What to do in the transfer window? What do Arsenal need, who should they look for?? And the implications.

 It seems that the transfer mill never stops turning, and as an Arsenal fan it is usually quite frustrating because we seem to be always linked with every player under the sun, and very few of them ever come to fruition. But this summer it seems that things will happen. Reason I think this is because of the fact that last summer was such a nightmare for everyone, especially the boss himself, and I think that this summer he wants to get what he called 'quality rather than quantity' and get these deals done early. This is a big thing, because last season we went off on our groundbreaking pre-season trip to Asia, still not knowing what was happening to two of our best players and several others. This is not good for the development of the squad of any squad in pre-season to not know what is happening so soon to the start of a new and important season. This is why this transfer window is a very important one for the club, and one the club must get right! Get it right, and I believe we can challenge next year for major honours, get it wrong and we will be back to square one like this season and take a while to get going again!

But the first thing that needs to be sorted, the most important thing, is contract extensions! This is something that I believe is so important, because unless we extend the contracts of the likes of Robin, Theo, Song, Bac and a few other who I think are all coming to the end of their deals, we may as well not bother looking at big players from outside of the club to bring in, because we MUST keep the core of this team together and then add to it! This is what we all wanted to see last season, we thought it was very important to add quality players to the likes of Cesc and Samir, but then of course we all know what happened! These guys left and Jack got injured and therefore our whole midfield just disappeared in one foul swoop, and that's why we had such a bad start because we had to reconstruct the heart of our team, a team that we all know was very very close to great things last season! So the first thing that we all acknowledge needs doing is to get these guys signed up, and I believe we will, and once we have done that, and these contracts are sorted, we can then go out and get the players we want from outside of the club, although we believe that Podolski will be in before that, potentially as a sign to RVP that he should sign a new contract, because we have got a quality player in, this could be key to him signing a new deal I think!

Once this is done, then we need to get I think 3 - 5 'quality' players in, to really push the team on to the next level, because I do believe that this team is this close to success. But who do we need to bring in? I think we need a back up goalkeeper, a CB, and potentially either a midfielder or a winger.

It has been widely argued in recent months that we lack back-up to Wojiech and this is going to made worse by the fact that Fabianski and the Spanish waiter are out of contract this summer and both will leave it is expected, and therefore we certainly need some kind of backup goalkeeper, and there are a number of good options available to us on free transfers this summer. Firstly German keeper Adler is out of contract this summer and could certainly be useful in rotation with Wojiech for the cups e.t.c. However I am not sure whether he would want to be a backup option, so maybe that is not a particularly feasible option for us. A good option could potentially be Steve Harper at Newcastle. He has been a solid if not fantastic keeper for many years up in the north east, and I am sure if given the chance he would come down to us, and look to have a run in the cups e.t.c with The Arsenal. He could be a good option. Clearly he is not going to be the next David Seaman, but as far as getting a top quality back up goalkeeper in that is not going to happen because obviously (as I said with Adler) top goalkeepers are not going to sit on the bench for most of the season, so therefore getting the right option I think is quite tricky.

With Squillaci almost certainly leaving this summer due to his inability to play football, we do need to actually get another good quality CB to give us more depth in this position. It seems that year on year at some point we have a defensive injury crisis, and therefore it is imperative in my view that we have good players to cover these roles. Now, in Mertesacker, Vermalean, Koscielny and Djourou (who I still rate very highly) I believe we have some very good players, however if two of these get injured then obviously we have no backup, so for this exact reason I believe we should get Vertoghen from Ajax. This is a man whose name has been bandied about for quite some time as far as coming to the Arsenal is concerned, however he is definitely someone who I feel could add quality to our options at the back, and is very highly regarded by the Verminator and the boss as well. How much game time he would get would be interesting to see, but he would certainly be a welcome addition to our CB reserves, and hopefully limits the effect of our annual defensive player drought!

Moving on to the midfield I think that we are actually quite strong in this area, however we could do with support for Songo in the more CDM position and for this reason I would be delighted if we went after Yann M'Villa. He is a player very much in the Viera mould, and one that I think would be absolutely fantastic for us, were we to get him on board. He is strong, quick, excellent technically, and could slot in either in the CDM position or even alongside Songo if we want more solidity. However we do have many many options in this area at the moment and for this reason it really wouldn't surprise me if we did quite a lot of rotation next season, because we have Diaby and Jack to come back into it, on top of the likes of Arteta, Ramsey, Rosicky, Coquilin and also Lansbury, who will come back from his loan move, and I think he will be given his chance in Pre Season this summer. Therefore fitting all these players into the 25 man squad is going to be tricky, but even so M'Villa is a player who I feel could help to take us to the next level.

Finally up top, it is widely reported that we have already signed Podolski, and therefore assuming that he has already signed we seem pretty good up top for next season as long as you know who signs on the dotted line for a new contract! This is clear to me also in the performances of Ryo Miyachi at Bolton on loan in recent months. I think he has been excellent and has actually created many opportunities for his team mates and this has been very very impressive. I expect him to play a part for Arsenal next season and I hope he does because he is a great talent and we can't waste talents like this, they must be given experience in the first team, and as Arsene has does over the years, this will happen next year I feel. Because of the fact that Arshavin and Yossi seems unlikely to stay beyond the end of this season (however I am still unsure as to whether I would want to see the back of the little Russian due to his undoubted ability to turn a game), I feel we do need another winger. Now, the usual suspects that have been talked about endlessly on twitter and in the media are of course Gotze, Hazard e.t.c. But these both seem unlikely because the former has just signed a new deal at Dortmund and the latter seems determined to pimp himself to which ever club is going to offer him the most Wonga, and I don’t really feel he would care if he is playing in the middle east as long as his pay check is high, which is a great shame but I am not convinced whether I want a player like that at the Emirates, and I know many of my fellow Gooners feel the same as me on that! They are both undoubtedly good players and I would like to see Gotze especially at the club, but I cannot really see that happening. However a player I would like and one that I see as being feasible to come through the door is Hoillet at Blackburn, who is available for a free at the end of the season! He is a very young, quick and skilful winger who I feel could add great depth to an already quite strong area of the field for us! With the likes of the Ox, Theo, Gervinho, Ryo, Podoslki (assuming the inevitable) we are quite strong here but I think Hoillet could add great strength and I think I am right in thinking that due to his age he wouldn't need to be registered so that is a bonus in terms of getting all the players into the squad, and that may allow Lansbury to be given a go in the squad. I feel that Park will leave this summer and I don't feel that Bentdner and Vela will come back from their loans, and therefore with Hoillet coming in it would add another interesting option, and would give us a nice balance of wingers and 3 CFs in (RVP, Pod and Chamakh - who it seems will stay).

Finally I expect Park, Squillaci, Almunia, Vela, Bendtner, Denilson to all leave the club for pastures new. Therefore to sum up I feel that with a backup goalkeeper alongside Mannoe to cover Wojiech another CB to add depth to that position (with Squillaci leaving), M'Villa to add strength in the heart of the team and then Pod and Hoillet up top, we would have some good players in to really help push the team forward.

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