Rodrigo Palacio. The front man missing from the post Henry puzzle?


I did insist that Arsenal needed to recruit an out and out striker; and that Da Silva wasn't enough. He is a good goalscorer but he cannot lead the line that effectively from the front due to his size.

In order to utilise the three fantastic midfielders at Arsene's disposal (Silva, Cesc and Diaby) Arsenal's preferred formation will be either 4 3 3 or 4 5 1.The front man therefore will play a very important role at the top of the formation. And it seems that Wenger will go for the Argentinian Rodrigo Palacio of Boca Juniors.

He has a very good goals to games ratio of 0.5 or 39 goal in 79 games. And as you can see from the video clips he can score all type of goals: from long distance, inside the box, tap ins and headers too!

And he is at 25 not a typical Arsene signing as he is not a kid with potential (!) and is experienced enough to slot straight into the team. He will need of course time to get used to the Premiership.

Oh and he will, apparently, wear the No 14 shirt!

He will be, I hope, the front man missing from the post Henry puzzle.

by Arsenal Analysis

Arsenal said they had had no contact with Stan Kroenke since June despite reports in the British media on Friday that the American tycoon was preparing a to launch a takeover of the Premier League club.

So is Stan Kroenke talking shit or what?

The Arse chairman Peter Hill-Wood and MD Keith Edelman said the met Kroenke in New York in June for what a "an amicable meeting".

Stan Kroenke was invited to London for a return meeting but Arsenal had yet to receive a reply from him.

Reports sugest that a formal bid will be received within the next few days.

How much will he buy? Will he buy the boards 45% stake? if so that means he could have at least 57% stake in the club.

If Stan the man raised his Arsenal stake to 30 per cent he would be obliged by takeover rules to launch a formal bid.

David Dein was involved with Arsenal for over two decades before leaving the club and was sympathetic to a sale to the American, prompting his falling-out with chairman Hill-Wood.

Eventually all premiership clubs will be owned by Americans or Russians. Why dont British millionairs buy British Clubs?

My take of the Wenger interview on Sky is that he is more likely to stay at Arsenal football Club beyond his current contract rather than go!

All the newspapers and other electronic media have followed Sky’s spin on what the Arsenal manager said after the friendly game at Barnet (Arsenal won 2 – 0 Adebayor and Nacer Bazarite the scorers. You can watch the goals on the video window!)

Asked if he thought he would stay beyond his existing contract, he told Sky Sports News: "I have shown my commitment in the past."

Pressed on whether that meant he would be staying, he added:

"I will come out at the right moment... maybe when you don't ask me the question but I am not bothered about the English weather…..”! (you can listen to part of the interview on the video window)

The last reference to the weather was not reported by Sky.

Now what the hell has this got to do with whether he is staying or going you may well ask?

Well, the interviewer prior to asking him about his own intentions, asked about Reyes’s future.

Wenger, who was in a jovial mood, joked that Reyes wanted to leave because he didn’t like the rain and the English weather in general. And that he (Wenger) couldn’t change that for him!

And that’s why when asked about his own commitment Wenger, after saying "I will come out at the right moment" added “but I am not bothered about the English weather…..”!

I choose to interpret this as a positive sign.

It has been reported that a new deal is already on the table for him. I feel that the Board will not have gone into the trouble of drawing up a new set of terms and a contract if they did not feel that their chances of succeeding were good.

Wenger will not say anything about his future on a Saturday afternoon after a friendly match standing in front of a camera on the side of an empty pitch. He will want to do it properly at a press conference at the Emirates.

When he chooses.

By Arsenal Analysis

Excellent news coming out of Arsenal. And it is not only from the footballing side. Wenger, remember, has an economics degree and he is not one to ignore the financial side of the football business.

Sagna apparently has undergone a medical and is set to join for £7.5m. His pay will be £25,000 per week which translates to £1.3m a year.

But at the same time Freddie Ljumberg is finally set to join Fiorentina for, wait for it, £5.5m and Arsenal will be saving about £70,000 per week in wages or another £3.6m per annum! Since Freddie had another two years of his contract left then the saving on his wages is about £7.2m.

If you add the transfer fee of £5.5m then the total “income” from Freddie’s transfer will rise to almost £12.7m! Now this is what I call “good business”. Let’s hope it goes through.

If the Sagna deal goes through then the outlay for transfers so far will be as follows:

Dudu £8m
Sagna £7.5
Fabiansky £2m
H Nordveit £2m
Salaries for the above over the next two years: about £6m
(although I am not aware of Dudu’s salary I have assumed that it will be similar to Sagna’s and I have also added another £0.8m for the rest)
Total : £25.5m.

But if you look at transfer activity out of Arsenal then Wenger is very much in the black.

First and foremost is the huge saving on Henry’s transfer which amounts to £29m!

This includes the transfer fee received at £16m and the salary saved at £13m over the next two years (I chose two years so that a comparison could be made with the saving on Freddie’s salary which had two years to run).

Freddie’s departure will save another £12.7m as explained above.

But wait there are also the transfers of J Aliadiãre and F Muamba adding about another £4m in total.

If my arithmetic is right then total savings (over the next two years) from transfer activity out of Arsenal will come to a staggering £45.7m!

And an outlay so far (inclusive of the Sagna deal) of only £25.5m.

A profit of about £20m (and this doesn’t include the probable £6m to £8m that the sale of Reyes to Real Madrid will fetch!).

Add to this profit the £40m transfer kitty available to Wenger and you have a staggering £60m to spend on new players.

Come on Mr Wenger lets get some more retail therapy. We need it.

By Arsenal Analysis

Apparently Arsenal have already lodged a £6m bid with Auxerre and are waiting for permission to speak to Bakari Sagna.

The Auxerre president Gerard Bourgoin in his comments to the Daily Mail seems to imply that the transfer is on as the player is interested.

"Sagna has a deep desire to play in England and he genuinely wants to wear the Arsenal shirt. They seem keen to sign him as well. The conditions for him to leave have not all been met — at least for the time being."

Bakari Sagna is a right back and young enough at 24 to appeal to Wenger. They say he can also play at left back but he has appeared in all 38 of Auxerre’s games this season and they were all at right back.

So why would Wenger be interested in signing a right back when he has, in my opinion, two good defenders for that position, in Eboue and Hoyte, as well as a promising youngster in Kerrea Gilbert? And there are also other players that can cover for that position if need be like Djourou, Gallas and indeed Toure.

Is Wenger interested in buying additional cover when Eboue will be away at the Africa Nations Cup? It will be an expensive cover however at 6m and judging by how frugal Wenger is with Arsenal’s cash we just do not see this as being the main reason why Sagna is interesting him.

Alternatively there is a gap in the left back position where Traore although promising is still too raw and inexperienced to cover for Clichy if need be. And Sagna can also play at left back. Granted Arsenal need cover for this position (Arsene. Who to buy?) but surely Wenger’s first choice will be Clichy. He will not buy a 6m player just to have him sit on the bench.

Wenger is concentrating at the wrong end of the pitch. Shouldn’t he be utilizing his energy and available cash in recruiting a couple of forwards and a wide midfield player instead?

There can only be one viable reason for Wenger’s interest in Sagna if indeed he is interested! There is a possibility that Eboue could be pushed forward to the right midfield position as he has been tried by Wenger on a few occasions in the latter stages of last season’s campaign. Notably against Portsmouth, Manchester Utd and Chelsea with good effect.

If this is the case then Wenger may now be abandoning his search for another wide midfielder.

He will then have available for the two wide midfield positions Eboue, Hleb, Rosicky,Walcott and even Robin Van Persie (if and when Wenger chooses to play a 4 3 3 or a 4 5 1 formation).

I am assuming that Ljumberg will be moved on. He has lost his pace which was his most pivotal attribute as it enabled him to get behind defences and score. Additionally at around 4m a year for the next two years he is indeed a very very expensive bench warmer.

Under this scenario it would probably mean that there will be no place at Arsenal for Reyes. And we say this only from the financial point of view.

Indeed a committed Reyes, and I stress the word committed, would be a very attractive addition to this list, providing additional selection options and valuable cover all round (especially if Hleb does not improve the quality of his play significantly).

And a successful season for Reyes may push his price back to the level which Wenger bought him.

By 1970's Gooner - Arsenal Analysis