There's really not a lot of news about today. I expect the travelling party for Austria to be revealed later today, with 6 of those at the World Cup joining up from now on - as confirmed by Arsene Wenger on Saturday. There will be no Fabregas or RVP until at least the Emirates Cup.
One or two of yesterdays papers had us linked once more with Phil Jagielka of Everton. Apparently Arsenal were unsuccessful with a bid of £14m. I liked Jagielka before his bad injury last year, but I'm not sure he has really recovered form since he came back. I'm even less sure that he is worth £14m. You can imagine my surprise, therefore, when today's press "reveals" Arsenal are willing to pay £18m to secure his signing. £18m? Good God. We obviously need more centre-backs, but £18m on Phil Jagielka? You must be joking, surely? Quite apart from the idea that Arsenal would spend so much on a centre-back with one international cap, he is not really the kind of centre-half we need, in my opinion. Arsenal require a big, hard, knock-em-over, type of centre-back. Vermaelen is a footballing defender who, by Christmas last year, had been taught not to attack the ball anymore it seemed - note his more limited impact in the New Year. Jagielka is of similar ilk and, given his (true) height and build, Koscielny appears much the same. Johan Djourou is no Steve Bould either. It is no coincidence that Sol Campbell stood out so much last season when he came back.
It appears that Werder Bremen are willing to let Mesut Ozil leave this season in order to get a transfer fee for him. Get in there Arsene, and get in there fast. I'd rather have Ozil than Joe Cole anyway. If we were to get Ozil, then Spurs are welcome to Cole. Having said that, I'd still settle for signing Cole and getting rid of Rosicky and/or Vela.
In the absence of anything else worthy of comment, I'm going to finish there and go and enjoy the glorious weather in the south-east today. Having holidayed in last weeks west-country rain
it will be a nice change to see some sunshine.
More tomorrow, with a first Austrian update hopefully.
The rumour at the training camp in Austria is that Per Mertesacker will be joining Arsenal in the next week. I'll post my opinion tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThe players arrived in Austria around an hour ago.