Belated Thursday round-up
42 comments August 18th, 2011
It is, by the standards of the last two weeks, a relatively quiet day at Arsenal. For now. Samir Nasri’s £20m+ move to Manchester City hangs damoclean above us, waiting to drop. Yesterday sources close to the deal confirmed he’s set to earn £200k p/week, as well as a £5m (net) signing on fee. Economically, we simply can’t compete.
Still, a reported fee of £23m is absurdly high for a player who could leave for free in 12 months time, and will swell our transfer kitty even more. The budget is staggering about now, swollen and fat. For everybody’s good, it needs to vomit new signings all over the table.
Confirmation of the three game bans for Gervinho and Song means the squad is stretched to breaking point. Both Carl Jenkinson and Emmanuel Frimpong are in line go start against Liverpool. They’re both promising players, but surely Arsene never envisaged calling upon them from kickoff in such a high profile fixture.
Another youngster who may find himself on the pitch ahead of schedule is Ryo Miyaichi, whose paperwork should be completed in time for him to be on the bench. It has also been announced that Ryo will wear his first name on the back of his shirt for the coming season. There’s a lot of excitement within the club about the fleet-footed Japanese winger – in the official programme, Thomas Vermaelen named him as one of the most exciting young talents he’s ever encountered. However, it’s important to temper any anticipation with the reality that a year ago he was playing school football.
Erm. That’s about it. There’s a big rumour floating around that we’ve lost yet another player, with reports linking Armand Traore with a loan move to QPR. I can tell you that at the moment those reports are premature: Traore is still waiting to find out if he’s needed at Arsenal.
Like so much, it depends on signings.
