John Cross runs a story in the Mirror:

Arsene Wenger has made Blackburn defender Christopher Samba his top transfer target.

Wenger is desperate to strengthen his squad after losing Thomas Vermaelen and Sebastien Squillaci to injury.

Arsenal boss Wenger likes Gary Cahill of Bolton, but his club have made it clear they will not sell during this window and that has prompted the Gunners to go for Samba.

Samba, 26, is unsettled at Blackburn after Sam Allardyce was sacked, was stripped of the captaincy and, despite regaining his place, Rovers are struggling to keep him.

Aston Villa are also interested but Arsenal are at the front of the queue and are likely to test Blackburn’s resolve with a bid of around the £6m mark.

Wenger has looked at short-term options such as West Ham’s Matt Upson and have also been offered Bordeaux’s Mikel Ciani but would prefer a longer-term solution, and if they can get Samba at the right price in January then Arsenal will take the plunge.

The Gunners manager wants a big, powerful stopper to partner and compliment the smaller and more mobile Vermaelen and Laurent Koscielny.

Cahill, Per Mertesacker of Werder Bremen and Everton’s Phil Jagielka have all been looked at and remain on Arsenal’s list.

Bolton want in excess of £16m for Cahill, and that means Samba is now a strong option if Arsenal can strike a deal with Blackburn who may want closer to £10m.

Blackburn also know Arsenal are desperate, as Vermaelen has undergone surgery after a long spell out with an Achilles problem, Squillaci has a hamstring injury and Johan Djourou is playing despite a longstanding knee problem.

They were right about the Koscielny transfer for what it's worth.

Not sure how I would feel about Samba coming in.

Why Rick? surely he'd be better than nothing or worse, another Silvestre.......

Better than nothing, sure, but he's basically a big, dozy, clumsy oaf, not sure how much use he'd be beyond the first few weeks until Vermaelen returned.

One thing about him, he is massive. Huge, in fact.

£10m sounds pretty steep, but if that's what it takes to get him now, I say do it.

We'd have to change our defence from the wonderful beautiful ball playing versatile flexible high line lump of Swiss cheese that it is now, into a tough nut tight fisted unit that would carry a punch at set pieces......
So I doubt it will happen.

Biggus wrote:

We'd have to change our defence from the wonderful beautiful ball playing versatile flexible high line lump of Swiss cheese that it is now, into a tough nut tight fisted unit that would carry a punch at set pieces......
So I doubt it will happen.

Not remember the goal they scored against us? As for versatile, he has actually played up top 😃

Don't mind him. Very committed defender and out of all our options seems to most gettable.

Not to mention he is french, even more realistic for us 😉

One thing about Samba is that he's pretty underrated technically. He's not the slow, cumbersome giant he looks like. He'd be able to play the ball out of our half rather than just hoof it. Easily as good a defender as Cahill, but also cheaper and less likely to moan about having other guys in front of him in the pecking order.

He's a better player than Dunne and Upson in my opinion and a more realistic transfer target than Ciani.

i'm shocked to agree with that post.

kamikaze wrote:

i'm shocked to agree with that post.

Have people watched Samba? As Klaus said, he's really not as clumsy as he may look and predictably has a good touch for a big lad; it's not like he's a Congolese Richard Dunne.

I don't see much of him, but I''ve still seen him 10 or more times, and he's always looked slow on the turn, cumbersome, clumsy, short on concentration and intelligence, and generally a haphazard sort of defender, that relies alot on his physical power.

Don Pacifico wrote:

he's really not as clumsy as he may look and predictably has a good touch for a big lad;

Thats a bit sizist isn't it Don?

What do you think of Cahill, Bigs? Would you be happy if we got him in before the deadline? (however unlikely that is. Extremely is my guess!)

You know me Rick, I'd be delighted with any major signing, beggars can't be choosers......

I'm with Ricky on Samba. Better than some of the names that have come up, but not particularly brilliant either.

You don't have to be brilliant to do a job though. Especially if you are 4th/5th choice.

Koscielny and Squillaci have both hardly set the world alight(and I rate Kos highly), I doubt Samba would do much worse. In fact, I think he'd be every bit as good as Squillaci.