No doubt they are. But Fulham will be desperate to hold onto their burgeoning central defensive talent. Could this be another protracted Hangeland-type saga or is it all just a bit of paper talk?
The man himself wants to emulate his England under-21 boss Stuart Pearce.
I have loved my time with the under-21s and getting to know some of the young stars in the Premier League has been great. The trips away have been brilliant, but learning off Stuart has been excellent for me. He is someone I really admire and he began his career in non-league like me. I hope I can follow in his footsteps.
He hopes to build on his first Premier League start at Chelsea just after Christmas.
It was great a great opportunity for me and I thought I played well. When the teams were shaking hands and I saw players like Didier Drogba, I had to pinch myself as I shook his hand, but I’m not letting it get to me. I know I’ve still got a lot to learn and I’m not going to get ahead of myself.
If, say, Arsenal offered £5m and Senderos, would you perhaps be tempted to take that? Senderos is still young, and having seen him play for Switzerland (and a bit for AC Milan), it is clear that he is a talented defender. He’s the type of player who could blossom under Hodgson. Whilst the same is certainly true of Smalling, we have no idea how much better he’s going to get. The reported £7m for a 20-year-old who has played a handful of matches is very good business, especially as he was signed for virtually nothing a little over a year ago.
That said, if Wenger rates him that highly…….
£5m plus Senderos? If they offered that I’d probably die laughing. I’m afraid I just don’t rate him. He’s far too error prone and, though we haven’t seen too much of Smalling, I reckon our boy’s a better prospect. If Wenger rates him (and my information is that this is just paper talk), then he should be prepared to table a very big cash only offer but I suspect Arsenal’s finances will dictate he won’t be paying big money for a while now.