Gunnerblog

Nuri Sah-Out as Arsenal travel to Stoke

61 comments August 25th, 2012

In discussing Alex Song’s move to Barcelona earlier this week, I was guilty of talking about the imminent arrival of Nuri Sahin as his replacement as if it were a done deal.  In my defence, I wasn’t the only one.  Almost every major media outlet had him ‘on the verge’ of joining Arsenal, with some newspapers even reporting that a medical had been undertaken.

Now, as you’re probably all well aware, the deal is dead – or, as Arsene quipped at yesterday’s press conference, “not alive”.  The answer as to why became clear a little later in the presser.  When asked by a journo why it is Arsenal fail to push certain deals over the line, the manager responded that “99% of the time it is because we don’t want it”.  He cited that all too often the “financial conditions” of the deal do not match the club’s expectations, and so we walk away.  It seems that this is exactly what happened here.

Real Madrid knew of Arsenal’s public and pressing need for a central midfielder.  They also knew of rival interest from Liverpool and Spurs for Sahin.  To the outside eye it looks as if they were probably asking  for too much money on three counts: for the loan fee, for the percentage of Sahin’s wages we would pay, and crucially for the option to make the deal permanent.  We’ve buckled.  Liverpool, the club who paid £35m for Andy Carroll and £20m for Stewart Downing, seem happy to oblige.  Good luck to them.

So now Arsenal have just over a week to find an alternative.  To be honest, we’re still pretty well-stocked for central midfielders, although I do worry about the absence of a physical presence in the Song mould.  Arsene is talking about the possibility of adding players in “one or two” positions – I’d imagine those to be defensive midfield, and possibly right-back.  However, as he’s shown with Sahin, if the deal isn’t right he’s happy to go in to the season with the squad he has.  It is a very different situation to last August’s trolley-dash.

There are still many who could leave: Squillaci, Arshavin, Bendtner and Park are all still on the books.  The revolving door at Colney could soon be whirring in to a frenzy.

Before all that, however, there’s a very important game at Stoke to contend with.  Laurent Koscielny is still out, but with the giant Per Mertesacker available that’s not the blow it might otherwise be.  Per’s height will be important in surviving another aerial onslaught.  The back four will probably be unchanged from last weekend’s draw with Sunderland, whilst I won’t be alone in hoping that Wojciech Szczesny comes through a fitness test and prevents Lukas Fabianski from returning to the scene of several heinous crimes.

In midfield I expect Arteta and Diaby to continue in the deeper roles.  Arsene may look to bulk up the midfield a little, shifting Cazorla in to a wide role and bringing in someone like Ramsey or Coquelin.  Upfront I expect Lukas Podolski to start, although Olivier Giroud’s physical presence might give Arsene some food for thought.  Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is also back in the squad and pressing for inclusion, but I expect him to start on the bench.

It’s always a tough fixture, but a victory would provide a real lift.  After another topsy-turvy week in the transfer market, we could all do with something to celebrate on the field.

We only had one Song

766 comments August 20th, 2012

Alex’s Song is Sung.  The Cameroon international midfielder has worn the Arsenal jersey for the final time.  At the end of an extraordinary journey, the player once so dreadful he was booed off by his own fans will join arguably the greatest club side in the game’s history: FC Barcelona.

On the face of it, it’s a strange transfer for both clubs and the player.  Song is not a typical Barca player, so why have they bought him?  He is a vital part of Arsenal’s system, so why have we sold him?  And why has the player left a guaranteed first-team spot for a place on the Barca bench?

I suppose we could deal with those questions one at a time.  Barca want Song because he is atypical, not in spite of the fact.  Having lost Seydou Keita in the summer, they want a player with similar physical presence.  His versatility also appeals: last night they lined up with Javier Mascherano in defence; Song has both the defensive attributes and the ball skills to play as an adventurous centre-half when required.

The question of why Arsenal have chosen to sell Song is far harder to answer.  For several years now, he’s been a vital cog in our system.  After the loss of Mathieu Flamini, he stepped up to become an integral part of the midfield.  His improvement has been dramatic – and boy did it have to be.  When he first stepped in to the side as an awkward, shuffling 17-year old, he looked to lack even the most basic technique.  However, a loan spell at Charlton and the odd Carling Cup run-out dramatically improved him, and he evolved in to a competent and occasionally creative midfielder.  Last season his progress saw him frequently playing in a more advanced position, providing assist after assist for Robin van Persie.  Song is arguably Arsene’s greatest developmental success, so why sell him now?  As far as I can see, there are three main reasons: economics, tactics, and attitude.

Economics: £15m for a player who cost just a couple of million from Bastia is very good business.  Song’s agent was demanding exorbitant wages, and perhaps Arsene felt that salary budget could be better invested elsewhere.

Tactics: As the manager has been so keen to point out this week, Arsenal have an abundance of central midfielders.  If Abou Diaby stays fit and Jack Wilshere’s comeback remains vaguely on schedule, we can add them to a list that also includes Mikel Arteta, Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla, Tomas Rosicky, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Emmanuel Frimpong, and Francis Coquelin.  Over the past two seasons Arsene has shifted the formation slightly to go with two deeper-lying midfielders behind one more advanced creative player.  With the news that he’s set to replace Song with the significantly less physical Nuri Sahin, it’s clear he now feels he can afford to go without a physical, ‘destroyer’ type, opting instead for a more mobile, possession-led midfield trio.

Attitude: Arsene has admitted that Song made it plain he was keen to go.  If rumours are to be believed, his attitude on the Asia tour was poor, and the manager was left in little doubt about the player’s desire to move on.  It’s worth noting that after the departure of Robin van Persie, Song was the final remaining client of one Darren Dein.  Perhaps the club wanted to take this opportunity to wipe the slate clean and rid the club of any disruptive influences in one fell swoop.

As for Song himself, he’s not a guy who lacks confidence or self belief: if he’s joining Barca, it’s because he believes he can play an important role in one of the sport’s greatest teams.  Good luck to him – he’ll have to step it up another notch or three all over again.

So thats the whys and wherefores taken care off.  Now on to the thornier issue of whether or not it’s a good thing for the club.  From an economic perspective, it certainly is.  From an attitude perspective, it probably is.  But I do worry about it from a tactical point of view.  Just a few weeks ago many fans were clamouring for Arsene to bring in Yann M’vila as potential support and competition for Song.  Now we’re likely to enter the season with neither.

I believe it may have been me who originally said: “Song is not a defensive midfielder – he’s just our most defensive midfielder”.  A neat quip, but now our most defensive midfielders are either relatively untested prospects like Coquelin and Frimpong, or guys like Arteta, Diaby, and Wilshere – midfielders who aren’t very defensive at all.  Arteta is our most disciplined midfielder, but he lacks Song’s considerable physical clout.

It may not be a problem.  Arsene is doubtless inspired by the way the Spanish midgets hypnotized the competition during the European Championships.  A midfield containing the likes of Arteta, Wilshere, Sahin and Cazorla could prove impossible to dispossess.  But I can’t help worrying about the fact that one of the weediest midfields in the Premier League just got a whole lot weedier.

Song’s departure also puts a slightly different spin on our summer.  A few weeks ago we had brought in Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla, and still had Van Persie.  Now we’ve lost the Dutchman and, to most people’s surprise, Song.  Earlier in the summer, that trio of signings looked like a considered statement of intent: we were finally loosening the purse strings to improve the squad.  By selling Song and Van Persie, we’ve actually covered those costs entirely.  Once again, Arsenal head towards the end of the summer in profit.  It’s almost as if we planned it like this.

We only had one Song.  And I can’t help but feel a little alarmed that Arsene doesn’t look in much of a rush to replace him.

Cazorla makes more sense than Sahin

755 comments August 1st, 2012

Hello folks.  Apologies for radio silence.  Serves me right for trying to use a radio to write a blog.

In the time since we last spoke, Arsenal rounded off the Asia tour with a 2-0 defeat to Manchester City, and a 2-2 draw with Kitchee SC.  The latter through the Kitchee sink at us, and exposed almost as many defensive frailties as our Premier League rivals.  There’s much work to do, and it’s worrying that only one official pre-season fixture remains in which to tighten up at the back and introduce the new strike pair of Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud.

There were, however, some positives on the tour.  We’re used to the defensive problems, but there were some less familiar sights, such as Gervinho being efficient and productive, and Abou Diaby not limping.  Now we return to London and the hard work continues – away from the pitch, too.

In recent days we’ve been heavily linked with two Spain-based midfielders: Malaga’s Santi Cazorla, and Real Madrid’s Nuri Sahin.  It’s well known that Arsene is a huge admirer of both players: he attempted to sign Cazorla from Villarreal last summer, and six or so years ago named Sahin as the world’s best teenage talent.

The need for Cazorla is clear.  Despite selling both Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri last summer, Arsene’s didn’t buy a direct replacement in the form of an attacking midfielder, choosing instead to rely on Aaron Ramsey and Tomas Rosicky across the course of the season, with mixed results.  Cazorla would fill that gap and add an extra dimension to the side – and, at a reported £16m, be an absolute bargain.

At first glance, the signing of Sahin would be a little odd.  He plays a deeper role than Cazorla, without being a destroyer.  It’s an area in which Arsenal are seemingly well-stocked.  If there is anything in this story – that of Arsenal pursuing a left-footed, box-to-box creative midfield player, then one has to wonder just how worried Arsene Wenger is about the amount of playing time he’ll get out of Jack Wilshere this season.

If a deal for Sahin was imminent, I doubt the player would have flown to America with the rest of the Real Madrid squad.  There seems to be a significantly bigger fire at the heart of all this Cazorla smoke, and Malaga’s financial troubles could hold the key to us nicking their prize asset on the cheap.  I had a brief chat with a journalist from Malaga Hoy last night, and he told me that people around the club accept that the player has decided his future is with Arsenal; it’s now just down to the two clubs to reach an agreement.  Whether or not that’s possible will depend on how desperate Malaga are to bail themselves out – I can’t see Arsenal bidding much more than the current £16m on the table.

Arsene has already confirmed that messrs Park, Bendtner and Squillaci will soon be on their way, and there are a couple more who could face the chop.  And that’s without mentioning the precarious contract situations of Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott, and even Alex Song.  It’s going to be a busy few weeks…