I disagree mate. We have Fabregas. You don't get a player of much higher quality than that.

We could, of course, use a star forward and van Persie looked like he could play be the one at the beginning of last season, but eventually it still came down to the usual things:

a. we don't have enough quality in key areas of the pitch
b. we can't keep our key players fit/the backups aren't good enough

Klaus wrote:

You think it's likely that Walcott will be sold? :hmm:

Not at all, but I don't consider him a vital player for us either now or in the future.

I'd love this player at Arsenal.

Arsene, make it so.

19 days later

Wenger has confirmed he's interested in signing him today apparently.

Really?

This seems like a very realistic, and likely signing.

Would mean the end of Rosicky or Arshavin, I reckon, and given the former's new contract, most likely the latter.

Good stuff.

He can have Arshavin's place in the squad next season.

Should buy him right away.

Vela out on loan, Hazard in and Arshavin gone in the summer with Vela coming back or a new signing.

Could give us the spark that we need to win something big this season.

That would be tough - Lille are top of Ligue 1 at the moment, imagine they'll be much more reluctant to let him go now than in the summer.

Lad looks the real deal. Fingers crossed.

est wrote:

Good stuff.

He can have Arshavin's place in the squad next season.

Or we keep Arshavin and add him to the squad. Walcott, Nasri, Arshavin and Hazard would be terrific.

Want want want. I was so impressed with him when he played against Liverpool.

Yeah, that was the game Pep. I've seen him a few other times and been impressed, but the Liverpool game was where I thought "that boy's gonna be a world beater!".

He's an amazing talent but people will probably expect too much too soon of him. Let's put it this way: he's a lesser player at the moment than Nasri was when we signed him. Personally I thought Nasri did well enough during his first two seasons here but there are those who feel differently. I expect those people to moan because we won't sign Hazard in january and then moan again in december after we've signed him in the summer because he's not delivering what they hoped he would.

Has anyone managed to verify those quotes, by the way? I mean, if he did say it during the press conference it should've been headlines all over the place and not just a few sentences on a crappy designed blog that I've never even heard of.

I saw the press conference, and whilst I don't speak French, I could pick out enough to hear what has been reported.

I do think Hazard has struggled quite badly this season, I think he really wants to move and knows Lille is not the place to be. The difference between him and Nasri, in my opinion, is how aggressive he is with the ball. Whether it's for Lille or the Belgium national team, his game is all about committing opponents with the ball at his feet. Nasri has that in his game, but he's not close to being as aggressive.

Aggressiveness is not always a good thing though. Hazard can be very sloppy with the ball. Nasri is a very intelligent player and managed to give us, as a team, a lot of things right off the bat. I'm not sure that people who are fed up with Arshavin constantly losing the ball in the attack will feel much better when they see Hazard do it eight months from now. But that's just the way things are. There's always someone who will end up unhappy.

I don't think Hazard struggles because he feels cheated out of a move, though. Not at all. To stay at Lille was entirely his own decision. Not only did he stay at the end of last season - he extended his contract by several years as well and spoke openly in the press about how he wanted to keep playing in Ligue 1 for a few more seasons to become a better rounded player before taking the step up to the next level. To me it looks like he suffers from second season syndrome more than anything else. Last year was his real breakthrough. Things were expected from him this year and it's easy to struggle under such circumstances if you don't get a good start.

He still has some improving to do, for sure.

I know what he's said in public, but it's just an observation of mine from watching him. He looks like he's gone a little stale there and knows he could be playing on a bigger stage.

Wenger ruled out a Jan move, and said they'll look at the situation in the summer.

Link? Its good he noticed him

Does he put a shift in? Is he gonna be another liability on the flanks?

Just wondering cos I think Theo coming in for Arshavin in recent weeks has given our FB's a huge amount of extra protection and we've looked a lot better for it.