If he does join, we will improve from having quite clearly the worst strength in depth of any top side in the premier league, to having, quite clearly the best strength in depth of any top side in the world! C'MON YOU HAZARD!!!

It's a name ripe for marketing exploitation. Nike Hazard boots. Car hazard signs waved at our opposition by fans. The Sun will have a corny Hazard headline after every game he does well. Get the guy

7 days later

Hazard is on ITV4 right now. He's been sent on to rescue Lille against PSV. They're 15 minutes away from going out of the Europa League, 3-1 PSV on the night, 5-3 on aggregate. Lille with a very weak team out tonight though, must be prioritising the League.

Dzsudzsak for PSV is a good player.

Might have to watch that. Saturday evening I guess?

not sure big guy

if its good telly you wanna watch check human planet out - its on now- mad

Saw that a few eks ago, really interesting, but I'm in a football watching mood tonight, watching Lukaku, Ajax-Anderlecht [url=sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/106491]Dutch Sopcast Link[/url] if anyone's interested.

we need a ljungberg type, someone with heart and the ability/willingness to get in behind and score goals. we don't need another fancy pants player with a sense of entitlement who's not going to show up against crap teams at crap grounds.

i stand corrected, we need someone who will show against crap teams regardless of the venue

We need good players. Hazard is a good player.

Hazard is a quality player, and would certainly freshen up our wide attack.

bringing in him and ryo will do wonders, would free up nasri or shava to play central if needed

True. As Shava begins to age, it might make sense to move him inwards, meaning more opportunities on the flanks. If Vela doesn't take it, then guys like Ryo and possibly a Hazard need to be considered

If Arshavin can't cut it on the flanks anymore then he should just be sold when we can still get good money for him. Don't think he suits the AM/SS role in our formation.

The guy has the second most assists in the league. Yes, he had a bad patch this season, and isn't the fittest, but there's no way we should be actively looking to sell him - he's still quality.

I'm not bothered either way to be honest, but i certainly don't want him deputising for Cesc.

With a little bit of discipline, Arshavin can be an asset for 3 or 4 years. He is excellent and not injury-prone. His eye for goal and playmaking ability can come in handy. One just hopes that he can stay fit and avoid periods where he looks depressed or at least demotivated

Natural ability and attacking instinct is something you can't train and Arshavin is fantastic at that.

I may be wrong here, but I just can't see him staying at Lille. Whenever I've seen him this season, he's looked like a player that knows he needs to move on for his career to progress. Also a one year extension seems an odd thing to do at this point, when he was already signed up until 2014. I suspect a clause or some other kind of agreement may have been inserted.

he's probably just making sure they get value for him.

Insane goal last night against Marseille:

Really hope Arsene gets us this kid in the summer. What an amazing player he could go on to become.

Amazing goal. He scored one from similar distance against Lyon (I think it was them) last season too. Cheeky little bugger.

The thing is with Hazard, you know that little look up before he hit it means he knew exactly what he was doing. Wenger would make him a scarily good player in no time.

That clip ought to give the people saying on last night's evidence they'd prefer Suarez some food for thought.

It depends on the context and what you're after. Suarez is a better player at the moment and, I suspect, someone who'd slot into a wide forward position more seamlessly. Hazard is the more naturally talented player though. Easier to mould to fit the team too.

He'd stop shooting those screamers if he joined us though.

Suarez is a fucking fantastic player especially playing a 2nd striker role or wide of a front 3 as shown yesterday, what an immense player he can be because he can be even better.

Hazard though, needs to be polished into a better player under a better manager in a better league. He is good, but no one knows how he will do here. Thinks if Hazard costs 20m+, might as well go for Sanchez though

Hazard will be a great player for Real Madrid in a year or two.

Wtached most of that game last night and Hazard did very little apart from that goal. I've watched a bit of Lille this season and i don't think he's been that amazing. The Europa League game v Liverpool was definitely the best i've seen him play.

He definitely hasn't been amazing. Not that I've seen much of him - 5 games or so, but he hasn't grabbed the headlines and doesn't have very good numbers either.

I don't doubt his talent for a second, the kid can do pretty much anything, but maybe his attitude should be called into question a little. His team are gunning for the title, and he should be 100% focussed on helping them achieve that. To me, it looks like he badly wants a big move away, and feels like he's wasting a year out of the limelight and away from the real top level football by staying at Lille. I don't worry too much about that though, if Wenger signed him it would be because he believes as much in is character as he does in his talent, and Wenger rarely gets it wrong on that front.

I don't think he wants a move away, Ricky. He's always been very vocal about his wish to stay at Lille until he feels ready to step it up and even signed a long-term extension last year. He's just having a harder time trying to cope with opponents than he used to. They know about him this season. They know what he can do when he gets an opportunity to run at them with pace. They close down the flanks very quickly and guide him into the field where there's less space. He doesn't get around on the outside much. It's just a part of growing up as a player. From what I've seen he's been used mainly as an attacking midfielder for the last fourteen months too. Not sure it suits him to be that deep in the field (though you could argue that it benefits his development in the end).

I think we'll go for him in the summer, by the way. It's similar to the Nasri transfer in so many ways. Wenger is just waiting for the right moment.

There's definitely truth in that, Klaus, he's almost become the playmaker of the team. Just think looking at him on the pitch, he doesn't look half as happy as he did at this point last season.

Just by way of comparison, Mesut Ozil, who we all now know is a fantastic player, was pretty poor in the second half of last season for Werder. He wanted to leave and wasn't really there mentally for them, even though his team were fighting to get qualification in to the CL. So it's entirely plausible that Hazard is going through the same sort of thing.

6 days later

Hazard's last minute winner today:


Get him Arsene!

Seriously, we need to get him.