Well look, everyone else has done a Sahin pun and looks like today is my last chance. It seems that Real Madrid’s Nuri Sahin is going to Liverpool rather than Arsenal. Mind you this one has twisted backwards and forwards for over a week now,s o don’t be totally surprised if something else happens!
The Metro would have that Arsenal are disappointed because Liverpool have beaten us too it. I guess that there is some disappointment, first because we have clearly been negotiating some time time, second because it seems that Sahin would have been happy to come to Arsenal for Champions League football and third, because we are clearly still on the hunt for midfield reinforcements.
But I suspect there will also be a Gallic shrug over the way this has ended. It appears that Liverpool have offered to pay all of Sahin’s wages (rumoured to be £120,000 a week), a larger fee (and Arsenal were rumoured to have offered £2million) and accept no right-to-buy clause at the end of the loan. This means that Liverpool could be paying well over £5million for a player that they then have to give back. Could be as much £10million with expenses and bonuses. Well Brendan Rodgers may feel that’s what they need to do and King Kenny certainly left him with a pretty duff squad and a fairly empty chequebook.
So where will Arsenal look instead? All the usual suspects are back in the headlines and blog posts, mainly M’Vila and Biglia, and Arsene Wenger says that they are still working on bringing players in. Could be an interesting week. Could be a long, tedious week like this one and then an intense flurry on Friday afternoon and evening.
Meanwhile we go to Stoke on Sunday for another ninety minutes of the beautiful game. I joke. It will be a hard physical grind requiring maximum effort and concentration. There were signs last season that Stoke are slowly evolving and on their budget it’s never going to be a fast process, but they are still an tough and frustrating team who look to beat teams like Arsenal by closing down any opportunity for skill and flair. They know they won’t wide an expansive passing game, so their aim is to prevent such a game from taking place. Fair enough, they have to work with what they’ve got, but it won’t be pretty and it could be painful.
More thoughts on the team tomorrow, but at the moment it’s looking like little change with Koscielny still unavailable.
