With Arsenal and Tottenham off to poor starts in the League, will they try to spend before deadline day? Despite being unbeaten this season, new Chelsea manager Villas Boas still has his eye on a few players he wants to snap up before Wednesday.
One thing Arsenal and Tottenham have in common is that both clubs have had unrest throughout the pre-season with Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri finally leaving Arsenal and Luka Modric refusing to play as he desperately tries to get a move to Chelsea. This alone could explain their poor starts to the season however neither teams have made many additions to strengthen their squad... until now
After the red half of Manchester's 8-2 thrashing of Arsenal and the blue half cruising to a big 5-1 win over Tottenham, both Harry Redknapp and Arsene Wenger are both desperately trying to bring in a couple of new players before the transfer window closes until January. Firstly it looks like Wenger has at last realised he is in need of a centre half as he has agreed a fee with Werder Bremen over Big Per Mertersacker who is currently undergoing a medical in North London. After being given a big reality check from Manchester United, it looks like Wenger has finally pulled his finger out . The former Werder Bremen captain stands at 6ft 6inches tall and is experienced on club and international level. In my opinion he is a perfect player for Arsenal due to his physical presence and experience which is lacking in such a young arsenal side. Arsenal so far this season have shown their lack of depth in the defensive area with Vermarlen being constantly hit with injury troubles and Djourou and Koscielny not yet showing that they have the quality to play for a top four premier league side. Wenger bought in Squillaci last summer from Spanish side Sevilla however has certainly not covered him self in glory with many mistakes in crucial matches last season. With the signing of Mertersaker it looks unlikely that the London club are still interested in signing young Gary Cahil from Bolton.
However with the pressure on Wenger to spend it has been confirmed that Arsenal have completed the signing of South Korean striker Chu Young Park from French side Monnaco for a fee of around 4 million pounds. Wenger described Park as "true quality" and believes he will be a "valuable addition to the squad" At the age of only 26 Park has already made 53 appearances for south Korea scoring 17 goals so is an experienced player. Despite recent events I still think Wenger is the right man for the job and is doing the right thing buy investing in quality experienced players. The lack of experience has shown in the past weeks with Gervinho, Frimpong and Jenkinson all receiving red cards in Premier League matches. This could be due to the lack of role models in the Arsenal dressing room. Arsenal are also close to signing experienced Brazillian left back Andre Santos from Turkish side Fenerbahce. The 28 year old has won 22 caps for Brazil so has a wealth of experience. The fee is said to be worth around 6.2 million pounds.
So far this season Tottenham have not gained a point from either of their first two games (albeit against arguably the two major title contenders) and have not shown the determination that they have in previous seasons gone buy. They certainly haven't lost any first team players with Wilson Palacios being the only player to leave White Heart Lane. They also managed to sign out of favour striker Emmanual Adebayor on a loan deal until the end of the season and experienced English midfielder Scott Parker for an undisclosed fee . So what is the problem Harry? Why such a bad start? If I were to ask Harry Redknapp he would most likely say "Luka Modric!" Over the past month Redknapp has been struggling to cope with the constant rumours about the Croatian play maker leaving and at one point said that Tottenham are better without him. After the 5 - 1 defeat at the hands of Manchester City, Rednkapp said (in an interview with the BBC) how frustrated he was with all the goings on during pre-season and described it as the "worst pre-season he has ever been part of at any club". It is now thought Chelsea have made a new bid for the Croatian after a 22 million pound bid was rejected as Tottenham Chairman, Daniel Levy, remains adamant Modric will not leave.
So far Chelsea's two new signings have looked promising with Spanish international Juan Mata scoring on his début and Romelu Lukaku looking lively but new manager Villas Boas still wants to his ageing squad. Porto's Alvaro Pereira is top of his list which is most likely due to the fact he has managed him before therefore noes the qualities that he could bring to the West London club. I believe Pereira is a quality and versatile left sided player and could be an ideal replacement for the ageing Florent Malouda and the dreadful Salomon Kalou. Another Target for Villas Boas is Liverpool's Portuguese centre midfielder Raul Meireles. He would be a brilliant player for Chelsea as he would bring some much needed creativity from the centre of midfield. I also believe that along with Mata he could revitalise Chelsea's ageing midfield. Unfortunately for the blues they have had a bid rejected worth 8 million plus Yossi Benayoun so still a deal worth 8 million. No i do believe Benayoun has some qualities but I think its a bit cheeky that Chelsea are trying to give Liverpool back a player who they gave to Chelsea only a couple of seasons ago and has only played one hour of football all season. Personally I believe Meireles is worth around the sum of fifteen million pounds but I highly doubt a deal will go through before the transfer window closes.
Please leave a comment giving your view on the transfers I have talked about as I really want to hear your views.
I will be posting weekly and will talk about a different football realated topic each week so please follow me.
Joe
If you enjoyed the my first post and want more Premier League stories weekly you can follow me by signing in on the right of the page. Alternatively you can subscribe via email (see bottom of page.)
Also I will be doing a big round up of deadline day transfers tomorrow so be sure to check that out and please leave your views.
Many Thanks
No comments:
Post a Comment