We haven’t really had any news yet
Add comment June 5th, 2009
Nothing we’ve heard on the transfer front this Summer can really qualify as news, principally because it has all arrived enshrouded with the distinct aroma of falsehood. Still, that hasn’t stopped the flies of the press buzzing around it like the proverbial harvesters of excretal waste, publishing stories with less credibility than this current incarnation of the Labour Government (The HIGNFY audition continues apace…).
The latest story (though it lacks the creativity to justify that name) suggests that we are locked in a £12m tug-of-war with Man City over Edin Dzeko, whose goals last season helped fire Wolfsburg to the top of the Bundesliga.
From the glimpses I’ve seen, Dzeko is a big, powerful player who would make a decent Premiership Number 9 – in truth, I believe he’ll end up a little further down the table. Perhaps City, Spurs, or somewhere like that.
The timing of this story is unfortunate for The Mail, as it comes just hours after Emmanuel Adebayor’s agent suggested that there was little serious interest in the striker’s services. On top of that, Nicklas Bendtner seeems to be sufficiently ammending his PR skills to start endearing him to the fans. I would be very surprised if signing a striker is remotely near the top of Arsene’s wish-list.
Cristian Zapata, Udinese’s towering defender, would make much more sense. Zapata claims Arsenal have joined a host of top European clubs in enquiring about his availability, whilst Ajax skipper Vermaelen (still yet to sign) had no comment on our reported interest when asked yesterday.
Arsenal.com have published some very interesting statistical analysis of our players during the league campaign. Arseblog has picked out some relevant bits here, so I thought I’d add these into the mix:
- Mikael Silvestre won 100% of his tackles. Across 14 games. Mental.
- Johan Djourou’s pass completion from the back is markedly better than any of his rivals
- There is no stat for “headers won”. Telling.
- Alex Song’s tackles won % and passes completed % are both higher than those of Denilson, Diaby – and even Cesc Fabregas
- Theo Walcott’s twenty-two appearances yielded just two goals and two assists
- Of our strikers, Adebayor has the highest shots on target % and the fewest minutes per goal
I think that as much as anything those figures show that football cannot be judged in terms of statistics. Interesting stuff though.
