Transfer Rumors + Hartson Update

By: Martin | August 19th, 2009

Sigh. More transfer rumors today. I have to say, I like it so much better when the window is closed and we don’t have to deal with all this nonsense every day. But it’s out there, so let’s dive right in.

First, there are reports that Arsenal and Barcelona have agreed on a deal to sell Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona for a fee of €35 million. Supposedly if Arsenal don’t make the Champions League (i.e., if Celtic somehow knock us out next week), the transfer will go through before the end of August, but if we do, which in all likelihood we will, the transfer won’t go through until next summer. This is, obviously, quite alarming, and I’ll be pretty upset if it’s true. But I would say this—it was apparently initially reported by the Spanish media, which has all the credibility of a Magic 8-ball and often serves as a mouthpiece for the clubs themselves, planting rumors that are to the club’s advantage. At the moment, Barcelona fans are probably pretty nervous, given that archrival Real Madrid have done so much to improve this summer and Barca has only swapped Eto’o for Ibrahimovic. So Barca’s president Joan Laporta and manager Pep Guardiola are under pressure at the moment, and if they can convince the fans that they have made this blockbuster move for the future, it might give them a bit of respite. I’ve said it 20-30 times over the summer, and I’ll say it again—I just don’t really believe it. I don’t believe Cesc would bail on Arsenal, Wenger, the fans, and his teammates when the team is on the brink of achieving great things, and I don’t think he’s the kind of player who would agree to join another club and then play an entire season with his present club. It’ll be interesting to see if the club, the boss, and/or Cesc issue a denial about this today—in the past, denials have generally been forthcoming immediately after these types of reports, so if nothing comes out today, that might be a sign that there’s actually something to this.

PSV Eindhoven and Hungarian international winger Balazs Dzsudzsak (how do you pronounce THAT?) has claimed that Arsenal have made a formal bid for his services. With my usual caveat about not being a scout and never having seen him play, he’s young (22) and his goal-scoring record (11 goals in 32 league games for PSV last season; 3 goals in just 3 league games this season) is impressive for a winger. Vermaelen, our recent young Eredivisie import, hasn’t taken too much time to settle into the Premiership and has adapted well, so maybe Holland is a good place to look for undervalued talent. Dzsudzsak doesn’t really fill a big need for us—I won’t play that broken record about how we need a defender and a holding midfielder again because you’ve already heard it—but if Wenger believes he can play at this level and can get a good deal for him, I can’t see how it’s a bad thing.

Carlos Vela is recovering from an ankle injury picked up in the Mexico-United States game, apparently. It doesn’t appear to be that serious and he will hopefully be back in action soon. There are also reports, though, that Vela may be headed to Fulham on a season-long loan as part of a deal to bring Brede Hangeland to Arsenal. I have to say, I’m not wild about this idea. While my initial reaction was that Vela could use the first-team experience and it could be a good thing, after thinking about it I changed my mind. First of all, with Adebayor leaving and Wenger playing three men forward, Vela is going to get a fair share of first-team action this season, and I think we need him. After Vela, either Jay Simpson or Sanchez Watt are the next strikers on the depth chart, and both are substantially below Vela in terms of skill and quality. Furthermore, while “first-team action” is generally good, Fulham play such a different brand of football from Arsenal that I’m not sure it would help prepare him to play for Arsenal in the future—he wouldn’t be coming back for the ball or working an intricate passing game with his teammates, he’d be sprinting downfield every time Fulham got the ball trying to latch onto a long ball.

Vermaelen seems to be the toast of the town off of his two strong performances so far. In typical fashion, the media, which was telling us we would finish 5th before the season started, is now talking about how great we are. And Vermaelen has gone, in the span of a week, from an injury-plagued, unknown, untested youngster that Wenger was foolish to depend on, to “Arsenal’s Vidic”—one paper actually called him that. But he seems to be taking it in stride, giving a lot of credit to both Wenger and Gallas for helping him settle in. Hopefully he’ll keep a level head and keep working hard, because while he’s put in some solid performances so far, he’ll have to deal with Rooney, Berbatov, Owen, Adebayor, Robinho, Ireland, and Tevez within the next few weeks, and that’s a tougher test than he’s had to face so far in his young career. I think he’s going to be a very good one, but let’s see how he does against elite competition before crowning him a world-class defender. It is nice, though, to see him getting on so well with Gallas so far, it’s a stark contrast to the obviously strained relationship between Gallas and Kolo Toure.

Finally, Arsenal have invited John Hartson, who is presently recovering from surgery to remove a cancerous tumor, to be present at next week’s Arsenal-Celtic match. Since he played the bulk of his career for the two clubs, it made sense and would have made for a nice moment, but Hartson has apparently declined the invitation, saying he doesn’t yet feel well enough to travel and attend. Hartson does say that he’s feeling better, though, and that is strength is slowly coming back. Hang in there, Big John, we’re thinking about you.