Saturday, January 14, 2012

Transfers? You want Transfers? Don't come here.

I wish I could furnish you today with news of multiple transfers, but alas I live in the real world. There is very little out there to report.

Looking through this list on Football 365, you realise that we're not alone. There is very little movement happening anywhere in the prem, even at Man City. Are the new Financial Fair Play regulations starting to take hold, I wonder?

Probably not, in all honesty. But it is interesting to see a team like Chelsea play hard-ball (somewhat) with Gary Cahill. From what certain tweeters have said, even they weren't automatically prepared to give him a big wage bump.

I wish I could come up with a list of names, but I can come only come up with a handful, really.

There was a lot of fuss about Salomon Kalou earlier in the week. Personally, I think he'd be an OK squad player, but not much more than that. He infuriates most Chelsea fans I know, and I'm not sure he'd be a sizeable improvement over our current options. But Arsene ruled this out today along with any potential moves for Man United's bad-boy/prodigy Ravel Morrison and also Anderlecht's Matias Suarez, despite suggestions earlier in the week that he'd already sign a pre-contract with us (whatever that means). In terms of attacking players, we need more than Henry to come in during this window, but there is not a lot to suggest that anyone new is coming in.

A player we might have gone for is Maxwell, who's just moved to PSG from Barca. However, if PSG were interested in him then that would have probably ruled us out, given their new money-bags status. Still, it shows that there are players out there, who are available, who we could possibly get if we were really determined to do so. I don't think it's reasonable to say that there is no value in the market.

If we are going to sign a player in this window, it'll probably be an LB on loan. Wayne Bridge's name keeps on being raised, but this has more to do with the British media's knowledge of players more than anything else. But Wwth Gibbs supposedly only 10 days from a return, I wouldn't even bet on a FB coming in.

Indeed, it's been a slow window so far, with no major transfers. After the catastrophe that was last summer, I think a lot of us were hoping for movement this January, to continue to make up for the gaping holes in our squad. Considering our first XI are knackered, we desperately need new bodies. Will they come? I'm not so sure. And if we have two catastrophic transfer windows in a row which lead to us missing out on CL qualification, while still having large sums in the bank, serious questions have to be asked about the management of the club - not just Arsene, but all the way up to the board.

I think the game tomorrow will say a lot about how the second half of the season will go. If we don't get 3 points, it could be the beginning of a long four months.

--------------

Click here to follow Goonerboy on Twitter and Facebook.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Have you notice how many EX EPL players via USA have turned up it all about ratings in the US plus players wages are over the TOP a general agreement most clubs not to BUY except Chelsea which is in fact a test case about wages.what do you think.