Can Arsenal supporters begin dreaming of a title charge next season?
Arsenal’s transfer talk goes through peaks and troughs, Yann M’Vila has been close to signing for the club for about two months now, without anything actually happening.
French newspaper, Le Parisien, claims Arsenal and Rennes have agreed a fee for the French international, in addition to a number of sources on Twitter.
Add this to the reports that Arsenal are also on the verge of signing his Euro 2012 teammate Olivier Giroud, and fans can feel decidedly positive.
A quick word of warning, before we start daydreaming about what this could mean for the club, and that is that neither deal is done yet.
Only believe it when the transfer is reported on Arsenal’s official website!
Now, let us speculate about how the two signings could affect the club.
Firstly, Giroud appears to be a replacement for Chamakh, and not Van Persie. Supplementing their strikeforce is a must if the Gunners are going to be able to successfully challenge on all front next season, and finally bring silverware to the Emirates.
Van Persie leaving would certainly set the club back, but if Arsenal can secure a top class replacement for him, a Fernando Llorente for example, you could easily argue they have improved on last season with better back-up in their ranks – Don’t forget the addition of Podolski too.
A front three of Giroud, Podolski and Van Persie would be hard for any one to stop, switch Van Persie for Llorente and the message remains the same. Whether Arsene Wenger would go and spend big on a Llorente is another matter – but right now we are not at that bridge.
Beyond that Arsenal have Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Miyaichi, Gervinho on the wings, while Andrei Arshavin remains an enigma who might likely be off.
In midfield Arteta, Wilshere, and Song are as good a midfield three as any in the Premier League, so to add M’Vila into that mix would give Arsenal a supremely strong base in midfield, with Ramsey, Frimpong and Diaby understudies.
The defence will still need strengthening, ideally one more centre-back to replace Djourou; Vertonghen would have been ideal, but if he would rather go to Tottenham – fans will only see it as his loss.
Chelsea, City, and United are all strengthening, but if Arsenal make the two signings of M’Vila and Giroud, – and get the Van Persie situation sorted by keeping him or signing a top class replacement- there is no reason why they won’t be real genuine title challengers next season.
Will the deals be done? Can Arsenal challenge for the title?
image: © korobukkuru
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