SOCCER:ARSENAL'S ATTEMPTS to strengthen their beleaguered squad have taken on a rather frenetic feel with Arsene Wenger securing three players in relatively cut-price deals and still hopeful of adding an attacking midfielder and another centre half from a list of potential targets to the club's ranks before tonight's transfer deadline.
With the humiliation endured in Sunday’s 8-2 defeat at Manchester United still raw, Wenger has performed a U-turn by returning to Werder Bremen to sign Per Mertesacker for around €9 million despite having previously been unconvinced that the 26-year-old – albeit an experienced and rugged performer – would thrive given the furious pace of the Premier League.
Interest had been expressed last summer only to come to nothing while those doubts persisted and, even this time around, the Germany international had initially featured relatively low on Arsenal’s list of potential summer recruits.
Yet, the centre half is available at a small fee for a player who boasts 75 caps, given the financial problems being experienced by Werder and should complete his move today having broken away from international duty yesterday to undergo a medical.
Mertesacker will be followed to the Emirates by the South Korea striker Park Chu-young, a €2 million signing from relegated Monaco, and the Brazil defender Andre Santos, a 28-year-old attack-minded full back, who is to join on a four-year deal for €7m from Fenerbahce.
The Brazilian’s arrival might be deemed surprising if only given Wenger’s recent conviction that, in Kieran Gibbs and a combination of either Thomas Vermaelen or Bacary Sagna, he boasted enough cover at left back to prioritise other areas.
Instead, he will arrive as a direct replacement for the departed Gael Clichy and with Armand Traore, who started in that position at Old Trafford, having been sold to Queens Park Rangers for around €2.2 million.
Yet, Arsenal remain desperate to add experience before this evening’s 11pm cut-off.
While interest in Bolton Wanderers’ Gary Cahill has cooled since the arrival of Mertesacker, the club could yet test Blackburn Rovers’ resolve to retain Christopher Samba, even if the Ewood Park club would have to drop their €17m valuation of the Congolese defender for any deal to be concluded.
Samba would privately welcome the chance to compete in the Champions League and, like Cahill and Everton’s Phil Jagielka, had been more of a priority than Mertesacker, though the embarrassment suffered at Old Trafford appears to have shifted Wenger’s outlook.
Midfield options, too, need to be bolstered given the sales of both Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, though none of the bids tabled by Arsenal have been accepted, with clubs clinging to their valuations, aware that the €66.5 million raised in those outgoing transfers remains to be spent.
Interest is strongest in the Rennes midfielder Yann M’Vila, for whom Wenger offered €25 million only to be told only bids in excess of €34 million would be deemed acceptable.
M’Vila is under contract until 2015 and, like another target, the Sochaux playmaker Marvin Martin, is at Clairefontaine with the France squad ahead of Euro 2012 qualifiers against Albania and Romania.
Neither of the players’ clubs appears open to allowing their prized asset to depart, while Lille’s Eden Hazard is likely to remain out of reach with a Champions League campaign to come.
That could see Arsenal resorting to back-up targets believed to include the Chelsea pair of Yossi Benayoun and Florent Malouda.
No formal bids have been received for either player as yet, though the Israeli expects to leave Stamford Bridge before the deadline passes.
Chelsea are likely to loan their new Mexican striker Ulises Davila, a €5.6 million signing from Chivas, to Vitesse Arnhem and may send Ryan Bertrand to Nottingham Forest, where he spent the first half of last season, on loan until January.
Only a late weakening in the stance of the Tottenham Hotspur chairman, Daniel Levy, will see Chelsea’s interest in Luka Modric come to fruition, though last season’s runners-up hope a deal can be struck with Porto for Alvaro Pereira.
GuardianService
