Potential Arsenal signings unlikely as Wenger wants cake

Despite the lack of club football, there’s still a little bit going on around the Arsenal Football Club at the moment.

Kicking things off with a little bit of transfer news and Dynamo Zagreb and Croatian international midfielder Luca Modric, who was previously thought to be a target of Arsenal, has stated his intent to play in the English Premiership.

“I’d love to play in the Premiership. I’d like things to happen soon and it’s possible maybe even this winter. I don’t have a preference for a club. There are a few big clubs in England where I would love to play.”

Luca Modric: good player, but not worth £30millionThere were huge rumours circulating just after Arsene Wenger signed Eduardo da Silva that he would be following up by bringing Modric to Arsenal as well. However, these never eventuated and although Modric is unquestionably a fine player, I can’t see them eventuating now either. There a couple of reasons for this; the first being that he is too similar to both Tomas Rosicky and Alexander Hleb in terms of his favoured position and style of play, and the second being that he is reportedly valued at £30million. When you consider that Chelsea paid £24million for Didier Drogba it really is a ludicrous amount of money to spend on a player who only has experience in the Croatian First Division.

A player who may be more within Wenger’s usual price-range is on-loan Villareal defender Martin Caceres. The 19-year-old Uruguayan defender, who is currently on-loan with Recreativo and has been likened to former Uruguayan legend Paolo Montero by the ex-Juventus man himself, surprisingly claimed that Arsenal as well as Real Madrid and Juventus are after his services.

“At the moment I’m only thinking about Recreativo, but Arsenal, Real Madrid and Juventus are interested in me.”

These is a pretty massive claim for a player at such a small club to make and it seems like nothing more than a load of bollocks to me. If Arsene Wenger really was looking into the player then it wouldn’t be made public knowledge. Arsenal’s manager is a man who likes to work using stealth and in a competitive and overpriced marketplace the worse thing you can do as a prospective Wenger signing is start alerting other clubs that interest is being shown in you. We’ll probably hear soon that he’s worth £28 million and Manchester United and Chelsea are after him as well. You have to love football news sometime.

Arsene Wenger really has no right to be unhappyWenger’s Ivory Coast frustrations are wrong

Although Wenger has not said a word about either Modric or Caceres, he was quite vocal today about the Ivory Coast’s football management’s inflexibility over when international players from that country can be released for African Cup of Nations (ACN) duty. Wenger, who will lose defender Kolo Toure and right-midfielder Emmanuel Eboue to international duty, commented that he would not be approaching the Ivory Coast football management in an attempt to extend the two players stay with their club before the tournament.

“Before the last tournament we tried to negotiate a later release date with the Ivory Coast, but we had no success so we won’t try this time. I count them out from about 5th January until approximately the middle of February.”

Now I love Wenger but, as a couple of other Arsenal blogs have pointed out, this is simply a case of the French manager wanting his cake and eating it too (whatever that really means). He knew about this long before the season started – that is why Johan Djourou was sent on loan to Birmingham and part of the reason why Bacary Sagna was bought to the club – and his comment is nothing but a cheap and unnecessary dig at the Ivory Coast management. They have every right to have their players for the maximum amount of time in an attempt to get the best possible result they can achieve at the tournament and Arsenal and Wenger will just have to do without.

As I just mentioned, Djourou will be returning from his loan spell and should slot in for Toure while Eboue’s spot in the team can be filled by Theo Walcott, Alexander Hleb or even Lassana Diarra. Arsenal will be hit nowhere near as hard as Chelsea will be (imagine losing Didier Drogba, Jon Obi Mikel, Michael Essien and Solomon Kalou – ouch) and with Emmanuel Adeabayor surprisingly being made available should cope reasonably well.

That’s about it for the today. There was a little bit of news from yesterday that Mathieu Flamini may have been injured on international duty with France but as nothing has been confirmed it’s not really worth writing about at this stage. If more news pops up on this issue in the near future you’ll be the first to know. Have a good one.

What do you think?

Have your say on the unlikely signings or the ACN by leaving a comment.

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Comments

  1. I think CAF should have a rething about the timing of the Nations Cup, am an arsenal fan and I understand what the effect of losing Kolo and Eboue at this crucial stage of the League is to Arsenal.. Look at teams like Chelsea losing Drogba, Kalou, Essien and Mikel not toeven talk of Portsmouth whose attack is solely all African.
    Teams might stop signing African Players and I remember Jose Mourhino saying Chelsea has no plans of signing any African Players anymore this season, I dont see how this will help the development of Afican Football in anyway

  2. I think you’re right, but when would you have it? UEFA and World Cup competitions take precedence (and rightly so), and combining these with the Federations Cup means that is difficult to find time for other tournaments in the off-season without tiring the players. It could hinder the development of African football definitely, but how could it be fixed? Play the tournament in the off-season or earlier in the season? It’s a tough one.

  3. His gripe isn’t with the ACN at all, it’s the fact that last time kolo and manu were called up for saturday only to sit around doing nothing until monday. They could have played saturday, at least manu who’d just come back from injury and was short of match practice. AW has the best understanding of their fitness levels etc, but rather than talk to him and then disagree, they effectively blanked him. LACK OF RESPECT! and pretty stupid too if you ask me!

  4. In a way, yes. But he will always be acting in the best interests of his club and that might not be the best for the Ivory Coast. What they want to do with their time given to them is up to them. The point is that rules are rules and there was really no need for Wenger to bring up this issue again. It just seems like a cheap shot to me.

  5. True, rules are rules, but still there’s always place for compromise, common sense, respect… (maybe he hopes they might relent this time?) I think he truly has the player’s interests at heart – ultimately that is in the clubs interests too. he doesnt want them coming back crocked after all. If it is a cheap shot it’s quite mild compared to one of fergie’s trademark cheap shots!

  6. We both agree on that, for sure. The reason why I see it as cheap is that he knows he can’t get the players, he admitted as much. There really was no reason to say anything and the fact that it is now in the Arsenal Magazine is a little bit annoying. I love Wenger for sure, but sometimes he goes a bit too far with his Club v Country debate.

  7. well im a south african, and from what ive heard, one of the reasons they dont wanna move the ACN to june is because it is winter in the most of africa! it might sound stupid, but CAF think that if they have the ACN in june, u take away the opertunity for west and central african countrys to host the ACN! CAF is very stubbern, i i doubt theyll actualy move the tournemant to june.

  8. Caceres is a CB on loan from Villareal. That means Villareal value Pascal Cygan more than they do Caceres. Cygan actually plays for Villareal every week but Caceres can’t even get on the bench. Yeah, I’m believing that one.

  9. We will be losing our best Cb – Kolo and our new surprising winger Eboue which will be a big loss but we have players to help, Djourou – Sendy and same 4 the wing. But u hav 2 feel for chelsea. Drogba – star striker, Essien – Midfield maestro, Mikel – Young prospect, Kalou – underrated! Whereas who are man U going to lose, no-one. I think that if we can do well in the January then that is good cuz I see Chelsea slipping up a couple of times but i think Man U will stay strong. It will be their best time to challenge for top spot.

  10. im so annoyed – England 2-3 Croatia!!!!! AARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH! If Arsenal fail to win on Saturday thn this is gunna be a cruel end 2 a S**t week!! AAARRRRRGGGHHH

  11. What can I say. It was the worst England performance for a very long time I felt sorry for Carson. I’ve never seen a goalkeeper so terrified of the whole occasion.He made some terrible mistakes but not only him I didn’t know Lampard was playing. Wayne Bridge was awful.I would only give some credit to Bekham.Even though Eduardo didn’t score he was the main threat and provided the second goal. from an Arsenal point view it is good to see.

  12. I’m very happy Eduardo didn’t score. If he had been one of the scorers to knock England out he would get booed every time he’s on the pitch for the rest of the season. England looked shocking – Carson’s error for the first and poor effort for the third was not up to scratch. I was just thinking, I feel Croatia could be real outsiders for the tournament. Eduardo, Olic, Modric and Bilic, who I see as one of the best young coaches going around. They might well be worth a punt.

  13. Billic said before the game his dream is to manage in the premier league one day and he used this match as a show piece of what he can do.Credit to him and I’m sure he will do one day but he has to stop smoking in front of the camera.I disagree regarding that Eduardo wolud’ve been targeted if he scored. In England they respect honest players who show good skill if he dived or something like that then yes they would target him Kranjer scored he plays for Portsmouth I don’t think he’ll be targeted.

  14. Maybe not. The thing about Eduardo is that he plays for one of the big clubs and it would be very easy to start hating him. Just my opinion though. Bilic is a top manager, I think he really knows how to motivate his team and his tactics are usually spot on. Interesting that England got the same amount of points as Israel – really shows how poor they were during qualifying.

  15. england bye bye england

    bilic is mad…..let him smoke, who doesnt love a bad arse coach..bet u he gets along with his players really well and they love playin for him and he gives it to them if they dont perform….all the attributes of a good side unlike england and its red nut crappy coach.

  16. I am really annoyed that England went out. 2-0 down i thought we were out then, but for Lamps and Crouvhy to draw level on for bloody Petric to score, it angers me. Also why play a keeper who would be on their competitve debut in a game that you could not lose. McClaren does, I would have piked james, Carson is rubbish. Please Arsenal make all the bad stuff go away!

  17. Carson should have saved Petric’s shot. It was a good hit but not good enough to beat a goalkeeper at that level. As for Krancjar’s early shot… eek. I’m not sure who the English goalkeeper should be, Carson could be the answer but as you say, it’s ridiculous giving someone their competitive debut in a game as important as that.

  18. this is going to be a good w/e fry. Arsenal’s going to thump wigan and labor’s going to romp it in in the election 😀

  19. Romp it? I’m not so sure about that. I think things are definitely going to be a little closer than that. Hopefully the comment about Wigan rings true though. What did you make of England’s loss?

  20. Those that are making ignorant comments about Africa will know the reason the African Nation cup is not played in summer is due to the weather. However, i do agree that the possibility of playing every four years, rotating with the world cup, like the Euros and Copa America has great merit.

  21. its gong to be interesting against Wigan,coz i dont think we will be as fluid going forward as we are with Cesc in the team,but i think we will be solid defensive as usual and one thing i cant wait for is to see Diarra in the middle of the park because unlike Diaby he is going o take his chance and show Le Boss what an asset he can be.id diaby recovers i would go with a line-up like this given Berto will be out with jet-lag..

    Almunia
    Sagna Kolo Gallas Clichy
    Hleb Diarra Diaby(Denii) Rosicky
    Ade Walcott

    SUBS:Lehmann,Sendy,Denii(..),Eduardo,Van P

  22. I personally think van Persie will start. If he’s fit he definitely will start. I think there’s also a chance that Gilberto may start as well. Having said that, the combination of Diaby and Diarra – the potential future France midfield – should be great to watch.

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