Archive for July 28th, 2011

It’s a Mata of whether Cesc stays or goes

111 comments July 28th, 2011

After the reports in the Spanish press yesterday, the English media have inevitably picked up on the stories about Valencia’s attacking midfielder, Juan Mata.  The Mirror even claim that Mata’s representatives flew in to London to discuss the move yesterday.  I suspect there’s a bit of guess-work involved: The Mirror seem to be constantly reporting that people are “flying in” from Barcelona or Valencia without any actual evidence.  Nevertheless, it seems that there is some truth in reports of our interest.

It’s easy to see why.  The 23-year old Mata has been described as a “superstar in waiting”, and is clearly a very talented player available at an unusually reasonable price.  But above and beyond all that, he would be a signing of sufficient calibre to pacify the fans after the departure of an even bigger star.

I can’t foresee a scenario in which Arsenal line up with Mata, Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas next season.  My excitement about potentially signing the Spaniard is tempered by the knowledge that it’s most likely to be as a replacement for his compatriot and our captain.

Last week any Arsenal commentator worth his salt was saying that this was the week in which the Cesc Fabregas situation had to be sorted.  Well, here we are, rapidly approaching the end of said week, and both Arsenal and Barcelona have been eerily quiet about the whole thing.  The player probably feels increasingly awkward about the current state of play – training apart from his team-mates, he’s in a no-man’s land until the situation is resolved.  Whilst he won’t play at this weekend’s Emirates Cup, he will for the first time be asked to be present and part of our preparations.  It’s a situation he would have rather avoided.

Unfortunately, however, he’s dependent on movement from Barcelona, who are acting remarkably sluggishly over the whole thing.  Perhaps it’s because they have young Thiago Alcantara as an alternative option.  The Spanish U-21 International wore the Barca number 4 shirt earmarked for Fabregas last night, and demonstrated his talent with a couple of great goals.

Arsenal were reported to have given Barca a notional deadline of the end of July to sign Fabregas.  I sincerely doubt we’re in a position to do that – they have us over a barrel somewhat, due to the player’s desire to leave – but that date is now just four days away.  We’re approaching crunch time.  Perhaps our interest in Mata is the surest sign yet that this saga is approaching its conclusion.

In other transfer news, from behind the paywall The Times report we’re set to increase our bid for Phil Jagielka to £13m.

That sort of bid would begin to approach a more realistic valuation, and one at which Everton might feel under pressure to cash in.

Just a couple of days until the Emirates Cup, and then just a couple of weeks until the season begins. So many balls up in the air, and as fans we can do nothing but wait for them to fall.


Search Gunnerblog

Get your Gunnerblog t-shirts now!

get regular updates from GS with twitter

Top Gunn

Cesc Fabregas
The man in form.

    Retro Arsenal T-Shirts from
RetroFootballTShirts.co.uk - Bringing Back The Good Old Days!:
www.retrofootballtshirts.co.uk: Click Here!

Latest Posts

Sponsored Links

Calendar

July 2011
M T W T F S S
« Jun   Aug »
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Posts by Month


Most Recent Posts

Posts by Category

Syndication

Powered By

eXTReMe Tracker