I may be wrong but I really believe and rightly so in my opinion that Wenger see’s Koscielny and Vermaelen as his first choice partnership. He wants those two to develop an understanding and remain at the heart of our defence for many years to come. A player in the mould of Cahill, Jagielka would compliment those two and cover for injuries, suspensions and games against the usual. I don’t need to

Good afternoon Gooners,

Quick blog today as news has filtered through of Arsenal pinching Monaco’s Park Chu Young from under the noses of Lille. According to rumours the Korean forward vanished from the Lille hotel after undergoing a first medical for the French club. I have no idea how true this is because false rumours spread equally as fast as correct ones. Apparently we have agreed a £2.7m fee for the striker and he is now on his way to London for a medical.

I wonder how many people saw this one coming. There I was fully expecting Kevin Doyle to walk through the Emirates doors. I kid, I kid but after some intensive scouting and reporting from the Arsenal Vision team (You Tube) we can exclusively inform you that he looks technically very good, quick and intelligent.

I would imagine that he will be more of a Bendtner replacement. A goal down with fifteen minutes to go, replace Aaron Ramsey for Park Chu Young and slot Van Persie back as his number 10 suggests. Another option for the boss. Joel Campbell will be another choice should he obtain his work permit to stay and work in England.

I hope he does manage to secure it but I wonder if we will be lucky twice in a row. Not that luck should have anything to do with it you see.

Joel Campbell is somewhat of an unknown quantity at this moment in time but from the little bits and pieces that I have seen of him, he could well be a useful outlet from the bench in the short term. Quick, technical and a good finisher.

I am loving the injection of pace that Arsene has erm.. injected into this squad. It is like he is reverting a little bit back to 1997/1998.

Allow the opposition to wonder into midfield while the likes of Wilshere, Song and company lie in the long grass. Snap, we pounce and play quick forward passes to our collection of greyhounds. Gervinho, Walcott, Campbell, Ryo, Chamberlain or ‘Chamba-lin’ as the boss calls him.

I can see many a goal being scored like that this season mark me words.

So what on earth was all that hoo-har about a bid for Gary Cahill? This has caused quite the stir amongst both the Bolton and Arsenal support.

He has a £17m price tag slapped around his head so why are we putting in a bid £11m short.

In my eyes it is quite black and white really, it is quite simple. The price tag set by Bolton is not Cahill’s real valuation. It is Bolton trying to get as much money as possible from their asset of whom they haven’t been able to secure for a long contract. They are in the position where they could see one of their best players walk for free. You can be sure that Bolton have offered Cahill several new contracts which I assume he has turned down.

We know exactly how this feels as Samir Nasri has walked out the door in very much the same circumstances.

Bolton Wanderers have from now until 1st September to sell a player who wants to make the step up in his career. If they don’t then either he walks away for free next summer or he leaves in January for even less than we are offering now.

The Arsenal board would not be doing their jobs if they didn’t negotiate a deal. Start off low and meet somewhere in the middle is often the simple way of explaining two clubs negotiating.

In my opinion Gary Cahill is not a do or die situation. Now if we had a chance to buy Eden Hazard who had four years on his contract for £17m and we offered £4.5m then I would be pulling my hair out.

I may be wrong but I really believe and rightly so in my opinion that Wenger see’s Koscielny and Vermaelen as his first choice partnership. He wants those two to develop an understanding and remain at the heart of our defence for many years to come. A player in the mould of Cahill, Jagielka would compliment those two and cover for injuries, suspensions and games against the usual. I don’t need to explain what teams I am talking about.

I don’t believe that Arsene and the board would pay £15m-£17m for a third choice central defender to fight it out alongside Djourou for a place in our first team. This isn’t to say that we do not need this type of player, we do. Look at our situation today, both Vermaelen and Koscielny are fighting to be fit and we are only a few games into the new season. We need cover but not £20m worth of cover.

Our bid could also reflect the interest in Cahill from other clubs. Chelsea and Manchester City are yet to make any moves and with the money behind them, you would have thought that they would have already bought him if they really wanted him Manchester United have young center backs coming out of their ears and Tottenham are, well. Tottenham.

Perhaps Arsene has already spoken to Cahill privately as we did with Gervinho. Gervinho wanted to come to Arsenal and only Arsenal and from that we had Lille by the balls. Gervinho also had only one year on his deal and he wanted to come to us. So they could not dictate the fee, we could. And we offered a price that we thought was fair for his abilities. After watching him jinking inside and out of the full back on Wednesday, that fee looks an absolute steal, especially when compared to someone like Stewart Downing.

Lille were asking for closer to the £20m mark, should we have just paid them that money from the start? Of course not, so why should we do that with Cahill?

If the Cahill situation is similar then it will come down to deadline day and Bolton will have to blink first. £8m in hardcore cash along with a possible sell on clause or let him walk for zilch in the summer. We haven’t said £6m or leave it, we are starting our negotiations. I am sure that is just normal in any business between two companies.

Believe it or not, we are actually in a much better position when it comes to center backs this season than the last. Last season at this stage we had Koscielny, Djourou and Squillaci. This time round we can replace Squillaci with Vermaelen. I do not have to spell out what a difference that makes to our squad in every possible way. Our young back up’s are also a year wiser and more experienced. Not only that but Jenkinson has also played as a center back in the past so I am not sure that we are piss poor in that area, just a case of adding strength to the squad. Well, that is how I see it anyway.

Last night rumours were floating around that Eden Hazard would be on his way to Arsenal after the clubs agreed a fee. This was only rumours coming out of France. The Lille management has also said that Hazard will not be going anywhere this summer so I have taken a distance with the story for the most part. Until last night when I lay on my pillow and imagined Hazard playing in Cesc’s position, floating around the pitch changing places with Van Persie, Gervinho and Walcott in a weird circular rotational funky groove. I got a little carried away with it and started getting sucked into the ‘Bring me Hazard’ feelings.

I have slapped my face a couple of times and splashed water continuously on my face and I am back. Push that’s stuff far away from you, it is seriously not healthy. I just cannot see a deal like this being done for too many reasons but in the words of Keegan ‘I would luv it…’

Right boys and girls. Get YouTubing.

Park Chu Young

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Final Ball

Preview of the match tomorrow.