That’s not a spiritual sequel to a C.S Lewis novel, that’s just a description of some of the news and rumours bubbling around in the world of Arsenal today. As the shadow of the Tottenham game looms closer and closer, the focus will shift, but right now there’s little more than transfer rumours and a rather nice surprise.
Mignolet
We were linked to Sunderland’s Simon Mignolet last week, and the Belgian goalkeeper himself spoke up to say the speculation was nice but he didn’t want to let it distract him. The rumours haven’t gone away, especially with Wojciech Sczeszsny producing a couple of rather silly moments in recent games.
Now his agent has been quoted as saying: “The ambition is to bring Simon somewhere so he can enter into competition with Thibaut Courtois, who is lucky enough to play in a team that is doing very well.”
So his agent wants him to move, so he can get in on the money-spinning action. That makes it rather likely he’ll move on in the summer, and realistically Arsenal seems the most likely option. We lack a decent backup goalie, and all other big sides, Liverpool excepted are fairly well secured in that department. However, it would be unlike Arsene to A. Spend a lot of money on a goalkeeper, and B. Possibly force Sczcezsny, who still has a lot to learn, to seek pastures new for game time, something he’s threatened to do before.
The rumours make sense, but there’s probably not much in them, though Arsenal did come close to signing Hugo Lloris in the summer, before deciding not to.
God Almighty
Arsenal are expected to unveil a statue of Dennis Bergkamp outside the Emirates soon, adding to those of Tony Adams and Thierry Henry already there. The Dutch maestro is possibly the best player to ever play for the Gunners, and there have been calls for a statue of him for a while now.
The statue is believed to be a pose from a game against Newcastle, and looks like this at the moment:
The bronze will come later. Arsenal are being very coy about it, saying they’re ‘pleased interest is being generated’. If they want to find a way to animate the statue so it can play football, that would be great too.
Rode Island Shopping
Onto another transfer rumour, from Arsene Wenger’s favourite newspaper the Sun. They’re claiming Arsenal are eyeing Frankfurt midfielder Sebastian Rode as a replacement for Alex Song, with a 7.5 million fee mooted. He’s allegedly also a target for Bayern and Dortmund, which immediately makes the prospect of signing him somewhat slim, but it’s out of the blue enough to have legs.
Frankfurt are impressing in the Bundesliga this season, and Rode has contributed to that, but you wonder if Arsenal want to sign an anchorman like him to presumably replace Mikel Arteta, instead of an Etienne Capoue type, who makes a difference all over the pitch.
Still, you wonder how the Sun know what players Arsenal are targeting, being banned from London Colney. Must have very big ears.
That’s all for today, unless something amazing happens in the next few hours, or Gareth Bale’s legs drop off or something.
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