£20m Jovetic move?

First up and reports coming from Italy claim Arsenal are lining up a move for Fiorentina striker Steven Jovetic with Arsene Wenger understood to be prepared to tempt the Italian outfit with a £20m offer. The Montenegro international hitman is said to be ‘prime target’ for the boss as he looks to add a star striker to his ranks before the window closes at the end of the month.

While I’d love these reports to be accurate, I really can’t see it. Jovetic would be a great addition but firstly I don’t see Fiorentina letting him go half way through the season and secondly, would Wenger really splash this kind of money? I wouldn’t be rushing out and getting ‘Jovetic’ on the back of my Arsenal shirt just yet.

Wenger to trigger Diame clause?

Next up and a more realistic report from Goal.com that claims Arsene Wenger will take a close look at West Ham midfielder Mohamed Diame when the Hammers visit the Emirates on Wednesday night before finally triggering his £3.5m release clause.

We’ve been strongly linked with a move for the powerful midfielder in recent weeks and it seems if Diame impresses tomorrow evening Arsene will slap a £3.5m offer on the table which will be enough to trigger his buy-out clause. The boss admitted in his press conference this morning that he was a fan of the 24-year-old’s, saying:

‘He [Diame] has a great presence,’ Wenger said. ‘I’ve seen him in games where he’s had a big impact, for example against Chelsea where he came on.’

I think of all the rumours, this has the best chance of happening. We desperately need a midfield enforcer and at £3.5m, Diame would be a bargain, which is just up Arsene’s street. It’s one we should probably have tied up already, but I’ll take it as long as it’s done before the window closes!

Bid in for Thauvin?

The last rumour for today comes from the Daily Express who report that we’ve tabled a £4m offer for French youngster Florian Thauvin. I must admit I know little about this player but he’s said to be a 19-year-old attacking midfielder who currently plays for Bastia.

The manager is understood to have watched the youngster several times and has now decided to submit an official bid, but the French outfit want him to stay with them until the end of the season.

The news hasn’t really hit the headlines so I’m not sure if it has legs, but i’m not going to get overly excited even if we do end up signing Thauvin anyway. We need some proven, top quality players, not more youngsters with potential.

Who would you like to see Arsene sign in the next 8 days? Leave your suggestions in the comments section and don’t forget to rate the rumours!

The silky French play-maker has been linked with a move to us for years and Arsene has expressed his admiration for the player on more than one occasion in the past. It was reported that Wenger tried to sign Gourcuff back in 2009 but refused to match the £20m Lyon agreed to pay Bordeaux.

However, his time with Lyon hasn’t gone according to plan and the 28-year-old has suffered from a series of injuries that have seen his form dip drastically.

It seems he’s looking to rejuvenate his career with a move away from France and the Metro claim Lyon are willing to sell for just £3 million, with Arsenal and Spartak Moscow believed to be preparing late moves to sign him before the end of the month.

Gourcuff was once regarded as one of the most talented play-makers in Europe so the chance to sign him for just £3 million sounds like a real bargain, but there is a couple of catches. Firstly, Gourcuff is understood to want £4 million a year in wages and secondly he is well short of match practice as injuries have meant he’s yet to make an appearance this season.

While Arsene may be a long-term fan, I really don’t see the point in bringing Gourcuff to the Emirates this month. A play-maker is probably the last thing we need right now. Arsene should be spending his money on a defensive midfielder, a striker, a versatile defender or even a winger before he goes for another play-maker. So for that reason, I hope the Metro‘s report is BS.

Would you take Gourcuff for £3m? If not, what player would you like to see join the club this month?

Fabregas spent eight years with us between 2003-2011 and made 303 appearances in all competitions after joining as a 16-year-old from Barcelona. But despite the best efforts of Arsene Wenger to convince him to stay, we couldn’t stop him returning ‘home’ to Barca in the summer of 2011 and most Gooners probably thought that’s the last we would see of the little Spaniard in an Arsenal shirt.

However, Wenger believes that Fabregas will return to the Emirates, possibly in 2-3 years time, claiming he’s an ‘Arsenal man’ who loves the club:

‘I’m not convinced Fabregas won’t come back here one day,’

‘He’s an Arsenal man. He loves Arsenal. He watches every Arsenal game. Barcelona was his home town where he grew up and you have to accept this, especially as Barcelona are the best team in the world.

‘He won’t return in the next two or three years but, after that, maybe. It was the tipping point for me. It’s important that we have some consistency. When you go for a policy like we have with young players, it’s important you keep them at your club from 23 onwards. If they are ingrained with Arsenal, it is easier to keep them.’

Wenger told the Daily Mail

Fabregas is now 25 so if he did ever come back in 2-3 years time he would be around 28 and we’d have him during his peak years. The obvious question would be whether we could afford him but given the bargain price we sold him for (believed to be around £28m), I think they owe us one!

Cesc’s time back at the Nou Camp hasn’t gone as smoothly as he may have hoped and he’s struggled to hold down a regular first-team place at times, so you just never know. Perhaps he’ll get bored of sitting on the Nou Camp bench and want a move back to Arsenal? Wishful thinking? Probably, but like Arsene, I still hold out hope we’ll see him in the famous Red & White again.

After our worst league start under the Frenchman, many had hoped we would finally open the purse strings and spend some of the reported £70 million that’s sitting in the bank. The media have teased us with names such as David Villa, Yann M’Vila, Adrian Lopez, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Lucas Biglia and even Iker Casillias just some of the players linked with moves to the Emirates in recent weeks.

However, the boss has dampened the mood by claiming his priority this month is to get players like Theo Walcott signed up to new contracts and to get injured players such as Tomas Rosicky and Abou Diaby fit again.

Speaking to Arsenal.com today, the boss said:

“I have always said we have two targets – to get our players signed up and to get our injuries back,” Wenger said.

“We now have Rosicky and Diaby available again. If you look at our squad, it’s quite complete.”

Typical. Arsene is basically setting us up to say on February 1st, “We couldn’t find that top, top, top player we were looking for but we have Theo signed on a new contract and Diaby back as well from injury, so they are like two new signings”.

While it’s important to get Walcott signed up and it’s rightly a priority, it should have been done months ago. With regards to injuries, they happen in football. EVERY team gets injuries and it’s rare you’ll ever have a fully-fit squad, so getting injured players back should never be regarded as ‘new signings’.

The boss went on to say he is still looking on the market for ‘exceptional’ players but hasn’t been able to find any so far, before claiming that every problem can’t be solved by spending money:

“But we still work in the transfer market as well.

“We do not want to bring in average players. We only want to bring in an exceptional player. At the moment we have not found him.

“You are always under pressure to buy in England and every problem has to be sorted out by buying people.

“You have other ways to sort out problems inside a club like getting your injured players back, getting everybody focused and motivated. It’s not only in buying players that you sort out problems.”

Hmmmm. Not sure about this Arsene. Even with a fully-fit squad, the team still isn’t good enough in my opinion so new signings ARE imperative and the ONLY way to improve this current squad.

Wenger was also quizzed about whether we can still compete in the market, to which he replied that we can afford 90% of the players out there but we obviously can’t buy the Messi’s of this world:

“I can tell you something, we have no problem with people wanting to join us,” he said.

“I would like to give you my phone for 24 hours and you would see that!

“The second thing; can we afford them? Most of them, yes. A few of them, no. Can you afford Messi today? Certainly not. But we can afford 90 per cent of them.”

So from the 90% of the professional footballers on the planet we can afford, you can’t find 1 who could improve the Arsenal  squad? BS.

Call me an optimist, but I’m still confident we’ll bring in a couple of players before the window shuts because I can’t let myself believe the club will make the mistake they made last January by not strengthening. A striker and defensive midfielder is the minimum requirement Arsene, with 6 games in 18 days coming up, now would be a good time to pick up the phone and get some deals done!

Do you think Arsene will buy this month? If so, who would you like to see come in?

Sky Sports News are reporting that Rennes have come out today and confirmed that the midfielder wants to leave the club this month and a move to England is a distinct possibility. The French outfit are keen to hang on to him, but they will sell if the deal is right.

Rennes general manager Pierre Dreossi admitted:

“Yes, he feels like leaving,”

“But it is not a priority for us to sell. If he has to leave, he will leave. But if it is not worth it for him or for us, he will stay until the end of the season.

“It is all moving towards England or Russia.”

The player himself has confirmed he wants a move and claims offers are already on the table for him, but stopped short of revealing the interested parties. He said:

“The club have received offers.

“I want to go but the deal has to be right for everyone. If it isn’t, I will stay until the end of the season.” M’Vila said

If your on Twitter you may well have seen a few journalists claiming Arsenal are in deep talks with Rennes and are trying to agree a fee, with the 22-year-old said to be available for around £7-£8 million.

The momentum is gathering pace and I for one hope we sign M’Vila soon. Sure he has his disciplinary issues but Wenger could sort him out and he’d be the powerhouse in midfield we desperately need.

What do you think Gooners? Do you want M’Vila??

Several media outlets have been reporting over the past 24 hours that Walcott had finally agreed to commit his future to the club after apparently holding positive talks with Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis earlier this week.  Theo was understood to have agreed to a new £90,000-a-week deal that would run until 2017 and would be handed a £3m signing on bonus.

However, BBC journo David Ornstein has revealed today that there have been NO formal talks since the summer – when Theo rejected a new five-year deal worth £75,000-a-week.

He claims Arsenal ARE willing to up their offer and Walcott is happy with the footballing side of things after being given a run of games through the middle, but a compromise is yet to be reached over salary and image rights.

Walcott’s agents are understood to be waiting for Arsenal chiefs to contact them, and expect a call in the new few days to resume talks when they hope things will finally be resolved.

This really is getting silly now isn’t it? If the BBC’s report is accurate, and we haven’t even opened formal talks and put a new deal on the table, it’s scandalous from the club. Where is the urgency? Where is the desire to keep our best players?

Theo is clearly wanting to stay and I’m sure a deal could be reached if we just pulled our finger out and got on with it. Instead, we agree to pay mediocre squad players ridiculous wages but refuse to pay the going rate for the players who actually make a difference on the pitch.

I’m still expecting Walcott to extend his stay at the Emirates but it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if the BBC’s take on things is a reality.

How do you feel if Arsenal haven’t even offer Theo a new deal yet? Do you think he’ll stay?

Mbiwa has been strongly linked with a move to the Emirates in recent transfer windows and Arsene was understood to have asked about the 23-year-old during negotiations for the signing of Olivier Giroud last summer.

However, French outlet Le10 Sport are reporting today that United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has moved quickly to open talks with Montpellier over the signing of the French defender and are expected to seal a deal before the window closes at the end of the month.

Mbiwa extended his contract last year but it’s understood he insisted on a clause being included that would allow him to leave for €7m, which is something of a bargain in today’s market.

If Manchester United’s interest is concrete, it doesn’t bode well for us as the player recently admitted his ‘dream’ was to play for United:

“My dream is to slide on my knees into the corner at Old Trafford, with a Manchester United jersey on my back. I play for Manchester United, my favourite club, and I am scoring a decisive goal from a corner with my head. Yes, that, it would be nice.” Mbiwa said.

Mbiwa is one player I would love to see Arsenal sign this month. He was hugely impressive during our champions league games against Montpellier this season and his versatility would be a huge asset – with him being able to play anywhere across the back-line. He’s exactly what we need after seeing Johan Djourou leave and Seb Squiallaci is expected to follow, so we’re going to be light at the back.

However, I’m not sure how reliable this French source are so there may still be hope yet Gooners. Arsenal have an excellent relationship with Montpellier so even if United did contact them I’m sure the French outfit would let us know to see if we wanted to match their offer.

The report claims Walcott and his representatives held talks with Arsenal chiefs, including Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis, on Wednesday at London Colney and it’s understood the 23-year-old agreed terms over a new four-and-a-half-year contract.

Theo will get a £30,000-a-week pay rise, increasing his wages to £90,000-a-week, which will be topped-up by additional bonuses and a multi-million pound signing on fee. Thomas Vermaelen is said to have been given a £3m bonus when he extended his contract last year, so I’m sure Theo can expect something similar this time around.

I’ve always been confident Walcott would stay with us. I’m not sure why, it was just a gut feeling. You could see it in his face during recent interviews that he wanted to stay and you got the vibe from him that things will get sorted in the end. And hopefully that’s now the case.

Goal.com are hardly regarded as the most trustworthy of sources, so I won’t be getting carried away until i see it on Arsenal.com, but all the signs from recent days are that a deal is close, if not already agreed, so it seems like Theo is here to stay. Which is obviously great news.

It would have been a disaster to lose another first team player to contract issues, and I just hope the club has finally learned its lesson from this latest case. The signs are positive that they have after the British quintet of  Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kieran Gibbs, Aaron Ramsey and Carl Jenkinson all signed long-term deals before Christmas.

Fingers crossed we see something on the clubs official website soon adding Walcott to that list.

The giant Belgian only signed a new deal with the Toffees at the end of 2011 but it’s understood he insisted on inserting a clause that would let him leave to a ‘top-four’ club if an offer of £22m was tabled.

Chelsea and Manchester United have also been credited with interest, and lets be honest if Fellaini is available Manchester City will no doubt also be sniffing around, so it’s going to be a tough task to land the afro-haired attacker.

Fellaini would be a ‘dream’ signing for many fans. His versatility would be a huge asset with the 6 foot 4 inch Belgian able to play in midfield or up front and he has shown he knows where the goal is with 9 strikes already this season (including a goal against Arsenal).

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But I’m not going to get my hopes up on this one. Not only is the fee well beyond what Arsene Wenger likes to pay, the competition would be fierce and we’d never be able to offer the kind of wages the Chelsea’s of this world can.

So I’m only think there’s a 2/5 chance of of Arsenal signing Fellaini. What would you rate it?

Many of you may not have heard of Szalai or know much about him, but he’s fairly highly-rated in the Bundesliga, where he has scored 11 goals so far this season, and he’s also attracted interest from the likes of Wolfsburg and champions Borussia Dortmund.

With Marouane Chamakh finally out the door, Arsene Wenger is understood to be looking to sign a striker this month and has identified the 25-year-old Hungarian as a potential recruit according to the reports emanating from Germany.

The player was asked about the reported interest from the Gunners and he apparently smiled and simply replied:

“I know nothing.”

Mainz manager Christian Heidel has also had his say on the rumours, insisting there has been no interest:

”There is definitely no interest. For no amount of money would we sell him now.”

However, he later added:

“…but if someone came to us with €20m (£16m)…”

So he’s clearly playing games here and i’m sure they’d sell him for a lot less than that. Szalai used to be on the books at Real Madrid but never progressed past the B team and he’s only really hit form in recent months after a career of relative mediocrity. While he may be talented he’s certainly not top drawer yet, and I think Arsenal are at a stage where we need to be buying proven quality.

He’s also more of a target man, standing at 6 ft 4 inch’s, so is likely to be of a similar mold to Olivier Giroud. Arsene Wenger recently admitted he was in for Demba Ba but didn’t sign him because he went for Giroud instead, so I don’t see why the boss will now bring in another big man up front.

It’s my understanding that Arsene is looking for a quick, versatile forward. Hence the links with David Villa and Adrian Lopez, so I really don’t see there is anything in this rumour. I’d only give it a 1/5.