Other than the signing of young Finnish Carl Jenkinson from Charlton, who will conspire to be good back up at right back and accross the backline, no players have transferred in or left the club.
Behind the scenes though, and to start with apparently we missed out in signing new Manchester United player Phil Jones. This young Englishman will be one of the ones that got away, as almost certainly he will be one of the best central defenders in the world in him prime. Looking at his positioning, strength and awareness is amazing for a defender so young, and although Blackburn's defence has conceded a lot of goals this season, not many can be down to him.
You can argue that having matched United 17 million pound bid, and offered higher wages, that we did all we could to secure the under 21 England international. However, if we had made a quicker move, last summer or in January we could probably have this player on our books. And maybe even a trophy too. But enough with "what ifs" and "buts."
The Manchester United pursuit of Samir Nasri has stepped up this week too and the Frenchman is suspect of an £10million pound bid form our rivals. Without wanting to reveal all my opinions whilst nothing concrete has happened i'll give my point simply. We cannot afford to sell our best players, especially to our rivals and especially when the offer is an obscene under valued offer. Compared to 20million for Jordan Henderson, and a 17million release for Gary Cahil - who is also in his last year of his contract - Nasri should be commanding at least that kind of money.
If the unthinkable does happen, and he doesn't sign a new contract, then we have to sell to a foreign team as losing him to United wold send out all the wrong messages, and other key players may start questioning the clubs plans for the future, as well as their own futures.
The longer this Nasri situation goes on like this, where he keep reiterating his latest statement that 'talks are ongoing' then the more we question his desire to stay at the club, and right now I believe he is less likely to sign than not sign.
Similar to the Nasri "situation" is that of Clichy's future. Last night Liverpool, fresh from spending 20million on Henderson, made a lame 5and a half million pound bid for the French international. Insulting. Even if he does have one year on his contract, we at Arsenal football club cannot be bullied into selling our first choice players for stupid amounts of money like this. Even if he does not want to extend his contract, which seems even more unlikely than Nasri, then unless we receive a bid of around 8-14 million pounds then I would keep him for his final year. At least then we could re-open negotiations if he changes his mind and decides to stay.
Clichy's form had dropped over the last few seasons, but in the second half of the season he really rallied and he was a very consistent player for us. This highlights why we cannot afford for him to go for so little, as despite his annoying lapses in concentration and defensive errors, he is our first choice left back. Frankly Gibbs, Traore and Botelho and other left back options seem far away from our first team at the moment and losing Clichy would mean another signing for Wenger to make.
In breaking news and apparently Wigan have accepted two bid for Charles N'zogbia. Not sure if this has any validity, or more importantly whether we are one of those teams but will keep you updated.
Expect another blog about the positives of last season soon.
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