Three very different transfer stories breaking this morning. One has quotes, one has a “source” and one is speculation, yet knowing Wenger the most likely of these is either the speculation about a new goalkeeper in the form of Brad Guzan, or the snatching of Lyon stralet Clement Grenier, and not the story with quotes about Werder Bremen star Diego.
So first to the most interesting transfer sory - Diego.
The excellent Brazilian playmaker has had his dad come out and say this morning that there are three teams that are definitely interested in his son - Real Madrid, Juventus and Arsenal. You can see what he said below:
“There are a lot of rumours and all of them are not the truth,” Djair da Cunha told Bild. “But Real, Arsenal and Juve want my son. By the way Juve sporting director Alessio Secco already came to Bremen to speak with Klaus Allofs.”
The Brazilian has a contract until 2011 with Bremen and with Juve and Real interested the price could be anything upwards of £15m. We need a purchase like this to help us gain ground on Man Utd ahead of next season, but I will be very surprised if we win this particular transfer battle due to Wengers strict regulations on financial outgoings on players. However, Diego is made for Arsenal in my opinion, he has the balance, speed of though and talent needed to succeed at Arsenal, and would almost certainly be converted into a playmaker/winger such as we have with Rosicky and Hleb, and to see a midfield of Fabregas, Flamini, Hleb and Diego would definitely be worth the ticket price alone.
Next we have a more familiar story - young Frenchman, hasn’t signed a professional deal and has been labled the “next ….”, meaning he has got to be good.
And according to a “source” from The Sun (and we all know how reliable they are, don’t we), good old Wenger is interested:
“Wenger is very impressed but Lyon told him to forget it. They want him to stay here a few years as they expect to be able to get a huge transfer fee for him.”
That’s all pointing out the obvious really, so I think perhaps The Sun should leave the sources out next time. All it means is that if he wants to join Arsenal and Arsenal want him, it’ll go to a tribunal and a fee between the teams will be established, as with Merida.
Lastly there is the story of Brad Guzan, an American goalkeeper. Apparently the 24 year old has already been the subject of a £2m from Martin O’Neil’s Aston Villa, but Arsenal have now joined the race for Guzan’s signature ahead of Lehmann’s probable retirement. I don’t really think we need to buy another goalkeeper though unless he’s a top class one who is going to go straight to number one. There seems little point in adding another back up when Mannone and Szcesny (spelling?!) are both promising goalkeepers and could step up to third choice. What we need is an Artur Boruc-type goalkeeper, a player who can be the difference between teams, not another potential number one.
