If he was from Norway and playing for a mid-table club he would have joined Liverpool for £3.5 million. Exactly the same talent and player but different circumstance. I wish more people would separate quality with price. I am surprised that this mix up still exists when Gooners are watching the likes of Cesc and Van Persie every week, or given their injury records over the years every three weeks

Arsenal completed their first signing of the season yesterday after one of the worst kept secrets was announced on dot com.

Young full back Carl Jenkinson put pen to paper on a long term contract which saw the 19 year old make the jump from League one to the Premier League. He has shone in the Charlton side after being presented a chance in the team due to several injuries at full back. From what I have heard about him, he is very good on the ball, calm and tidy in possession. He can also play at both full back positions and center back which is just the versatility we need at Arsenal.

At 6ft 1ins I wonder how mobile and dynamic he is to be able to get up and down and support our attacks but that is something for another time. He is a promising player who will need to develop and show his quality. He certainly hasn’t been bought to come straight into the side immediately. What’s more, he is a Gooner which is just great.

Later on in the day Manchester United had agreed a 16.5m fee with Blackburn Rovers for the services of Phil Jones who is also 19 years of age. Apparently we also had a fee agreed with Blackburn but the player chose Manchester United ahead of Arsenal. Fair enough I suppose. He is already oop’norf and has a chance to play for the current champions.

Cue Twitter fury!

Many Arsenal fans were incensed that we had bought a young, cheap player whilst Manchester United were ‘showing intent’ by splashing the cash.

I just do not understand what any of that actually means. I do not know why a) more expensive means better and b) what showing intent means? I thought teams were just trying to build strong sides instead of showing intent.

For a start I am quite surprised that we actually bid as much as that for a player still learning his trade but why would Phil Jones be the answer to all our problems?

The calls have been to purchase a tall, experienced central defender to compliment our other defenders. Well Jones is 5ft11 and is only 19 so does not meet either criteria. I really would not be surprised if we had actually signed the fella to find the same Arsenal fans complaining that we have wasted a large chunk of our budget on yet ‘more kids’

As Wenger Boy pointed out on Twitter yesterday.

BREAKING NEWS: Arsenal sign/do not sign
experienced/young
goalkeeper/defender/midfielder/striker.
Arsenal fans outraged.

I received a tweet telling me that Manchester United were showing ambition by spending big money. A price of a player is down to the selling club and what the buying club are willing to pay. It is not always linked to talent, quality or ability. I point you in the direction of Jordan Henderson for example. Liverpool are going back to throwing money around like it is out of fashion and Sunderland are selling an English player who usually carry around an inflated price tag so now Henderson is now a £20 million player.

If he was from Norway and playing for a mid-table club he would have joined Liverpool for £3.5 million. Exactly the same talent and player but different circumstance. I wish more people would separate quality with price. I am surprised that this mix up still exists when Gooners are watching the likes of Cesc and Van Persie every week, or given their injury records over the years every three weeks. Cesc was signed for £500,000 compensation whilst you could have bought 12.7 Robin Van Persie’s for the same amount as Liverpool paid for Andy Carroll. Not quite sure what you would do with a 0.7 Van Persie, he would probably still have more class than Carroll. How about 18 Van Persie’s for the price of Fernando Torres?

You could field a whole team of Van Persie’s and still have enough to replace the injured ones. It would be quite an interesting team.

School classroom question to you: Who would win, team of Van Persie’s or a team of Cesc Fabregas’? In fact which player x 11 would be the best in our squad?
Answers on the back of a postcard, or you could indeed leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Which brings me onto the Cesc Fabregas story. *yawn* Something to do with Barcelona agreeing personal terms or something and it is now down to the clubs to agree a price yet apparently Barca only have £8.50 left in their piggy bank. Bless them.

Perhaps Barcelona should sell some of their players and then get back to us when they are ready to do business, if not then Cesc should remain an Arsenal player for next season.

When average Englishmen are moving for £20m then you just cannot sell one of the best midfielders in world football for less than his value. That is just ridiculous and disrespectful.

Going back to the center of defence, according to the Mirror sport, we are in talks with Gary Cahill and Chris Samba. Hmmmm, not sure how much I believe that one. We certainly won’t be buying two new center backs. Perhaps we are in talks with several defenders before making what is it? Oh yeah, ‘a swoop’ for one of them. Them, may not actually be the players that the reporters are suggesting.

The Samir Nasri situation continues to be a situation, one that does not appear any closer to being resolved. Apparently he wants more than £110k per week and the club are unwilling to do so. I have been confident that Nasri would stay for sometime but I must admit, that confidence is starting to waver somewhat.

Whilst I agree that we should not break our pay structure for a player who is yet to produce a whole season of top quality, I cannot just shrug my shoulders and say be off with you.

I really think that Nasri will become a really special player in a few years time and I just bloody hope it is with us. We have lost the likes of Flamini, Hleb, Adebayor, Anelka and Ashley Cole in the past. Players that left before we wanted them to but I think Nasri will be the one we could really regret if he was to depart.

Whatever happens with Samir Nasri, we have to remember that no individual player is bigger than the club. The wage structure is important. We already pay top wages and breaking our structure for every player who demands an increase would lead us down the wrong path.

Ok, that is just about that for today.

Back again tomorrow.