arsenal news

  Arsenal are reportedly keeping tabs on Real Madrid midfielder Asier Illarramendi according to Sky Sports . The 24 year old hasn’t been a regular since moving to the Bernabeu in a £29m deal in the summer of 2013 and is apparently a target of his former club Real Sociedad. One imagines a move to the Emirates Stadium may prove more tempting for the Spanish international given that David Moyes’ side are in the bottom half of La Liga and Illara is arguably an ideal Gunners target. The Real Madrid man offers the qualities of a defensive midfielder though is also very comfortable on the ball and could provide some much needed steel in the middle of the park. Currently Wenger relies upon the likes of Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini and most recently Francis Coquelin for the role but Illarramendi is a big step up in terms of quality. In his first season in the Spanish capital Illara battled Xabi Alonso for a regular starting berth and this term has seen Toni Kroos line up alo

The Gunners have beaten off competition from Manchester United to complete the signing of Villareal defender Gabriel Paulista. Arsene Wenger has openly admitted his desire to sign the 24-year-old from the La Liga outfit, however, the deal took a wrong turn when it was reported that Louis van Gaal’s United were also tracking the player with a desire to submit a bid before the end of the January window. But now, according to the latest reports at the Metro , the Gunners have won the race to sign the £15million-rated defender and the deal is just hours away from completion. Paulista’s arrival would be the clubs second of the window following the transfer of 17-year-old Polish midfielder Kyrstian Bielik on Wednesday. French manager Aresene Wenger also stated that defensive midfielder Francis Coquelin, who was imperative during the Gunners 2-0 win over champions Manchester City last weekend, is close to sign

  Arsenal attacker Joel Campbell may be set for an Emirates Stadium exit with talk of a possible move heightened by the fact that the Costa Rican international was absent from the club’s training session on Saturday morning according to the Daily Mail. The 22 year old has spent the past three seasons out on loan but following a superb spell at Olympiakos, followed by a strong showing at the 2014 World Cup finals, Arsene Wenger elected to usher in the youngster to his Gunners first team squad. However first team action has proven next to impossible to secure and as such Campbell must be considering his options. Campbell hasn’t started a single Premier League game and is now the subject of interest from a raft of sides including Villarreal, Benfica, Inter Milan, Swansea City and West Bromwich Albion. This source suggests that Real Sociedad boss David Moyes is ready to offer £8m for the Arsenal man, an offer that Wenger may consider. Wenger can probably afford to cons

  Arsene Wenger has revealed that the players in his team influenced him to change tactics for the game against Manchester City. Arsenal went to the Etihad Stadium and came away with a much hailed and needed 2-0 win that put a stop to the constant losses to big teams that the gunners have been suffering for the past few years. The main focus of the win was defensive solidity, and the way the entire team was together in the goal of not allowing any of City’s creative players any space was especially heartening to see. In the past, Arsene stuck true to his principles irrespective of which opposition it was, and so the Arsenal fans have had to suffer heavy defeats to the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, City and Manchester United. But with this performance, it is likely to change Arsene’s mind, given that he tried the same against the game against Chelsea. Regarding the change in tactics, Arsene said it was the players that had requested it and he acc

  Arsenal have completed the signing of 17-year-old midfielder Krystian Bielik from Legia Warsaw for an undisclosed fee. Bielik made his senior debut for the Polish club in August aged 16. He went on to feature five times for Legia in the league and once in the Europa League. The versatile Poland youth international can play in both holding midfield and at centre-back. The deal is subject to the completion of regulatory processes.

We are just past the half-way stage of Arsenal’s winter transfer window, and as we await final confirmation of 17 year-old Krystian Bielik’s long-awaited capture, we look to our other targets who could give a more immediate boost to our first-team squad. Gabriel Paulista claims that his agent is in talks with the Emirates club in a bid to thrash out a January move from Villareal, with the club reportedly keen on Joel Campbell arriving on loan as part of the deal. It would not be the first time an agent had lied, but I think there is substance behind reports. The £5 Million fee however seems rather low for a first-team player of a club chasing the European qualification places at present. Campbell’s possible loan to Villareal is what leads us to the move for Destro. Mattia Destro has admitted previously he may have to force a move away from Roma in order to further his career, having been forced to play second-fiddle to favoured pairing Gervinho and Francesco Totti, de

  The situation for Aaron Ramsey was a little different to that of the young French midfielder Francis Coquelin, who seems to be one of the major talking points of the day after his fantastic performance in central midfield away to Man City, but there are certainly some similarities. The Welshman’s Arsenal future also looked to be heading down the toilet as he struggled to recover his form after the horrendous double leg break inflicted by the Stoke defender Ryan Shawcross. It was almost three years and two loan moves later, at the end of the 2012-13 season when Ramsey finally started to really find his form again and silence his many critics. Arsene Wenger had shown faith in him, just as he did by keeping Coquelin at the club when many expected him to be released and that must have required even more faith from the boss, because unlike Ramsey he had not already shown his ability on the big stage as the Welshman had. But their situations are somewhat alike and so Ram

I know that the Arsenal boss will not want to meet the transfer demands of West Ham. The East London club actually want to keep hold of their talented centre back and have apparently tried various offers to persuade him to sign a new contract. But the latest media reports, including from The Mirror, claim that the captain of the New Zealand international team has rejected these offers and also made it cleat to his bosses at West Ham that he wants to make the transfer across London to play for Arsenal and will not be too happy if the Hammers block his dream move. But that is what Sam Allardyce seems to be doing, despite the fact that he knows Reid will be able to leave for nothing in the summer. The report claims that they are holding out for a transfer fee of around £8 million, which is too much for a defender with just six months left on his contract. The Gunners were said to be hoping to get him for as little as £3 million and are now looking at something more lik

Villarreal defender Gabriel Paulista will complete a £15.25m move to Arsenal today, according to Spanish radio station Cadena SER. Speaking on the station’s El Larguero programme, journalist Jose Ramon De La Morena claimed that the Gunners would complete the 24-year-old’s signing on Wednesday. The Brazilian centre-back has emerged as the Gunners’ top defensive target in recent days and publicly confirmed that Arsenal were interested in signing him . At the same time, Saint Etienne defender Loic Perrin revealed that Arsenal had cooled their interest in him, while West Ham sources were briefing that the Gunners would only bid for Winston Reid as a backup option . That left Paulista as the frontrunner. The former Vitoria defender joined Villarreal from Brazilian outfit Vitoria in a £2.5m in August 2013. He has established himself as a key part of their solid defence, which has helped the team go unbeaten since early November. Paulista has been compared to cur

Not a man to shirk from going against the tide and pulling a wild surprise, Arsene Wenger is set to involve Krystian Bielik straight into the thick of the first team action, as soon as he signs on Sunday when Arsenal travel to Manchester City. Only paperwork formalities remain for the 17-year old to complete a move after passing his medical on Friday and contrary to general opinion that he would be passed through the junior cadre before first team action will come later, Wenger feels his latest acquisition is good enough and will be in his big plans from the word go. “He’s a defensive midfielder, 6ft 2ins, he has a good energy level and technical level. Also, it’s a gamble. But on what we saw, it’s worth taking” the Mirror quotes Wenger. Now, the bold mention of his role as a defensive midfielder seems Wenger is telling everyone that he’s finally got what he’s been asked to get for ages and in that case, he will have to be involved immediately. What makes it even

It is a bit like buses at the minute for Arsenal fans who have been twiddling out thumbs and waiting for Arsene Wenger to make his first move in the January transfer window. And now we find there may be two new Gunners to celebrate. Yesterday the Arsenal transfer rumour mill was buzzing with the news that the Gunners had finally had a transfer bid accepted by the Polish club Legia Warsaw for their teenage midfield star Krystian Bielik. And hot on the hells of that news, the Daily Mail are reporting that a deal is very close for another midfielder to strengthen the centre of the Arsenal team. The player in question this time is the 22-year old Croatian international Marcelo Brozovic. His current club Dinamo Zagreb have apparently told the media that talks on this transfer have been ongoing since October and that our most recent offer of around £6 million could signal the beginning of the end of this saga. Brozovic is a highly rated all-round central midfielder who,