Arseblog News – the Arsenal news site
Arsene Wenger has confirmed that his scouts are keeping tabs on Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha and also asserted that Theo Walcott could sign a new deal at the club before the weekend.
Zaha, who recently won his first England cap, has long been tipped for a move to the Emirates although with Manchester United (remember Chris Smalling and Phil Jones?) also sniffing around the highly-rated 20-year-old he stopped short of suggesting a deal was likely.
“We are looking at him, but at the moment we have had no bid,” Wenger told press at his pre-Chelsea press conference.
Eager to stress that competition in the market was high, he continued: “Whenever you call about any player, Man United or Milan are also interested.”
After rumours circulated yesterday that Napoli striker Edinson Cavani could be on his shopping list, Wenger seemed to find the link humorous joking that the Uruguayan would be very expensive.
“He would cost a lot of money. Our banker lives nearby he’s ready if we need him. I like him.”
For those looking for further chinks of light on the transfer front, Wenger also detailed how 90% of deals don’t happen until the final week of the window when prices drop rapidly. We’re a little suspicious of this having seen Andy Carroll and Fernando Torres move for a combined fee of £80 million not so long ago, but what do we know…
On Theo contract talks the boss for the first time since the saga began underlined that a resolution is finally on the horizon.
“My optimism is at 99 per cent,” he replied when quizzed about Walcott penning a new deal in the near future, before clarifying, ”It’s still not finalised, but I hope it will be done by this weekend.”
All in all quite positive. While Arseblog News continues to take Wenger’s words on the transfer window with a pinch of salt, it does look as though Walcott might actually be set to stay.
We’ll be the first to admit we didn’t think that likely given the way these things have panned out in the past. The ins and outs of the deal will obviously be up for debate, so too the manner in which both parties have conducted themselves, but for now let’s just wait for confirmation.
____
Thanks to @JamesOlley and @JohnCrossMirror for their respective live tweets
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Okay cool.
Could eh? Does anyone really still care.
Walcott will sign a new contract, and Wenger will smirk and say “I told you I would make s signing.” All very droll.
As for Cavani, what a load of horse shit from the manager, and quite frankly an insult to our intelligence.
Your intelligence, maybe.
i meant to give you a thumb down bunb. negative and humourless.
We’re so fickle. One week were fucked if he leaves the next we couldn’t give a fuck if he leaves. I say we because I am the same but on the whole I absolutely want him to stay. There’s a lemon behind that yellow lemon shaped rock and we deserve to squeeze it
Unless of course you were referring to the zaha thing haha
I somehow find it hard to get excited about Walcott and Zaha. Are these the players that will make us compete again?
well atleast we wont have any problem of wide players
That and we also have Andre Santos as well.
Any team with a Wilfred in it will be stronger. FACT.
Part of Ian the comedian letting him go however is him staying at Palace for the rest of the season..
I’d quite like Cavani, although he is no oil painting compared to the HFB..
I like scary players , they literary scare the sh*t of the opponents
http://cdn3.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1147959/Cavani-and-his-cheekbones.jpg
nothing has been scarier than this, surely…
http://www.virginmedia.com/images/keown-nist.jpg
The player on the rot looks terrified lol
All sounds pretty promising or does it. I dont know what to make of his comments……meh
Prices go up and down, and sometimes they go up and sometimes they go down, according to WA “The prices always go up at the start of the transfer market and go down in the last week. Sometimes as well they go up in the last week, but it depends. Most of the time they go down”. OK so are / are not making a bid!?
AW/WA. I am don’t know my ups from downs
I think i found us being linked with cavani more hilarious than wenger..
I can’t fathom at all Wenger’s intentions for this transfer window. Too wily for his own good, that one!
Wily or Willy?
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Surely prices would go up at the end of the window unless the player really wanted to leave and forced their club’s hand. Personally if the window was closing and you didn’t want to sell your player you would hold out for as much as you can in the hope to keep hold of them.
He’s optimistic about being optimistic
Some clubs need the money and try at the beginnig of the window to get as much as they can and then get desperate if no bidding war ensues, they want the cash. These selling clubs are different from us in that they want to sell. Our problem is usually that players want to leave for bigger wages; and that there is competition for our targets (then we drop out).
“The prices always go up at the start of the transfer market and go down in the last week. Sometimes as well they go up in the last week, but it depends. Most of the time they go down in the last week and you know as well that 90% of transfer activity happens in the last week, if not in the last 48 hours.”
Full quote. So it could go up or down. That covers all our bases!
“My optimism is at 99 per cent,” – how can optimism be 99%? i understand that he can feel optimistic and 99% sure that walcott will stay, but what he said is meaningsless. Maybe it’s all just a part of his “mind-fuck.the-press.on-regular-basis-stragegy”?
I think it might be something to do with English not being his native tongue.
It aint my either and haven’t he lived i london in like 16 years? Anyway i love hun for the football and the glory not the gramma.
Just release the handbrake and let the top, top, top quality superqualifragilisticexceptionalidociousness wash over you. Remember: you’re a PlayStation that footballistically thinks it has the prettiest wife at home.
best comment pize
(prize)
Isn’t optimism just a subjective view of probability?
Yeah, there’s reports around (ashburton grove) that we’ve made a club record bid for a world class player. The name is undisclosed, mainly to stop the other shit media around from b/s eg. “he’s having a medical, to be confirmed in next 48 hours. E.t.c”.
Encouraging atleast.
Zaha would be fine but given Chambo is waiting in the wings there might be the reason for Wengers dithering. I say get him regardless.
Yeah, I’ve heard rumours swirling around the Grove that we’ve made a £20 million bid for Messi. Let’s see if it gets accepted….
When he has signed can we put him back on the right and let Giroud have some games please?
i want to eat your name
You will have to wait till may when we can celebrate that the spuds once again blow their gap
To the previous point,I think while HFB is obviously a raw specimen of man,Havana does have his attributes. That screaming celebration would look immense in Van Persies horrible Dutch cunt of a face
when wenger says ‘i like him’ about a player you can almost guarantee that he won’t sign him.
When I first read it, I thought he was saying that he liked his banker.
You sir, are hilarious!
Almost as funny as the rumour linking us to Cavahahahahahahaah
Sorry I can’t do it
I understood that as well…
Somehow it would make more sense than Cavani coming to us.
He must do…. there is more money going into the bank then coming out of it..
Arsenal are bookmakers favourites to buy Edison Cavani from Napoli. His release clause is 60million! Has scored 25 goals in 23 matches this season.
I know his dishwasher and he told me he has an arsenal mug
The dishwasher said he has Piers Morgan?
“Arsenal are bookmakers favourites to buy Edison Cavani from Napoli.”
Yeah. Right. That’s only marginally more convincing than a couple of column inches in the sports pages of the Mirror saying it’s a done deal.
English is his third language. He’s still got better English than pretty much all the other prem managers, including the English ones. In fact I’d say his level of fluency is at 99%.
‘Arry.
I second that.. 100%
thats nt a very good news to me,i hate those “on his day”, football is all about consistences expect if Englishness is the decisive factor then we re getting closer to liverpool’s world,cut our loss get a proper striker,walcot is nt the statement we need
Just thought I’d let you know – there’s an ‘o’ in ‘not’.
This is all wrong! Walcott signed over a week ago, check our 100% accurate EXCLUSIVE on the issue…
Great username mate. You can take the piss everyday forever
That was made up. Come to us for more marginally more inventive Bollocks.
No no no, come to my website and i will tell you the complete truth 99%!!
*1% Disclaimer
pish posh. come to me and i’ll tell you 7 reasons why we should get Cavani. And another article on 5 reasons why we will not.
Anyone can post opinions! you get an opinion! you get an opinion! http://gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs/671944_o.gif
Anyone else feel we should have kept hold of Bartley and tried harder to shift Squid instead?
simple answer;
No one wanted to buy him and Djourou and he did not want to take a pay cut either after handsome 50K at Arsenal, true for other 10 players I listed in my comments yesterday.
So much for exceptional, world class players
Yeh, I thought Bartley would give us a little more bite and aggression and he dd well last night but you know at 21 he’s going to make a fair few mistakes and at the level we aspire to be at, I guess we couldn’t guarantee him games.
On the subject of defenders, we should never have let Djourou go out on loan, give him some games in midfield and see how it goes, when you see Diaby play it;s so obvious we need that extra physicality in midfield more often than not.
Bartley is a pretty good player but he can barely get a sniff at Swansea’s first team (he’s made three appearances all season, including the two against us and another one in the League Cup in September, according to Soccerbase), although he was injured during much of the first half of the season. Don’t think he would have quite made the grade at Arsenal, and he just wanted to play football.
I would have thought we may have put in a buy back clause. 21 is too young for a centre back to be starting regularly or even as a regular sub at the top level unless they’re truly exceptional like Paolo Maldini.
I would have liked to see Bartley succeed at Arsenal. He looks like a proper centre back if nothing else.
Can I get a hello?
The first thing Wenger should buy before we play Chelsea is a new zipper for his coat…
Nah, he is too loyal, won’t get rid of that good ole zipper!
He’ll only buy one if hecan find one of better quality…
The January zipper market is quite busy. But I think he’ll leave his business until the end of the month, and only if there is an exceptional zipper available at the right price. More than likely the current one will be repaired and presented as “Like a New Lining”
If he buys a new zipper, it might kill his old zipper.
You wait. Next season, that coat will be a top performer, it will fulfill it’s potential as the best coat in the premier league.
Then Mansour will splash £20m on it, and Le Prof will go out and buy a new coat, one freshly-made, without any arms attached. He’ll give the coat arms, teach it to keep him warm, and the whole cycle starts again.
You must consider the zipper is London made and grew up as an Arsenal fan. Whats important now is to hold it to an 8 year contract and convince the fans it will be the loyal core of Arsenal’s future winter apparel.
That zipper is is new and just needs time to adapt to the coat.
The zipper is in the red zone and may take 2 or 3 weeks to fix but then it will be LANZ
WEnger you fool bring Cavani in NOW
It’s not a great sign that he laughed when he was asked if he was thinking of buying him.
Wenger has a pair of dice which decide how he will answer a journalist. Ask him tomorrow and there’s a good chance we’ll be talking to Cavani. For Saturday there’s a one in twelve chance he’ll do the conference in a ladies voice.
I remember Wenger having a slight chuckle to himself when asked about signing Lucas podolski.
@agentitk
Hahaha I prefer to think he uses one of those magic 8 balls that that shake and it gives you answers
Will you sign players this window.
*shake
Prospect good.
If Walcott signs for anything close to £100,000 a week, it will bewilder me. I hope its on a three year contract. £75,000 a week and performance related bonuses is the best we should be offering him.
He’s a good guy, but he isn’t top level.
…surely he must be top, top, top, top, t *stabs self in eye*
Does any one else think we should sell Walcott and buy Zaha and a quality striker? Walcott is too frustrating plus he has no skills to be a winger and no strength to be a striker. He costs too much for what he gives us!
14 goals and ? assists?
Most of those goals and assists were from the wings. He should play there. It is best for him as well as Arsenal
Djourou talks of his excitement about Walcott’s imminent new contract and the prospect of new signings.
Oh wait…. *tumbleweed.
I would love to see wenger try Diaby, Arteta and Wilshere in midfield (Jackie at the tip of the attack in midfield) then play santi on the left, Poldo up top and then go out and buy a dogs bollocks right winger like Jesus Navas or maybe Mario Gotze? Then make the second signing a world class CB…. Could be devistating!
With you on that. We have real quality in midfield, and are lacking up top, so it’d be great to try Santi up there. (We all know he can do it.) I like Giroud up top, but would be really happy to see Podolski given a shot at it.
I quite like coquelin… to be fair he had a good game n has the aggression to be a good cdm… coq-arteta-wilshere is ideal for me! poldi up top would be nice but he doesn’t seem to anticipate and move too well… giroud up top is ideal.. give him a run of games. his link up/hold-up play is excellent and gives 100%.. you need that in a 1 striker system..
latest I read it was a 3.5 year deal for Theo?? so in 18 months we’ll have to sign him and pay him more, or go through this whole thing again. 4.5 years please. Then at least we can sell for the highest fee if needs be…
I thought it was a 3.5 year extension, I.E. a 4-year deal.
This means that if we sell in three or two and a half years time, he’ll be about 27 and still has the pace to get a decent price. Business.
Cavani is world class. Scores some unbelievable goals. I’m not sure Napoli will be keen to release him. Apparently that goon Mancini is interested as well.
With Dzeko, Aguero, Balotelli, Tevez, and Guidetti currently in the squad, with the possible addition of Falcao, I don’t see him going there. Also Mancini would have to be insane to get rid of either Aguero or Dzeko as starters.
I don’t understand the logic in pursuing Zaha.
To me, buying a promising young talent is a luxury. When a team is clearly struggling, surely it’s best to invest in proven talent that can add something to the team immediately…..
I agree 100%. Besides, we already have a talent on the wing in Chambo.
We need a proven winger, it’s frustrating how we don’t stretch opposition enough because of our wingers (be it Podolski or Walcott) constantly drifting inside making themselves useless. This was particularly apparent in the first half against Swansea.
I understand the frustration with the wing play, since the tactic frequently doesn’t work, but I think there’s an appropriate time and place for them to drift inside (to overload the central defenders). I think Giroud has shown that he is always looking to receive the ball with his back to goal and provide an assist for these types of runs (e.g. Podolski blast, similar Gibbs blast, yesterday’s Wilshere beauty).
Regardless of how badly your team is doing right now (i.e. the short term), promising players must always be sought after.
If you don’t at least try to ge tthe promising players in now, 3-5 years down the line, you’d still be stuck in the pattern of needing to bring in experienced players to patch the team up.
Chelsea, for example.
Also, as per the usual agreement, buying promise and buying experience are not mutually exclusive. You can do both at the same time.
Chambo will soon play through the middle.
We’re gonna sign Zaha as competition for Szczesny.
Didn’t get the memo, eh?
Bring him to the Emirates Arsene and get Arsenal gunning from all cylinders again. Cavani would be a dream come true…would Wenger go for him? We have 14 days to know if this would be a dream come true.
buy Zaha
As quoted in the Guardian
“The prices always go up at the start of the transfer market and go down in the last week. Sometimes as well they go up in the last week, but it depends. Most of the time they go down in the last week and you know as well that 90% of transfer activity happens in the last week, if not in the last 48 hours.”
Humourous* c
from all reports, we are targeting zaha & capoue for sure with the latter getting a 10 million bid. I REALLY think the cavani talk is a pipe dream but if he really wants to come & we can get him from his 50 million release clause than those three signings with the addition of keeping Theo is enough to get me off of arsense’s ass. That deal cavani just signed locks him in until 2017 @napoli so I really think it’s a long shot but I hope we get all three. capoue is like for like with fellani but cheaper to buy. zaha is raw and young but looks promising and cavani is a pure scorer that is desperately needed here.
Why does he do that? “We’ll buy”, “Nah, we won’t”, “We will!”, “We’d better wait till summer..”, “Ooooh Cavani, why not”, “On the seconds thoughts…” It’s like me granpa trying to make up his mind whether to get some paint to redecorate the old shed, the one we were to scared to go into. Not that i draw any metaphor here, but my granpa, he would eventually pass away, shed stiil looking miserable in a corner of the garden.
Why were you afraid to go into the shed, would granpa lead you in there werther’s originals and try to give you his butter candy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byEmdbLo1PA
O.k. Thats a good news, but it has to happen first, and then we need at least one more DM or CD.
Although all the players in the world wont help us if we don t find wining mentality and more hard core approach.
Our “enemies” should start saying: Oh fuck, next we play against motherfuckn Arsenal, man! That will be difficult one!
I heard the Napoli mafia would get Cavani if he tried to leave
cavani is napoli’s mafia!!
I wouldn’t object too much if we fucked Walcott off to the highest bidder in the summer, assuming of course we have got him under a long contract and would therefore get a decent return. He has pissed around a little too long, and management should send out a message that its not to be tolerated.
The proviso on the above would be some genuine early investment to fill the gap(s) in the squad. In reality, if he is sold we might at best spend only a part of the transfer fee and continue to tread water.
now the internet (arsenal following twitter feeds mostly) is awash wish strong rumour that we have bid £30 for ‘a player’. they are quite convinced of the big bid, but not of who it is directed at. interesting.
ha! £30 million obviously.
although £30 seems more likely……
Squillaci has a brother. A steal at thirty quid.
I would totally pay £30 to get Eboue to come to my birthday party.
I bet it’s this fella Robin van Persie. Been banging them in this year. At £30 million he would be a steal.
Yawn. Either sign someone or just give it a break Wenger.
I know I know… but deep inside all o us hope Cavani would be that exeptional player
he just might be – or someone of that profile. it’s fair to say he’s had his hands burnt with gervinho. if he had continued his promising start, i’m sure we could have exected another typical wenger ‘who the fuck is jonny m’takki??’ signing. but he doesn’t really have that luxury anymore.
It’s the hope that kills..
All the comments here makes me love Arsenal and fellow gonners more. The only new signing we may likely see this window is Wenger’s zipper. He denies links to players he is likely to sign until they are signed. Cunning old man, but he is our cunning old man. Lets go sack The Spanish waiter
I don’t see how you can sign Theo and chase a big money striker at the same time, unless they are pulling a con job on him and end up making him a permanent right winger. Which would, amusingly, line up with the “let’s sign Walcott first, then look to buy players” quotes.
In all seriousness though if we did bid 30m on a player–this is from one of the more reliable Twitter sources, by the way–I think Gotze is most likely the target of it as it matches his release clause.
Well, that was fun. Back to reality.
We should not buy Zaha. We don’t need another ‘one for the future’ right now. If we are going to spend money then it should be on developed players who can help us achieve the minimum requirement of fourth place.
The Twitter rumours are that Wenger is in the hunt for a 30-million-pound striker: let’s hope that’s true. Yesterday’s game made it so obvious that we are well short of attacking options. A top-quality forward is essential right now.
As for Walcott, he should be told to fuck off. He simply is not worth 100k a week, and if Wenger gives him that contract then he’s mad. Financially, it would actually be better now to allow him to walk away for nothing at the end of the season.
We always need on for the future. Otherwise in the future, we’ll be stuck scrambling around again for more players we can’t afford.
Bad enough to be in the situation now.
We should offer him 65 a week to be a winger/ impact sub. He’s worth every bit of that. He will never be a top striker in any European league.
I quite like Zaha actually.
Looks like he could develop to be a real quality player.
Yes we need players for now obviously, but if top top top quality young british players become available (Gooners at heart too) i’d be well in.
lol @ lads getting excited or even believing Cavani could comne to Arsenal this winter….1) Napoli won’t sell him this early when fighting to get into the CL spots. 2) He probably aims for better than Arsenal, unfortunately. 3) 30M sterlings would get you 1 of his legs as the release clause is 60M. 4) He’s in the process of negoatyiating a new contract with Napoli
Genius stuff from AW, winding journos up while concentrating on his real targets.
Napoli turned down a 45m bid last summer, so lets be realistic, it won’t happend.
Theo isnt the answer week in week out and he knows it. We still need to replace rvp if we ever want to challenge again. Giroup will start some, but whats possitive to see his he comes off the bench ready to make an impact, and does. So a cavani would be what we need. We’ll still need to rotate and use different players for different challenges. Theo can’t expect to be the only striker at the club! Look at united, 3 quality strikers at diff times in their career, all offer something different. Rested rvp last night chico did well. And thwy also have rooney. Hes shit though. Wellbck, chico, rvp. We have theo, giroud, need a top top striker to complete. All offering something different.
cavani is signed through 2017 so again like I said that’s a pipe dream imo. there is another mention of gonzalo higuain but the transfer talk is irrelevant until somebody arrives for a physical and signs.
Arsene, you big tease!
It’s never going to happen, but what a shame as only Cavani, Falcao and Ibra can be considered direct replacements for the Dutch Skunk.
That’s exactly the type of signing that would raise alarm bells and might actually put the fear back in our once rivals that Arsenal are ready to contend for top honours again.
I know it will never happen . . . but I didn’t think we had a rat’s chance of signing Theo either!
I take it arsene’s next zipper will be super super quality…
Wenger said this in the same press conferance:
“The prices always go up at the start of the transfer market and go down in the last week.
“Sometimes as well they go up in the last week, but it depends. Most of the time they go down in the last week and you know as well that 90 per cent of transfer activity happens in the last week, if not in the last 48 hours.”
So basically waiting for the best players leftover in the bargain pile? Is this Wenger and Arsenal’s current buying policy? Hmmmm…
I know that Cavani is a longshot, but part of me could see it happening, we need something to get into the top 4 or the club loses a bunch of money in sponsorships. The amount spent on a Cavani transfer could possibly be less than what we would lose if we fell out of the top 4, then again not really sure. One can dream…
I’m 99% optimistic that arsenal can’t afford even my hairdresser
Doesn’t Mr Wenger understand now that the Walcott situation is getting rather tedious? I’m becoming immune to the hype and all the words coming out like so many times before with past players. If he leaves, he leaves, if he stays, we have a player who doesn’t have Arsenal in his heart, so am not bothered if he stays. We won’t win anything with a bunch of self obsessed mercenaries, unless we can pay for the very very best mercenaries, so now I don’t care if he stays or goes.
A separate point, for many years I have been quite a quiet but very loyal Arsenal supporter, but now my patience has run out. I look to write an email to the Arsenal with my concerns and comments but find I cannot contact the club itself, unless I’m contacting them to buy something. About says it all really.
Go to the ‘Contact Us’ section on Arsenal.com, there is a phone number/email address there for feedback.
Thanks but that’s not the case as far as I can see, for email there is only contact email address for “box office” or customer service under “shopping & retail” Other forms for contact are only a postal address or phone number, I presume for other types of contact, like the one I’d like to make
Just above the box office email address is two grey boxes, the email addresses are in them.
(My comment with the direct links is awaiting moderation.)
is he danny welbeck’s brother?
It’s ok, in a blind dumbass! Can see now! And yes im prob related!
Holy cunt lips! If we bought Mario Goetze I will literally explode into nothingness with excitement!!! And then curse my luck in heaven (or hell) that theres no TV in the afterlife… Fuckers!
not a fan of holy cunt lips myself. Full, thick ones are good though.
Oh when he said “is he danny welbeck’s brother I think he was referring to the Zaha pic.cuz I also think Zaha looks a bit like the united cunt..and even has a similar build AND a little tiny bit of the same playing style except Zaha is more skilled and unpredictable and he isn’t a DICK! But if he joins U-Shited then he will be well trained to become a top.tit like they all do.. The 1st thing utd tell/train new arrivals is.. ALWAYS claim throw ins, corners. Theyre told be the 1st to hold your hand high while on your tippy toes. Scream and SURROUND the ref (do it as a whole team, keeper included vd sar) ..Also has everyone noticed it’s fast fuckin shrek or ryan cigarette (giggs/cigs) are the 1st ones around the,pleb in black? Fuck I hate em and their LUCK! Last minute goals n…ash fuck it I ain’t gonna waste anymore time on em!
“Fast Shrek”? Haha. Meant FAT FUCKING SHREK! Hey you guys!!