Transfer Update - Jagielka,Mata,Cesc+Chamberlain

So following up from my last post, it looks like Wenger has gone for Jagielka as the man to amend our defensive problems. Well, at least according to the press.


Apparently we've made a £10 million bid for the Everton man, which is £2million less than what we bid for him last summer. Surprisingly a large number of Arsenal fans seem disappointed that we seem to prefer Jagielka to Cahill, Samba or even Mertesacker, and I cannot understand why.

Jagielka is a proven quality defender, with all the attributes needed to be an outstanding defender at the highest level. He is even underrated by many and carries a lot of experience which will benefit our defence more than we can imagine. Cahill is another quality defender, and would also improve our defence and Samba has all the attributes that most of our defenders lack and Mertesacker has also looked great for Germany whenever he plays. 


However compared to Jagielka, they come up short. Cahill is probably the closest to him, but even he's involved in a leaky defence at Bolton which conceded goals last season. Samba's team Blackburn also have a terrible defensive record over the last few season, and him and Mertesacker seems to lack the pace and technical ability that all of our defenders need in our high line. Per has also had a terrible season for Werder Bremen and reports from Germany say he's not the player he used to be.


Incidentally, Simon Kjaer looks set to be playing his future elsewhere and could be available for 15million euros. He may well be an excellent choice for a new defender, although that looks highly unlikely.

There has also some movement regarding Cesc, as he looks set to miss the squads trip to Cologne. apparently Arsenal and Barcelona officials had some discussions yesterday, although no bid was made. Later on, Barca completed the 26million euro signing of Alexis Sanchez form Udinese, meaning they lost a significant chunk of their transfer budget.


With the exits of Bojan and a few other fringe players, added to the remainder of their 45 million euros budget for this summer they should have 30-35million left for Cesc. But that still comes up short of our £40million valuation. However, considering the difference is only about 10million euros, i'm sure if Barca truly want their man - and that's what every single player, coach and even the mayor have said - they will pay the extra. So watch this space.


If Cesc does leave, we may well step up our attempts to sign Juan Mata, as we will need some more attacking prowess and creativity in our side. Mata would not take up the "Cesc role" but is more likely to take a place on the wing, with either Ramsey or Nasri taking up the vital space in our team.

Meanwhile, Chamberlain has apparently been fined 2 weeks wages for say he wants to move to the Premiership, which is frankly absurd if you ask me. It will probably speed up his transfer out of the club, although if we are interested I think we should sign a centre-back first. And should we sign him anyway, £12million on a very young winger who wont be ready for our first team for years, that money could be reinvested in the first team to much better effect.


I'll leave you with some great stats form the excellent Orbinho on Jagielka vs Cahill. Very interesting.


Cahill-Jagielka Aerial Duels 563-215 Aerial won% 66%-58% Tackles 158-173 Clearances 1169-736 Blocks 107-79 Interceptions 160-158 Fouls 78-33