All sorts of transfer talk
67 comments March 17th, 2007
Yesterday, 72% of you voted against keeping Julio Baptista. Well, Arsene has now had his say, and if you read between the lines it isn’t too great for the Brazilian. Firstly, he seems to be conceding his performances have not been up to scratch, and then suggesting that his future is linked with that of Jose Reyes. I’m pretty sure that’s not the way the transfer deal is structured, so I can only assume that Baptista’s only real chance of staying is in a straight swap for Reyes – Arsene will no way spend the £15m required to prize him from Madrid.
Perhaps part of Wenger’s thinking is that he knows he has Nicklas Bendtner still to come back. I haven’t been overly impressed with Bendtner this season – he seems lazy and a little slow, but sources at Birmingham have revealed that the Dane has been offered a new contract at Arsenal, so it’s clear Wenger rates him highly. Of the other loanees, he says Alex Song will come back (as expected), but that the futures of Kerrea Gilbert and Fabrice Muamba are less clear.
Finally, Arsene insisted that Gilberto would not be sold to Juventus. However, it was harldy a ringing endorsement of the Brazilian’s long-term future at the club:
“Let him go to the end of his contract and then we will see. But we might well extend because he is an important player for us.”
“Might well” extend? For me, it’s an absolute neccessity that we do.
Tomorrow we travel to Goodison Park, and the good news is that Kolo Toure and Aleksandr Hleb are back in contention. Gael Clichy and Emmanuel Eboue are still out with injuries, so it’s likely that Johan Djourou and Justin Hoyte will continue in the full-back positions. Baptista and Aliadiere will play upfront, with precautions being taken over Theo Walcott, who could make his last appearance of the season from the bench.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to the Irish amongst you.
