Transfer Odds & Ends

By: Martin | June 11th, 2009

Well, it looks like Edin Dzeko will not be coming to Arsenal after all. He says he’ll either move to Milan or stay put at Wolfsburg. But this could very well all be posturing. If you remember during the summer of 2008, Arshavin first said he was only interested in moving to Barcelona, then when they weren’t interested said he’d love to play for Chelsea or Arsenal, then when they weren’t interested, was practically begging to play for Spurs. It’s the “aim high, then lower your standards with each rejection” approach, and I am intimately familiar with this because I used a version of this gambit pretty much every time I went out to a bar looking for girls when I was in college. So there is a possibility that if he can’t work a deal with Milan he may rekindle his interest in Arsenal, but I think we should really start looking elsewhere if we want to bring in a striker.

Elsewhere, Paris St. Germain defender Mamadou Sakho, a rumored Arsenal target, has cast doubt over whether he will return to PSG next year. This could possibly open the door for a transfer to Arsenal. Sakho is young (19), tall (6′1), has played regularly in PSG’s first team in Ligue 1 and the UEFA Cup, and fits the description of the physical defender we are looking for. Although it would seem out of character for Wenger to buy a young, untested, French player of African descent….

In other news, the never reliable Sun is reporting that Arsenal are preparing a £4 million bid for 16 year-old Feyenoord striker Luc Castaignos. Don’t know the first thing about the kid, but we’ve had success buying young strikers from Feyenoord before with Robin van Persie, and the price doesn’t seem too steep.

Also, apparently Amaury Bischoff is looking to leave Arsenal because he’s not featuring in the first team enough. He only made one senior team appearance for the club last season, his first with Arsenal. We brought him in after he made only one senior team appearance for Werder Bremen in several seasons there. Wanting to play is one thing, but you have to pay your dues. You can’t come in as a 22-year old who hasn’t played at the senior club level to one of the best 10 clubs in the world and expect to play right away. Well, apparently you can, but only if you’re an Eddie Munster-looking little punk. Frankly, I don’t think he has much of a future with the club anyway, so I can’t say I’ll be too sad to see him go.

Finally, Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira is looking for first-team football, and apparently considering leaving ~~Juventus~~ Inter to go to Lyon. Vieira was a colossus for us, and I’m sure he could still be a very useful player for a very good team, so best of luck to him.

In international news, Arshavin, Walcott, and van Persie all started, but did not score, in world cup qualifying wins for their respective nations. Most importantly, none suffered any injuries. Also, Kieran Gibbs put in a top-quality performance, scoring 2 goals, in England U-21’s drubbing of Kazakhstan.

Okay, I know this is an Arsenal blog, but please indulge me some thoughts on the Ronaldo transfer. My first thought was just “holy crap” at that much money. But what does this mean for Arsenal? Well, of course, initially, for all his petulant preening and unforgivable diving and simulation, Ronaldo was a fantastic player for United, and the best player in the world for the 2007-2008 season. He is, in a very real sense, irreplaceable, in that no one else in the world can do the things he can do. So in that sense, United is weakened by his departure, which is a good thing.

But there is that small matter of the £80m. Alex Ferguson now has the entire transfer window to spend a lot of money. Fergie has generally been very savvy in the transfer market, so we can expect at least two world-class players to come in to replace Ronaldo and Tevez. We can hope he’ll piss it away on another couple of Berbatovs, but I suspect he’ll spend it pretty wisely. Bottom line–United will still be very, very good and probably favored to win the title again next year.

I also feel bad for poor Manuel Pelligrini, Real Madrid’s new manager. He had a good situation in Villareal–lived by the ocean, managed a small fan with loyal fans, was successful by gradually building one of the best teams in Europe. Now he takes over a debt-laden team with an impetuous, irresponsible president, and reactionary fans. If he doesn’t win the Champions League, he’ll be dragged through the streets and beaten. Poor guy.

I’ll be back with another post at some point, whenever there is any actual news to report.