Dulas favourite proper English centre half is once again linked with us. Wenger says we might need another centre half, Bolton say they might sell Cahill, the papers are making that into one story. I know its mentioned in the daily dose thread but we may as well have a thread for this cos I can see it running till the end of Jan.

I wouldn't mind, if Verms out we could do with a serious addition in the defence. It'd be a brilliant move for Cahill himself, if he managed to do even reasonably well for us he'd be a shoe in for the England team and probably replace Rio as a starter pretty soon.

He's a good centre half, but that's it for me really. I couldn't see him significantly improving our defence.

I reckon he'd edge it ahead of Djourou and Kos at the minute to start with Squillaci but when Verms back he'd probably be on the bench. You never know though, if he's going to do anything in his career worth talking about he needs to move to a bigger team in the next 2 windows. You've got to push yourself at that point in your career.

Oh definitely. There was an interview with him on sky a couple of weeks back, and he said that if a big club came in for him, he would find it extremely hard to turn down. There's no doubt he'd join us if we did move in for him. I don't know, I just think we have more pressing issues than spending £15m on a centre half.

Well £15m is way too much for a player of his ability. About £8m is as far as I'd go for him.

qs! wrote:

Well £15m is way too much for a player of his ability. About £8m is as far as I'd go for him.

I would feel so much more confident against the lower end of the table brutish Premiership teams with him on board.

He's a great centre back and part of the reason Bolton are doing so well.

I think he's a solid player but a bit overrated. I'd definitely take him. Can't believe Smalling got an England call up ahead of him.

13 days later

qs, if you think Cahill will help us win the league by tightening up our defence, then he's gonna be worth more than 10m quid. Hopefully we can get him for that amount but we should be willing to pay a large price if we are confident that he's gonna be title winning. If you don't think he is, then there's no point even wasting a penny. We've got enough talent/back up at CB who might not be up to the grade anyway.

get him and gokhan inler - problem solved

then treat ourselves to that guy klaus discovered a few years back to sort out the attack

bad news on the vermaelen front if our interest in cahill is legit.

Carragher is out for months apparently so if the new owners are giving him some cash, I suspect that Hodgson will be in for Cahill.

makes a lot of sense, that.

Reckon he might fancy Hangeland instead myself.

17 days later
Tony Montana wrote:

qs, if you think Cahill will help us win the league by tightening up our defence, then he's gonna be worth more than 10m quid. Hopefully we can get him for that amount but we should be willing to pay a large price if we are confident that he's gonna be title winning. If you don't think he is, then there's no point even wasting a penny. We've got enough talent/back up at CB who might not be up to the grade anyway.

This exact thought process should be part of the process of buying new players.

4 months later

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1376612/Gary-Cahill-ready-Champions-League.html

Interesting interview with Cahill. The more I hear of Owen Coyle, the more I like him. Cahill will move in the summer, he has 12 months left on his contract, and Bolton are in a weak bargaining position because everyone knows he won't start the season there - if we don't go out and get him I will be seriously pissed off about it. I don't care that we already have 4 centrebacks at the club. He is exactly the type of defender we need at the club, and the type Arsenal fans have been crying out for.

Cahill, Djourou, Koscielny and Vermaelen would be a sweet complement of CBs.