keep Van Persie fit. So far, so good for Robin, who has played a fair few games and scored some very important goals - particularly against Chelsea and Liverpool. If he could last through the calendar year it might provide him with the platform he needs to fulfill his undoubted talent.
3. Integrate Ramsey and Wilshere. We have many talented youngsters at the club, but these two are a cut above. Now 18 and 17 respectively, one would expect them to begin to make an impact on the first-team. Whilst there is a need for older heads during our current ‘crisis’, the cream will always rise to the top, and one would expect 2009 to be a very big year for these two Young Guns.
4. Rehabilitate Eduardo. For my money, the end of 2009 is realistically when Eduardo could be said to fully rehabilitated. I doubt we’ll see him in the first-team for another month or so, and even then it’ll only be fleeting glimpses. For him to overcome the psychological barriers his injury will have caused will take time, but if he can do so then we’ll have an excellent player on our hands once more.
5. Get rid of Gallas. Yes, he’s a good player, but he’s a corrosive influence. Whether it’s now or ideally in the Summer with a suitable replacement coming in, he has to go.
5. Shore up the defence. Whether it’s a new centre-half or two, a new goalkeeper, or a different approach on the training ground, something needs to be down about our leaky defence. I would suggest that Resolutions 1 and 5 might represent the first steps down that particular path.
6. Improve the squad. We’ve been over this so many times, but like a tapeworm trapped inside Victoria Beckham, the squad is desperately thin. The transfer window is now ajar, so hopefully Arsene is working on this one as we speak.
7. Qualify for the Champions League. It’s not something we can guarantee, as we’re now reliant on Aston Villa slipping up. And yet it goes without saying that it remains absolutely vital.
8. Win the FA Cup. A little ambitious to think we can win anything at all this year, but then isn’t that the point of resolutions. This is the football equivalent of, “Go running every morning”. You know it’s unlikely to happen, but it’s a lovely thought nonetheless.
Some will be harder to keep than others, but they would all make 2009 an awful lot better than 2008.
Happy New Year to you all. 2009 is upon us and I hope it brings you everything you want. (I, for one, am sure we were promised hoverboards by now. Alas, they’re nowhere to be seen.)
1st January 2009 is actually rather significant for Arsenal, as it’s the day that Jack Wilshere turns seventeen and signs his first professional contract with Arsenal. I think in the next twelve months he’ll make a significant impact on this team - but more of that tomorrow, when I’ll be looking at our New Year’s Resolutions.
The transfer window also swung open at midnight, and will close on February 2nd at 5pm, unusually. We’re all hoping for some fresh faces, but today has brought the news that the club have rejected a transfer request from Kolo Toure. Chairman Peter Hill-Wood said:
“I know about it (the transfer request), but we are not going to accept it. We are not looking to let any of our players go and he is under contract - and we expect him to honour it.”
Although he has fallen out of form and favour this season, Kolo is one of those players I always envisaged seeing his career out with us. He has always given his all on the pitch, and seems to have a lot of affection for the club. Furthermore, he’s the last remaining relic of the Invincible side, and one of the few players who seems to have any sense of the traditions and standards of this great club. Whilst his poor form and the emergence of Johan Djourou have seen Kolo tumble down the pecking order, I firmly believe that time and an appropriate partner could rehabilitate the Ivorian.
Perhaps, however, Arsene does not agree: if you don’t want to sell a player, you don’t let the chairman talk openly about his unhappiness to the press.
Jay Simpson, Nacer Barazite, and Gavin Hoyte have all signed long-term contracts with the club. Not only that, but they’re also set to get the short-term boost of loan moves to West Brom, Derby (extension), and Watford respectively. Good luck to them all in the new year and hopefully beyond.
And so we wave goodbye to 2008. Not the best of years - it started with so much promise and ended with so much despair. Much of 2009 could be dictated within the next month. It’s an exciting time, at least.
I’m off out now. Have a good night, wherever you are.
Arsenal 1 - 0 Portsmouth (Gallas 81) Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here
Say what you will about William Gallas: he scores some very important goals. A winner against Portsmouth might not seem the most crucial of his recent efforts, but given the fragile state of our confidence and the fact we hadn’t won in four games, his header was a big moment.
The performance was, as many have been of late, poor. Robin van Persie was left on the bench, with Nicklas Bendtner starting the game alongside Emmanuel Adebayor. Kolo Toure was also left out, with Mikael Silvestre slotting in alongside William Gallas.
Early on it became apparent that our central midfield of Diaby and Denilson lacked the neccessary craft to break down a very defensive Portsmouth side. To counter that, Arsene pushed Bendtner out to the left and granted Nasri a free role behind Adebayor. Nasri was a rare positive in a stagnant performance, buzzing all over the pitch and, in the absence of Cesc, being the only genuine creative outlet.
The change in system was a response to almost falling behind when Peter Crouch nodded a header against the near post. Soon after, we ought to have taken the lead when Abou Diaby slipped in Emmanuel Adebayor. The Togolese striker skipped round David James and looked certain to score, but a combination of Sol Campbell and Sylvain Distin somehow prevented the goal.
Adebayor arguably had the best chance of the second half too, volleying into the side-netting after David James had flapped at a corner. The Portsmouth keeper had been up to his calamity capers all day, and it was no surprise when our goal was eventually the product of a set-piece.
Carlos Vela and Aaron Ramsey had injected a bit of pace into our game, and as the pressure mounted Portsmouth eventually succumbed: James was beaten to Denilson’s free kick by Gallas, and the ball bounced agonisingly into the net. After the frustrations of the last few weeks, my celebration was a moment of unadulterated joy. I wasn’t at the ground yesterday, but the passion was still there: tea was split, laptop knocked over, and my dog looked on confused by the provenance of my valedictory dance.
I could spend a long time going over the same old flaws - principally the chronic lack of depth in central midfield - but we (and, we pray, Arsene) know those already. We have stumbled through to January, and before yesterday we had won only three of our last ten games. However, a new year, new resolutions, and new players beckon. The next league game we play is at home to Bolton in almost two weeks’ time. By January 10th, we might even have a signing…
Today is the first time Tony Adams arrives at the Emirates Stadium as a manager. Sadly for Adams, it’s as manager of Portsmouth. Nevertheless, he harbours ambition to one day be sat in the home dugout:
“I’d love that job. Arsène is showing no signs of moving at the moment but it is my ambition to manage Arsenal Football Club.”
He’s a long way away from being ready to be Arsenal manager, but it’d be nice to think he might one day be able to be considered for the job. It’d be fantastic to be in a position like Manchester United, whereby we have several former players performing well as managers and staking a claim to succeed Arsene.
Adams still loves Arsenal dearly, and it’s easy to see why:
“Ken Friar still calls all the old captains every Christmas Day to wish them Happy Christmas. When Portsmouth got to the Cup final last season I had a voice message on my mobile. ‘Hello Tony, it’s Ken Friar. Just want to wish you all the best today. Go and win it, you know Arsenal boys always do’. When I got the job here, it was the same. ‘Congrats, you’ll be a huge success’. Lovely touches.”
That anecdote tells you plenty about not only the esteem in which Adams is still held, but just how classy a club this is. His take on our current predicament also makes interesting reading:
“Not really. They are in transition. They’ve got a lot of young players but not much experience. I remember when Sol and Ashley were about to go, I said to David Dein, ‘You need to hold on to these guys. Too many seem to be leaving at the same time’. I’d retired, Patrick went, Dennis left, Dicko and Bouldy went. There was a tremendous turnaround in the space of two years — usually it should take about six. There was nobody left to pass on the old standards in the way we used to and the way Manchester United have done.”
The problem with such a problem is that there is no way to fix it. Those players have gone now. You can’t buy heritage. Ask Chelsea.
Anyway, it’s Pompey today, and they’ll be without Glen Johnson - arguably their best player this season. With Sol Campbell seemingly on his last legs, their defence has looked very shakey of late, and the returning Emmanuel Adebayor will look to take advantage of that.
After three consecutive draws in the league (and no win in four games), victory is both expected and neccessary. Whatever Pompey’s defensive problems, they’re no worse than our own, and Crouch and Defoe can be a real handful. As with seemingly every game this season, it’s impossible to call.
Aston Villa 2 - 2 Arsenal (Denilson 40, Diaby 48, Barry (pen) 65, Knight 90+1) Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here
Of late, Sky ‘pundit’ Jamie Redknapp has become infamous for his misuse of the word “literally”: Wayne Rooney has been “literally” on fire; Fernando Torres has “literally” torn the defence to shreds; Spurs have “literally” come back from the dead. Like most things that come out of Redknapp’s mouth, this is pure nonsense. But I’m prepared to go out on a limb, with my own use of “literally”:
This team is literally careless. They play, seemingly, without care.
Watch our attempts to ‘defend’, and that becomes entirely evident. Yesterday we had defenders in the team who have won titles and cups at Arsenal, Manchester United, and Chelsea. And yet, watching the game, you never ever felt that we could hold on to the 2-0 lead we had somehow established. The past suggests that these players are capable enough - the problem is a footballing culture that does not value the defensive side of the game.
It’s a point that’s been made many times, but what made Arsene’s early sides so successful was the fusion of his gallic attacking flair with a pre-existing set of British defensive values. The likes of Adams, Keown, Bould, and Campbell have long since departed, and have never been replaced. Now we’re left with a team and a club where defending is not held in any great esteem. There is no pride in the art of keeping a clean sheet - at this club, defenders want to dribble their way out of trouble rather than just clearing the ball from danger. They seem more interested in scoring goals than preventing them. Hell, some of them even insist on wearing the number 10 shirt.
They have forgotten what they were brought here to do. And the manager seems incapable of reminding them.
There is an exception. Bacary Sagna is an outstanding right-back who would make any team in the world. This stunning clearance off the line, as well as the width of the woodwork, is what kept us from going in three or four goals down at half-time. But the rest of the side is littered with problems.
We are in a position now whereby after we went 2-0 up yesterday, I recieved a couple of texts from people saying, “Need one more, really”. That, frankly, is ridiculous. Arseblogger today pulled up this statistic:
“In 19 league games this season we have conceded in 14 of them, a total of 23 goals. Not good enough.”
It is shocking. Appalling. The players need someone who is passionate about defending to sort them out. To make them feel like it matters. To make someone step up and pull players into position and tell who to mark who and slap players on the back for making a good block or a good clearance. We need to create a culture whereby a towering header or a crunching tackle is rewarded as much as a fancy backheel or inch-perfect through-ball. If no-one in the coaching or playing staff seems capable of that, then those personnel need to be brought in. Now.
Both goals we conceded yesterday were tragically typical. First of all, a simple through-ball split Gallas and Toure, and the former got the wrong side of Agbonlahor, who out-muscled him. Panicking, Gallas stuck out a leg and brought the striker down for an absolute nailed-on penalty.
And then, in injury time, came the equaliser - a catalogue of errors:
When the throw-in was taken, Eboue’s back was turned, allowing Petrov to cross
Abou Diaby was literally marking no-one, just casually wandering around the centre-circle
The back four were too deep
No-one was tight to Ashley Young, who had drifted inside from Silvestre entirely untracked
Denilson seemingly didn’t notice/care that Zat Knight had gone up front, leaving Villa with three players against our two centre-backs, despite the defender being ‘literally’ yards from him
Crazy errors, in injury time of a game that only a minor miracle had seen us leading. We were thrown a lifeline by fate, but were careless and fumbled it. If it wasn’t so sad it would be funny.
I speak of a minor miracle - in fact what had put us infront was a combination of luck and brilliance. Luck in terms of Villa striking the woodwork three times and the ball breaking for Denilson to slot home, and brilliance with Sagna’s clearance, some Almunia saves, and a wonderful goal from Abou Diaby. On Diaby: is that goal celebration the first time he’s appeared to care about anything? The guy is outrageously talented, and seeing a goal like that makes his tenative performances all the more frustrating.
Then, of course, it all came tumbling down. We weren’t helped by an injury to Alex Song - the only midfielder who takes his defensive responsibilities remotely seriously. And yet, one can’t help but feel he only does so because he has no choice: he lacks the basic technique to engage in the attacking aspects.
I’ve always thought the top four’s places were assured, but without Cesc I’m no longer certain. If we are to qualify for the Champions League things need to change. A proper defensive midfielder needs to come in, who will shield and help-out the back four. Would Knight have been left alone had we been fielding either Flamini or Gilberto? The answer is simple: no.
Then the back four have to be organised. As I said earlier, if we need someone new to do that, either on or off the pitch, so be it.
Portsmouth tomorrow is an early chance to start puttting these things right.
Zenit St Petersburg have told Sky Sports News that talks are taking place between the two clubs over the transfer of playmaker Andrei Arshavin.
