This time of the year can be very tedious for supporters throughout football. Rumours and gossip about potential transfer targets are rallied around whether they are serious or not. Manchester City seem to be getting linked with every footballer who has two feet and a desire to earn double they would at any other club.
Yeah, that’s all I really want to talk about today.
Arsenal’s aspirations were dealt a blow last night when they failed to beat a Redknapp rejuvenated but still struggling Spurs side at the Emirates.
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A bit of team news today ahead of the Fulham game tomorrow, lets start with the good news;
Alex Song is back with the Arsenal squad after returning from Olympic football duty with Cameroon, Nasri has apparently recovered from the slight injury he picked up before the France game (was he really injured or was he skiving off playing for his country already?[just kidding]).
And Robin Van Persie managed to play for Holland in midweek without getting himself injured.
Mikael Silvestre has a muscle strain so will probably not feature in the Fulham game, but when he makes his Premiership debut for Arsenal it will be his 250th Premiership appearance.
It seems Cesc Fabregas is still a week or so away from full fitness so he will probably not play, which leaves Wenger with the choice of Denilson, Song or Eboue in the central midfield.
All that said, I would expect Wenger to roll with a similar line-up to the team that beat West Brom last week, Fulham are a pretty physical side and Van Persie played in midweek, we could really do without him getting injured so it would seem wise to stick with Adebayor and Bendtner up front as well.
Wenger has given hope that he is not finished in the transfer market yet before the deadline passes on September 1st, he hinted in his press conference that he might yet snag a central midfielder but wouldn’t say who. Indeed Wenger has had some activity since my last update, loaning out Armand Traore to Portsmouth for the rest of the season.
Taking my cue from the most persistent rumours it would seem at this stage that it will be Alonso, Barry or Inler. Apparently Alonso had agreed terms with Arsenal but Arsenal only offered Liverpool £10million for him. With Barry valued around £17million by Aston Villa, I cannot see Arsenal forking that much for him, so the most probable seems to be Inler. There are only 9 days to go before the end of the transfer window so not too long to wait.
Here’s an interesting one, Arsenal have signed veteran French defender Mikael Silvestre from Manchester Utd on a 2 year contract.
I don’t know how much they paid for him yet but it seems to show that Wenger believes that the young defenders Senderos, Djourou and Song will be good enough for the big time within 12-18 months.
I would imagine Wenger has bought Silvestre for cover for Gallas and Toure in central defence and for Clichy on the left. There is no chance Wenger would play Silvestre ahead of Clichy on the left as first choice, but it will be interesting to see if he gets a chance of starting in place of Toure.
It is not often that Arsenal sign someone from Man Utd (Brian Kidd in 1974 apparently), but Silvestre’s importance there has been increasingly marginalised by Evra and Vidic, especially since Silvestre spent most of last season on the treatment table. Let’s hope he stays fit and isn’t another sicknote 
While I am not overwhelmed by this signing I do think it is a good one. At 31 Silvestre is not going to be a long term fixture, Wenger obviously knew he needed an experienced central defender and I think he was not willing to buy someone in their prime because a) they are too expensive and b) he thinks the youngsters will come good.
What do you think?
