Transfer Talk: Why Campbell is much more likely than Zarate
Add comment January 8th, 2010
Today sees us linked with two players, both of whom we know a fair bit about.
Sol Campbell is, whatever you may think of him these days, an Arsenal legend. He was a key component in the 2002 and 2004 title-winning sides, and achieving the feat of the unbeaten season would have been unthinkable without him.
Mauro Zarate is an Argentine striker, best known to us for his game-turning cameo in the nightmarish fixture of 2008: Birmingham 2 – 2 Arsenal.
If Arsenal are to sign either of these players in January, it will undoubtedly be the former.
There is more than grain of truth in the Campbell story. Having escaped from his contract at Notts County, Campbell initially came back to train with at London Colney and maintain fitness ahead of a possible move in January. He began by training on his own, purely to keep physical levels up. However, so impressed was Arsene by his condition that he is now training regularly with the squad. If Philippe Senderos secures a move away in the transfer window, a short-term deal for Campbell is a very realistic solution. It depends, I suppose, on what other offers Sol receives in the mean-time. He may feel that he cannot afford to wait.
Zarate, however, seems entirely improbable. Whilst he has flourished at Lazio, going some way towards fulfilling the glimpses of talent he demonstrated in his time in England, I can’t imagine Arsene paying the proposed €40m for anyone – let alone him. What’s more, Zarate is a number 10: a creative talent who performs best in tandem with another forward. He is not the man we require to lead our line. We’d be better off with that two metre-long Ivorian lad.
Team news for Everton is that there isn’t really any. Tomas Rosicky has been declared fit, but then he was declared fit for West Ham and that didn’t seem to make much difference. Hopefully we’ll get a more detailed picture this afternoon.
Till tomorrow.
