Interesting article in the Daily Mail today that Arsenal will be busy in the January transfer window with Atletico Madrid’s Adrian Lopez and Athletic Bilbao’s Fernando Llorente strikers being the Gunners main targets. A transfer budget in the region of £35million was mentioned. I will take that with a grain of salt because I don’t think Arsenal have ever had that sort of net transfer spend.
The theory goes that when Arsenal signed Giroud in the summer that he was brought in to supplement van Persie and not to replace him, leaving Arsenal short one quality striker. Arsene Wenger has tried Gervinho in a more central attacking role this summer with mixed success.
Lukas Podolski can also play as a conventional No 9, but his best position seems to be in the left-sided role that he currently is in.
According to Sportmail, the Gunners wish list includes Atletico Madrid striker Adrian Lopez, a player who has already been scouted intensively by Arsenal and Athletic Bilbao forward Fernando Llorente. Llorente, who was heavily linked with a move to Juventus in the summer is out of contract at the end of the season meaning he could be available at a cut-price fee in January.
Other options include Fiorentina forward Stevan Jovetic as well as Palermo’s Abel Hernandez.
I understand the thought process behind the story and yes Arsenal have a need for a player with the quality of Llorente. But nothing I have ever heard from Arsene Wenger or Ivan Gazidis leads me to believe that Arsenal would have a net spend of anywhere near £35million in any transfer window.
One scenario I could see is that Arsenal balance the books somewhat by selling Walcott, Chamakh, Squillaci, Djourou and Arshavin. If they can offload these five players that is probably £15-20million is cash, which could reduce the net spent to a more manageable £15-20million.
Do you think Arsenal will spend big in January?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
You have said it all, even rumour has it dat Arsene and is board are planning a massive bid for Falcao . Something i simply laugh over. The Board and Arsene can not definately spend that much unless they are able to balance the BOOK. And for ME COME what may the mentioned players should leave : the likes of Chamakh ,Squallaci, Arshavin , Park, Bendthner and Denilson,. While Djourou and Walcott should be written. The Price of this massive clear out should be enough to get us a Quality Striker and a Potent Defensive Midfielder. Tiote, Llorentee, Lopez etc.
I wonder why arsene isnt interested in Loic Remy? fast, can score goals, has very good technique, 6ft1, Strong, and is a very good dribbler. He would also cost between 15 to 20 mil. He just seems so right for Arsenal (and not because he is french) that I really wonder why we have not gone in aggressively for him. when a rival team succeeds in buying him we would then hear arsene say “we were looking at him”. Lets stop buying cut price players alone, and start buying some players that we need. We NEED a striker with all the aforementioned qualities if we are serious about anything this season. Gervinho is good but lacks that killer instinct, Giroud is 50-50 for me, walcott has some quality but is inconsistent and not strong enough.
we need strikers like remy, cavani, Huntelaar, etc. we should even give podolski more chances as No9 than we give gervinho.
WHY NOT REMY!!!!!!!!
Spending and not spending are almost the same,because look at teams like Milan,Chelsea,man-city,Liverpool,to mention a few have spent money but are not that okay. So for me i think look for class and from your junior teams.
But hey if you have the oil money,or drug money why bother just spend but if you are an economist as monsieur Wenger then my friend plan.
Now tell me the above mentioned teams apart from Liverpool,they have all the players they need so really who do they want? I mean do you need to sell all the team and get new players every season if you don’t win anything! i don’t think that will work so lets sell some guys like five of them and buy three world class players. I wonder why Arsenal is selling Asharvin really ! Wait until we meet reading with him that,s when we will know how good he is. We need experienced personnel like Asharvin for FA,Premier,country,champions league and i don’t know how many more games. HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013