The latest news of discord at Arsenal has knock-on effects for us.
Arsene Wenger is facing the prospect of losing both of last season’s first choice centre backs, William Gallas (not exactly the most popular man at Arsenal) and now Kolo Toure has reportedly handed in a transfer request after having a bust-up with Gallas.
You would think that might shift Wenger’s attentions to his top transfer targets. The Sun, however, reckons that he would fail in a bid for Brede Hangeland. That organ, renowned for its accurate predictions of course, claims that ‘Fulham have said they are not interested in selling Brede Hangeland’ and the Telegraph thinks Wenger will switch his interest to one of his former players, Matthew Upson, at West Ham.
I was pondering this earlier. You also have Arsenal interested in Arteta, which would leave Everton a bit short in the middle, and then you get a Bullard problem (they were one of the clubs supposedly sniffing in the summer).
The other one is as you say, Hangeland, who could be used by Spurs and especially Arsenal.
If Everton have got any sense, they’ll battle to hang onto Arteta because along with Cahill I think he’s the player that makes them tick. He doesn’t get much press attention or focus but he’s absolutely fantastic. Can’t see Jimmy moving to Everton myself, to be honest.
As for Hangeland, this may be naive, but as each day passes I feel more and more confident about him staying with us beyond January. Of course, if somebody offers silly money for him we’d have to consider it but we’d have to go back into the market, find a defender who could replace him and you’d be looking at seriously big money IMHO – unless Roy’s scouting network has unearthed another gem.