Just Arsenal News

Ever since Arsene Wenger took over as the manager of Arsenal Football Club back in 1996, the Frenchman has made the academy and youth development parts of the club very important. Ideally, Wenger would like to follow the Barcelona example of being able to field a whole team of players who have come through the Arsenal ranks.

This would be great for financial reasons, but also because it would mean the players would have huge ties to the club. They would, hopefully, be more reluctant to leave and would be more determined to help bring success. That is all well and good in principle, but it hasn’t really been working too well. .......Read the full article here

It may seem strange that Arsenal are being linked with a player who failed to impress at West Brom, but the Spanish midfielder Borja Valero has been a key figure in the success of the Serie A club Fiorentina this season. The 28-year old joined the Italian club from Villareal in the summer and has been a fixture in the Fiorentina side, scoring twice and setting up 10 goals in their race to qualify for the Champions League. .......Read the full article here

It is up to Arsene Wenger what players he picks for Arsenal, I suppose, but his decision to rest a number of first team players while the Gunners face possibly the toughest game of the season against Bayern in Munich is strange to say the least. With Jack Wilshere, Lukas Podolski and Bacary Sagna already out through injury, Wenger has chosen to rest Theo Walcott, Santi Cazorla, Wojciech Szczesny and Per Mertesacker, according to the Daily Mail.

It has not gone down well with Arsenal fans and football commentators alike, with the BBC presenter Gary Lineker tweeting his disapproval. .......Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger looks set to have at least £70 million to spend in the summer to revamp the Arsenal squad and make a serious challenge for major honours next season. The does not mean that the Frenchman will stop looking at the potential of young players, however, and one who seems to have attracted his attention is the 22-year old Sebastian Rode from Eintracht Frankfurt.

It is reported in the Sun that Wenger may be preparing a summer offer to the Bundesliga club of around £7 million for the versatile midfielder who has played for the German international side at four different underage levels but has yet to win his first senior cap. The paper describes Rode as a defensive midfielder, but in his last three games for Eintracht he has played on the left, on the right and as a support striker, so would seem to be more of an all rounder. .......Read the full article here

Arsenal were expected to sign a few players in the January transfer window anyway, but they have already agreed deals with West Ham and Hannover for Chamakh and Djourou until the end of the season. With Squillachi and Arshavin also expected to leave, either permanently or on loan, Arsene Wenger has even more options and wages to play with.

If Squillachi does leave, it will allow Wenger to sign two top quality defenders, and the German international Benedikt Howedes is likely to be one of them. The 24-year old captain of Schalke has halted the talks he was having with the German club about extending his contract which runs out in 2014. .......Read the full article here

There are worrying reports emanating from Germany that suggest Arsenal are close to missing out on the transfer of the talented young midfielder Lewis Holtby. The dynamic 22-year old played against the Gunners this season in the champions league for the German club Schalke, and was very impressive.

With his contract at Schalke due to end in the summer, Holtby has told the Bundesliga club that he is ready for a move to the Premier league. A number of clubs were interested in him, but it seemed as if Arsenal were leading the race. His first choices were Everton, who his English father supports, and Arsenal, because of our history, style of play and reputation. .......Read the full article here

Arsenal are believed to be the favourites to be the next club of Lewis Holtby. The midfielder, who plays for the German Bundesliga side Schalke, has decided not to sign a new contract and could leave on a free transfer in the summer. Liverpool are also very keen on the 22-year old, but his English father is an Everton fan, and Holtby has said that he would be reluctant to join their rivals. .......Read the full article here

There is no chance of Arsenal meeting the German side Schalke in the next round of the Champions league, the draw for which is made tomorrow, as they were in the same group stage. The team from Gelsenkirchen could still have an effect on the rest of the season for the Gunners, however.

Despite topping their European group, the manager of Schalke, Huub Stevens, has been sacked from his job and replaced him with Jens Keller. Keller had been in charge of the under-17s but has been moved up, Stevens got the chop after six league games without a win left his side seventh in the Bundesliga. .......Read the full article here

Arsenal fans can stop getting excited about the Dutch international striker, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, coming to the rescue in January, according to the general manager of his current club Schalke 04. The German team have failed to persuade the striker to sign a new deal and his contract finishes next summer. Despite that, Horst Heldt insists that there is no way the 29-year old will be heading to the Emirates at the start of next year.

“(Huntelaar leaving) is just a rumour and a fairytale. There is no truth to the rumours linking him to Arsenal.” .......Read the full article here

It looks like Arsenal will have a choice of two strikers to buy in January, as Newcastle United are resigned to selling their 27-year old Senegalese striker Demba Ba when the January transfer window opens. The North East club and their owner, Mike Ashley, have failed to agree terms with Ba over a new contract, so are ready to move him on as soon as possible so they can get a replacement settled in.

Alan Pardew has had to live with the threat of another club exercising the release clause in Ba’s contract of £7.5 million, and have offered the striker a new deal worth around £70,000 per week, according to the Mirror. His agent is demanding £80,000 and the Magpies will not go that far, so it seems to be just a question of where, not if, he will go. .......Read the full article here

If the reports about Arsenal and the acquistion of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar from Schalke for only around £4 million when the transfer window opens in January are true, it will be the bargain of the season, comparable to Swansea getting Michu in the summer for around £2 million. The Spaniard was not that well known outside of Spain, but Huntelaar is an experienced international with 59 caps to his name, so it would be even more remarkable. .......Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger is constantly asked about who, if anyone, Arsenal will be signing to strengthen the team when the January transfer window opens on January 1st. For the last two games he has given pretty much the same answer, that he does not want to react after a defeat, it is better to think carefully. He was nearly laughing at the reporter who quizzed him last night. Did they really expect him to tell them all his plans? .......Read the full article here