Firstly apologies for being away for a while it's been a busy few weeks for myself and also for Arsenal.
Of course now we all know that we have signed Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona for a fee of between £30-35m and what a signing he looks to be. Anyone suggesting he was surplus at Barcelona is very wide of the mark, he has been one of their most important players and the only reason I believe he was sold was because they were in desperate need of funds to buy Suarez. His record speaks for itself and he scored 39 goals and in 88 appearances for Barcelona and bearing in mind he was played as a winger that's certainly nothing to sniff at. It'll be very interesting to see how Wenger deploys him he could easily be played as a lone striker, as a partner for Giroud or on the flank. Seeing him in any of those roles is certainly an exciting prospect.
Our second signing of the summer comes in the shape of former Newcastle right back Mathieu Debuchy and as far as I'm concerned he's a perfect fit for us. He's an experienced and competent defender who has played alongside Koscielny for the French national team and already has 18 months of playing time in the Premier League meaning there will no "bedding in" period. Personally this deal was on the cards as soon as I first heard us linked with him, it's only been held up because that headbutting bell end Pardew hates Arsenal and Wenger so it must have hurt him to have to let him come to us.
There was a real hype this week due to the stories surrounding Sami Khedira but that seems to have been dead in the water from the start, to me all this angling seems to be due to the fact he wants a new contract at Real Madrid. Gamesmanship from his agent and a few deliberately leaked stories seem to be doing the trick. If the stories involving us and him are true and he wanted £105,000pw AFTER tax then quite frankly Madrid can keep him. He's a good player no doubt and if we signed him I certainly wouldn't complain but I'm not gonna lose sleep over it if we don't get him.
Naturally this has fueled talks of our attention turning to different players. Morgan Schneiderlain from Southampton seems to be one of the names and there's a lot of hype around him. I'm not so certain he's up to scratch personally and I'd prefer to see go for Bender, another name being banded around. We know Wenger is interested after having a bid rejected last year, that being said I also know that Leverkusen are very difficult to negotiate with. These two could run and run.
There are also strong links with goalkeeper David Ospina, the Colombian keeper who shined at the World Cup and reports that we could be interested in a £3m deal for him. It's no secret that with the departures of Mannone, Fabianski and Viviano returning after possibly the most pointless loan spell in history, we are now one injury away from reserve keeper and with the SZCZ prone to having an injury or a mid season wobble we need to reinforce that position. I am feeling pretty confident of this deal and I wouldn't be surprised to see it tied up within the next couple of weeks.
Finally we have also been linked with 20 year old Atletico Madrid right back Javi Manquillo. Interesting one here considering we have Jenkinson who is in essentially the same position as Manquillo getting a smattering of first team starts every season. This one doesn't really make sense to me so I can't see it happening but I suppose you never know.
Right that's it for now I'll be back with more stuff as and when, until then remember we're taking a strong side to Borehamwood today and it's available to watch free on Arsenal Player.
