Another week........

So we have passed another week from our last news update and it seems that Arsenal are no near signing a player then they were a week ago.

First, we will start with the biggest ongoing transfer rumor from an Arsenal point of view, Gonzalo Higuain. He has clearly stated that he wants to leave the club and it's no secret that Arsenal are interested him. According to the Daily Mail on Thursday, Arsenal had agreed personal terms of around £150,000-a-week with Gonzalo Higuain ahead of the striker's club record £22million move. While have a run a story which says that the player has agreed on £130k a week salary. In contrast to these reports the player's agent,Ernesto Bronzetti  said an interview with tuttomercatoweb ,"Higuain to Arsenal, not to my knowledge." He also said that nothing was definite until Real Madrid appoint their new manager. So it seems that we will have to wait another week or two until we see a conclusion.

There's little in other transfer news, mostly being related to youth players, quite understandable, as Arsenal released 15 youth players this summer. French under-21 starlet Gilbert Imbula is said to be watched by Arsenal scouts. Arsenal are also said to be keeping tabs on Sevilla's Geoffrey Kondogbia who is a £10m target for Chelsea.

Arsenal have also enquired about Levante's Ruben Garcia, 19, and are monitoring Lille star Dimitri Payet as they look to ship out Gervinho who is wanted by Marseille.

While there is no new speculation on other supposed transfer targets like Swansea defender Williams and we have made players like him a special group to add, the 'Discarded Arsenal transfer humors'
While Usmanov did say that he would like to see Rooney in an Arsenal shirt, we don't he is a realistic Arsenal target.
While Marouane Fellani gets added by default.

So you've got it. It's a busy silly summmer, and we'll meet you after another silly week. 

Morning everyone it’s got to that point in the summer when things start to get painful. The silly old rumors are still floating around, and reaction from Ivan's words in the recent interviews are still echoing around the Arsenal world. It looks like it has been ages since we last saw Arsenal playing. So let us now take a quick look at all the latest news.

The latest news coming in is that our chairman Peter Hill-Wood is stepping down as chairman of the club after serving for 31 years as chairman. He is to be replaced by former Bank of England director Chips Keswick. Hill-Wood was a colleague of Chips Keswick at Hambros and subsequently saw him recruited to the Arsenal board to provide strong city contacts at a time when the club were financing their new stadium. We wish Peter Hill Wood a tearful farewell after 51 years of service to the club and Mr. Chips a hearty welcome.

As for the transfer news, it is being reported Arsenal have signed 16 year old swedish talent, Jamaal Raage. After releasing 15 year players from their youth academy this seems as a probable signing. The player says "It is something that everyone wants[playing for Arsenal], no one would turn down something like this, it is good for my development. I'm moving to England sometime in July,I will live with a family there."

While Andre Santos who was shipped out on loan in January at Gremio, after the arrival of Nacho Monreal from Malaga, says that he would have liked to extended his loan stay in his country. With Kieran Gibbs and Nacho Monreal, ahead of him, it is most probably that Arsenal him off the books.

At last, there are some links which are very improbable so I'll do it quickly. First one is Fernando Torres being linked to us. The report says that Chesea's new manager Jose Mourinho thinks Torres is surplus to requirement and is looking forward to offloading the player. 

So that's it for today. Till tomorrow.

Arsenal rejected Zaha

Wilfried Zaha who many a times was linked with Arsenal in January was rejected by the club before he joined Manchester United for a reported £15m fee. Many Arsenal fans were left unhappy that Arsenal could not beat United to signing the young forward. Though the story turns out to be different.

Crystal Palace chairman Ron Noades said: “When Steve Parish sold Zaha I was mildly involved in it as I tried to get Arsenal to buy him, but they were not interested. 

“I spoke to David Dein as I did not want Zaha to go to Manchester United, I wanted him to stay in London."

Zaha was a key figure for Palace appearing in 43 games scoring six goals and importantly winning the penalty in the 1-0 play-off final victory over Watford at Wembley last month.

Transfer updates

It really is hectic to go around the web to catch on all the latest transfer rumors about Arsenal. So over here I will try to compile all the info from the web to save your time and effort. I just hope I am successful and that you like my work.

1. Gonzalo Higuain 

On Tuesday , re-elected Real Madrid president Perez had denied claims that Arsenal had made a bid let alone an enquiry for the striker, and had been quoted saying, "To date no team has told us of his interest in Higuain. I do not know what will happen tomorrow" . He also said that any team who wants to sign Higuain will have to offer more that £25.5m/30m euros. While on the same day Goal.com reported that Arsenal have made an enquiry for the talented marksman. While caughtoffside took it a step further reporting 'exclusively' that Arsenal were close to completing a £21m move for Higuain and the announcement is imminent .......... it just becomes hysterical sometimes :D .With chief executive Ivan Gazidis hinting at ongoing talks with an ‘unknown’ transfer target during an Arsenal Supporters Trust meeting Monday night, during which he stated that moves for prospective additions were held up due to discussions with club’s who were without a manager. And Real Madrid are one such club. So I don't see this transfer saga ending anytime soon.

2. Marouane Fellani

After Gazidis emphasised on Friday that Arsene Wenger was given money to spend and it was his decision how to use it, a report surface on Goal.com where they 'revealed' that Arsenal had activated Fellani's release clause believed to be in the region of £22m pounds. Since then the news was picked by many sites until the next day when BBC reporter, David Ornstein said that Arsenal have no interest in signing Fellani, along with Rooney and Julio Cesar[Both were linked to Arsenal by Goal.com] via his twitter account. It was until Tuesday when Goal.com again reported that Arsenal had activated the £22m release clause and were awaiting permission to open talks with the Belgian. Caughtoffside also reported that Arsenal have been given encouragement by the player’s representatives suggesting he is open to such a switch. While David Martinez the new Tofees Boss was quoted in the Sun on Sunday , "I don't think it is an issue.You are not talking about a player who is out of the squad or in negotiations with another club. I won't look to speak to him about this because there is nothing to speak about. I don't think he is personally thinking, 'Am I going to be here?' I don't think that's in his head." I think I would leave it up to you to conclude this piece.

3.  22 year old Lyon midfielder Clement Grenier,  who Gunners boss Arsene Wenger declared an interest in during May and said that he reminds him of former Arsenal player Na$ri , has said that he will decide his future once he returns from his France international duty, "We will see about my future after the internationals, during my vacation." 

4. While Victor Wanyama, who Arsene Wenger was urged to sign by midfielder Aaron Ramsey and former player Perry Groves has said "I still have a contract with Celtic and I am their player, but if anything comes up and it is good for me and the club, from there I will move on. At the moment there are some things, some talks going on. But I am concentrating with the national side and I have left that with my agent". 

5. The Daily Star reports that Real Madrid have joined the race to sign long time Arsenal target Stevan Jovetic. The report stated that Real Madrid have made an enquiry for the player and see him as an ideal  replacement for Gonzalo Higuain, who has told Madrid chiefs that he wants to leave the Bernabeu. BBC reporter David Ornstein has said via his twitter account that Arsenal are keeping tabs on the talented young striker but he is no more a priority. It looks as if the price tag kept (said to be £25m) by Fiorentina will be too much for Arsenal (who are willing to offer £21m at most), and if Juve, Real Madrid reports are to believed, I think we are nowhere near to signing this talented young player.

So that is it for today. I hope you have enjoyed this article.
Thank You.
Till Tomorrow.

Q & A with Gazidis

Yesterday, Ivan Gazidis answered many questions from the Arsenal Supporters. He made it clear that Arsenal have funds to spend. It is now AW's prerogative to decide spend or not. Over here, we will you give you the most interesting ones. You can find the full Q & A over here.

1. Q: Why did we give Manchester United the title by selling them Robin van Persie?

IG: It’s one of the most difficult decisions we’ve ever had to make. I understand the people that say we should have let his contract run down and I accept that what happened is difficult to agree with. Our motivation was not to pocket £24m, it was a decision about how best to develop our team’s potential with the choices that we had- all of which were bad. It hurts me to see him score goals and win the league with Manchester United, of course I don’t feel happy or good about myself seeing that.

2. Q: Yes, but why didn’t the club incentivise him to stay? Whether it be through goal bonuses or bonuses for winning trophies?

IG: Financial incentives are not always the issue. Robin van Persie is a guy who always gave his best, both for Arsenal and now for Manchester United. Financial incentives weren’t all that was important to him.

3. Q: You’ve been quoted as saying that the club has to reconsider the flat wage structure in order to pay the best players the best salaries. Yet just a few weeks ago Arsene Wenger said he decides what players are paid and that he prefers a ‘socialist’ wage structure.  Can you confirm that player salaries are your responsibility?

IG: Where we start is assessment of talent before we even think about the wages. Arsene assesses the talent. Once he makes that assessment we look at how to fit it in. We’re going to have to pay market rates and we’re going to have to evolve. I think the situation will evolve so that top players will earn more and players in the middle will stay about the same. So our structure will have to evolve.

Arsene is completely on board with that. He is not afraid to pay world class money for world class talent. We have never said that there was an absolute structure and I’m not sure I know which comments from Arsene you were referring to. We’ve competed against clubs that have spent much more than us and overall- I know that’s a word Arsene likes to use a lot- we think he has done a good job.

4. Q: What are the specific roles of yourself, Dick Law and Stan Kroenke and what would you say are your successes on the playing side?

IG: I have been asked what it is I do before but much less politely than that, so thank you! We have an owner that hasn’t put any debt on the club, who hasn’t taken any management fees, he doesn’t treat the club as his own personal fiefdom or as his plaything. He’s respectful of the club’s freedom. We’re lucky to have an owner with a vast experience in sports and sports ownership, with significant contacts and he’s supported the club very tangibly. A lot of our commercial successes are down to his knowledge.

My job is off the field, to represent the club and supporting the manager and his footballing conditions. Dick Law works with me and Arsene in negotiation of player deals, he has vast experience in that, he speaks 5 different languages and flies all around the world to negotiate deals. Arsene is in charge of the talent and myself and Dick Law give him support.

5. Q: Arsene Wenger says, in his words, that he’s only interested in super quality players. Yet we’ve seen some far from super quality players arrive. You’ve spoken about the money available to him. Is Arsene Wenger committed to spending it and spending it on more expensive, better quality players?

IG: Arsene is committed to top class that he believes in. That’s not always necessarily the most expensive. Santi Cazorla wasn’t that expensive but he is top class. Now I’m not sending a message that all deals will be like Cazorla so everything will be alright. But any deal starts with the talent with the manager believes in. We believe in his judgement, if we didn’t, we’d have the wrong man. We think he has done an outstanding job in this environment.

We have always made the money we generate available to him to spend, it’s a very simple philosophy. That hasn’t been enough to compete with a club like Manchester United and Chelsea and Manchester City. Where Arsene has done an outstanding job is to stay in the mix of the top teams, not where we want to be, but in the mix, on a relatively limited budget. He is not scared to spend money but he has to believe he is getting a top class player. The parameters in which he has to operate is to spend what the club can afford and my job is to make that as big as possible and Arsene’s job is to think about which talent he wants to spend that on in the best way possible.

It’s absolutely a joint mission between myself, Arsene and Stan Kroenke to put Arsenal at the top of world football. We haven’t gone forwards, but we haven’t gone backwards either. Now we have to go forwards. You’re asking me to guarantee that money will all be spent. But it also depends on what talent is available. If we only find one player that we like, we won’t spend twice as much on him just so we can say we spent all of the money. That doesn’t make any sense to me. The key will be to buy the players Arsene Wenger believes in.

6. Q: You’ve spoken a lot about Bayern this evening. Is there any chance we’ll ever hear you say what Uli Hoeness said recently about ticket pricing?

IG: They are in a different environment in the Bundesliga. You look at this year’s Champions League final between two great clubs and two great teams. I think there’s a lot we can learn from the Bundesliga. I’ve been a big fan for more than a decade. Their model on ticket pricing is very different and the way they make their money is very different. They have relatively low ticket pricing and very high commercial revenues.

One of things coming into Arsenal that was very clear to me was that we were too dependent on local revenue streams and now we’re moving towards ‘spreading the burden’ if you like and diversifying those revenue streams. We hadn’t really grasped the international value of our brand and commercialised that. We’ve relied hugely on our ticket revenue streams, but as our commercial revenues grow and actually, as our broadcast revenues grow, it balances our revenue in a better way and it takes some of the pressure off. I cannot tell you that we’re going to go the whole way of the Bundesliga, because their model is very different, but if we develop our commercial revenue streams, it takes the pressure off of local revenues.

7. Q: Is there any prospect of a stadium capacity increase and what are the club doing to encourage a better atmosphere in the ground?

IG: We’re in a good place with capacity and due to the stadium design, it’s not easy to extend anyway. We think 60,000 is about right for us. With regards to atmosphere, we’ve looked at things inside the stadium and made some changes to make it more welcoming. It’s been challenging to get like minded fans together, which certainly contributes to a better atmosphere inside. I know there’s a long tradition of fans going to the pub before games and we don’t want to stop that, that’s how I went to football before I worked here. But we have worked to make the place more welcoming. If we can get food at the right prices- and I think I’m right in saying we have some of the cheapest pies in the league here now (said with wry smile), then we hope we can help create a more welcoming environment.

Source : Arseblog News

Demba Ba a possible summer target for Arsenal ? I don't think so.

Earlier today Caughtoffside posted a piece saying that Arsenal could make a move for January Chelsea signing Demba Ba. It tells us the new Blues boss Jose Mourinho thinks that Ba is surplus to requirements (Blues are also reported to have signed Napoli star striker Edinson Cavani), and Arsenal could lodge a £9m offer for the striker.

I think that this signing is highly improbable. We already have Giroud in that position and both are almost tactically the same, so this signing would make us tactically inert. Secondly, Arsene himself had said [before the Newcastle game on 29 Dec, 2012 ] " If you ask me 'do we sign Demba Ba?' I say no." And if he was really interested in the player he could have then bought him in January by triggering his £7.5m release clause.

First Post and Transfer Round Up

So this is the first post on my new blog. I am very excited to start on this project. I am a 16 year old boy and hope to bring forth my views to many Arsenal fans world wide.

The season has ended and all talk is about Arsenal, and their new found financial power and how they are targeting big names to challenge for the title, again. The first signing has already been made in the form of Yaya Sanogo, though the fee has not been disclosed yet.

The media reports that Arsenal are also in talks with Real Madrid's striker Higuain as we try and improve our attack which has been often found wanting last season. The other players reported to be on Arsenal's striker shortlist according to the media are Fiorentina's Stevan Jovetic and want away Manchester United star Wayne Rooney. In January, Barcelona striker David Villa had been close to signing for Arsenal but the club did not allow him to go and if reports are to be believed Arsenal interest in the striker have cooled. While Christian Benteke was quoted as saying by the Express."If the chance comes up for me to join a club like Arsenal, I am convinced that we can reach a compromise where everybody comes out a winner".  Personally, I don't think there will be many signings in this department when we already have Giroud as the main strike and Sanogo as back up, and also our two widemen, Podolski and Walcott. 

In the midfield category Arsenal were reported to have launched a stunning £22m pound bid for Everton big man Maroune Fellani. Though today a BBC reporter reports that both the clubs have denied any such activity. Clement Grenier who recently made his International debut is said to be high on Wenger wishlist. Wenger told French programme Telefoot: 'We are following him. His intelligence of play pleases me. He has interesting qualities. He reminds me of Nasri.' And according to the Daily Mail Arsenal are ready to bid £8m pounds for the youngster. But the most exciting gossip going on is Arsenal being linked for Cesc Fabregas returning to club. Wenger told Al Jazeera "I think at the moment he's lacking the confidence of being a regular player," said Wenger. "Recently he has not been that".. Another sensational but least probable rumour is Wenger attempting to capture Borussia Dortmund's midfield  star Gundogan for a £20 million fee, according to the Mail. With players like Wilshere, Ramsey, Cazorla, Arteta and possibly Chamberlain in midfield again there is least possibility that we might sign more than two high profile midfielders this summer. Surely, Arsenal having been found lacking brute strength in midfield, and could do with one more creative player to lift the intense amount of load on Cazorla.

With our club captain Vermaelen relegated to the bench for the most of our last 11 games, speculation suggests he could leave the club, with interest from Juventus and Barcelona. But he was quoted as saying by Het Laatste Nieuws “I’m happy at Arsenal. The only problem was that I did not play much and that did leave me frustrated, but things can change quickly. I suddenly found myself on the bench, but I can get myself back into the team again just as suddenly. I will work hard to do that ".  The Sun later also reported that Arsenal could sell their skipper for as ridiculous as £5m pounds. As a result reports surfaced proclaiming that Arsenal had a high interest in signing Swansea defender Williams. Here is a piece from the Mail "Arsenal made an initial enquiry for the Wales centre half in January and expected to renew their interest in the coming weeks but on Friday Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins denied there had been any contact between the clubs yet".

Finally in the keeper's section Arsenal are said to be interested in relegated side QPR's keeper Julio Cesar who wants to stay in London. According Goal.com Singapore, Arsenal are ready to offer £1m for Brazil's No.1.  Begovic was also said to be high on Arsenal's shortlist but the  £13m valuation of the Bosnian cooled Arsenal's interest. Another candidate is Sunderland's Simon Mignolet which is very unlikely as the reports linking him to Arsenal suggests he would become our No.1 after, which I think can only happen if Arsene is ready to let Szczesny go.

I would like to thank you for reading my blog and I hope you have liked it. I also request you to post comments and suggestions below. Right then that is it for today, have a nice Monday. Till Tomorrow.