Just Arsenal News

With Arsene Wenger revealing that injuries are taking their toll on his team, the papers are full of Arsenal transfer news this morning.

I have already covered the Phillipe Senderos to Celtic story earlier, but there is another couple of bits of gossip around. The newest name to be bandied around is the young Fulham defender Chris Smalling. The Daily Mirror reports that Wenger has offered £7m for the big talented defender.

He could be the long-term replacement for William Gallas and would add some height to the notoriously small Arsenal team. Whether Fulham will be willing to let him go is another matter! Read the full article here

It has been reported today that Arsenal are currently in negotiations for a new goalkeeper.

Arsene Wenger doesn’t seem to know who is the best out of Manuel Almunia, Vito Mannone and Lukasz Fabianski, and the Arsenal fans think that there are question marks over all three of them.

So they are talking to Fulham to see if they will release the 17 year-old James Dunn to the Young Gunners on a permanent basis, after joining on emergency loan this month.

According to the Young Guns website, Dunn has been at Fulham for a year since joing them from Millwall, and has already impressed on a loan period at Southend. Read the full article here

Arsenal’s new young goalkeeping hero, Vito Mannone, has revealed today that he came close to going out on loan to a Championship side in pre-season, but once Lukas Fabianski got injured, he was asked to stay as understudy to Almunia.

“In the summer, yes, we had a talk about a loan move,” Vito said. “The boss was quite happy for me to go somewhere and play, because as you can see now, I was ready to play games. Read the full article here

According to a few papers today, It seems that Arsene Wenger is preparing to give the young Polish keeper Wojciech Szczesny his Premier League debut against Fulham on Saturday.

Szczesny was impressive on Tuesday against West Brom, and pulled off some very good saves. This may have convinced Arsene Wenger that maybe it is about time that he was given his chance in front of Vito Mannone. Read the full article here

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admitted during the last transfer window that he had looked at bringing Fulham defender Brede Hangeland to the Emirates last summer, but he didn’t make a concrete approach to Fulham.

Hangeland and Fulham have still not reached agreement on a new contract, and with the clock ticking, the 28 year-old knows that he could command a bigger wage packet if he moved on a Bosman next summer.

Hangeland’s agent, Rune Hauge, said today: “There was interest in Brede — but nothing concrete, so now is a good time to resume talks with Fulham. Read the full article here

Now that Arsenal are halfway to earning another squillion pounds from being in the Champions League proper, i fully expect Arsene Wenger to buy at least one more player, but todays rumours are mostly about who will NOT be joing the Gunners.

The Fulham defender Brede Hangeland fully expects to remain at Craven Cottage next season, which is not surprising really as Roy Hodgson and Asene Wenger have already both said that there have been no discussons between them. He said: “I’m not going to sit here and lie – you do think about these things. I thought about it a lot when I was with the national team, when there was a lot of talk. Read the full article here

I have been saying for the last two weeks that there is absolutely no chance that Arsenal will be buying Brede Hangeland from Fulham, but now i’m not so sure. In fact i now think that it is even LIKELY to happen!

Arsene Wenger said that he had looked at Hangeland but had made no contact, then Roy Hodgson announced that he had not spoken to Arsenal, at any time, about a possible move, although the papers suggested that he had put a £15m price tag on his head. Read the full article here

The Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh is still desperate for a move to the Premiership, preferably with Arsenal, but Arsene Wenger seems to think that he will be starting the season with the players he already has, and says that he trusts the squad as it is.

Chamakh said yesterday: “My priority is Arsenal, but there are other clubs,”

“If it’s Arsenal, so much the better. I hope it’ll be sorted out very quickly.”

He added: “I am not sleeping as well as I normally do.

“I made my wishes known to the directors at the end of last season. I expressed a wish to join another league. Read the full article here

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has moved to distance himself from the rumours that Brede Hangeland and Marouane Chamakh are likely to join the Gunners before the end of the transfer window.

He said about Chamakh yesterday: “We had an interest in him,” said Wenger at Great Ormond Street Hospital. “But he is rated far too high for us.”

Whether this is just a ploy in his negotiating skills we won’t know probably until the end of the window, but at least we know that he has been talking to Bordeaux about a possible move. Read the full article here