Arsenal are already looking at a replacement for Walcott

Posted on October 09, 2012 by Bob

Behind the scenes at Arsenal must be a place where a less than firm handshake could spell disaster. If Theo Walcott thought that he was involved in the sort of bargaining where you name a price double what you want and walk away offended when you know all along that you will accept much less. then he is in for a shock.

After Peter Hill-Wood went public today stating that Arsenal have a wage structure and will not alter it for anybody, reports claiming that Arsenal are sizing up possible replacements for the winger/striker. Crystal Palace youngster Wilfried Zaha is being tracked by Arsenal, and other Premier league teams, and could be seen as a direct replacement for Walcott.

Pat Rice is no longer assistant manager at Arsenal but he still has a role at the club, and he was present at Selhurst Park on Saturday and cannot fail to have been impressed by the 19-year old winger who scored twice against Burnley.

Zaha is the kind of raw talent that Walcott was when he became a Gunner and would be just the sort of player that Wenger could build and improve. This story may be part of Arsenal’s plan to put pressure on Theo to accept his new contract offer, but I would not like to call Arsenal’s bluff.

The Arsenal chairman has said that they want to keep Walcott, but not at all costs. Nothing has yet been decided one way or the other, but the clock is ticking.

“For the moment his people are still talking to us and we hope it will be resolved, but don’t ask me when because I haven’t a clue.”

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Arsenal close to securing loan deal for Real Madrid's Nuri Sahin as a replacement for Barcelona-bound Alex Song

Sahin also had the option of Liverpool but he has now verbally agreed to join Arsène Wenger’s squad on loan for the rest of the season. The expectation is that Sahin will arrive in time to play against Stoke City next Sunday, with a deal potentially announced as early as today.

A one-year loan will cost Arsenal £2million and, while Sahin is renowned for his passing rather than his tackling, he is still expected to replace Song at the base of Arsenal’s central midfield.

Sahin, a Turkey international, was vital for Borussia Dortmund as they won the Bundesliga in 2010-11 but has since struggled for opportunities in a Madrid midfield that includes Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil.

Although Wenger believes that he now has sufficient cover to compensate for the departures of Song and Robin van Persie, the two outfield players who started most games last season, he remains under considerable pressure to spend. He is currently £2million in credit in his summer transfer business.

Santi Cazorla, who shone against Sunderland on Saturday, joined fans in stressing the importance of replacements. “It’s clear that he [Van Persie] is a great player, a spectacular player, and obviously we would all have preferred it if he had stayed,” said Cazorla.

“Song has gone as well and there are still 10 days left in the market. Obviously it’s important to replace players like that because they were so important for the team.”

Wenger appeared almost resigned to Arsenal’s difficulty in keeping star players amid interest from clubs with superior resources.

“We make the players here,” said Wenger. “All that have left were made here or made a name here or came here very young. Fàbregas, Clichy, Adebayor, Henry, Nasri, all of them.

"Song came at 17. I believe part of our club is to influence people’s lives in a positive way. You would prefer to influence it in a positive way for yourself but it does not always happen.

"That is what we face today. I don’t think it is linked at all with winning something or not.”

The next big question surrounds Theo Walcott, who is out of contract next year and expects to have further talks with Arsenal later this week.

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Wengers lies – No choice and no replacement for Van Persie

There is obviously going to be a lot of anger from Arsenal fans after the news that Van Persie has moved to our biggest historical rivals Manchester United, after inferring that there was no way he would move to another Premiership club.

But what really annoys me is that just THREE days ago Wenger stated that he still wanted to keep Van Persie, and that Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud were brought in to play alongside RVP to help the Gunners go for trophies. Here is his exact words: “Robin scored 30 goals last season and you want to keep your best player. He was player of the year in England. We want to keep him. I cannot tell you more at the moment because I don’t know more.

“We have not bought the players to replace van Persie, but to strengthen our squad with the thinking van Persie will stay. That’s still my mind at the moment.”

But yesterday, just 48 hours after that statement, Wenger revealed that he had no choice but to sell Van Persie and that the new arrivals WERE brought in as his replacements!

When asked about Van Persie yesterday Wenger was quoted in Sky Sports as saying: “He is at Manchester United, unfortunately for us. The transfer was finalised in the afternoon,”

“It’s never great to lose players of that quality but he only had a year contract so we do not have a choice.”

When asked if he would be spending the proceeds on a replacement he replied: “We have already recruited since we have Giroud and Podolski who originally were intended to offset the departure of van Persie,”

So, like Nasri last year, Wenger has been stringing us along until he finally capitulates and sells another star player, just like he does every single year. Arsenal fans have every right to be annoyed!

Who could forget Wenger’s famous bit of misinformation last summer, which needs no more comment from me.

He said: “Imagine the worst situation – we lose Fabregas and Nasri – you cannot convince people you are ambitious after that. I believe for us it is important the message we give out. For example, you talk about Fabregas leaving, Nasri leaving.

“If you give that message out, you cannot pretend you are a big club, because a big club first of all holds onto its big players and gives a message out to all the other big clubs that they just cannot come in and take them away from you.”

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