So who should Arsene Wenger snap up in the light of his admission he could snare a central defender should Sebastien Squillaci’s hamstring problem prove serious? I reckon it might just be Bolton’s Gary Cahill.
AW confirmed: “If we only have two centre-backs then that cannot work with the number of centre-backs we have. If Squillaci has a problem then we must quickly go out for a player.”
Reebok boss Owen Coyle has a good relationship with AW although obviously he doesn’t want to sell the player. But given that he is bidding to take Middlesbrough’s David Wheater could that mean that Coyle is paving the way for his departure?
We’re certainly in a fix at the heart of the defence after allowing Bill Gallas, Philippe Senderos, Mikael Silvestre and Sol Campbell to leave. TV5 has been out for most of the season — he has not played since the end of August because of a long-running Achilles injury — and could possibly be out for the remainder of the campaign given that if he does recover he will need to get match fit and seems to be running out of time. Johan Djourou has been immense of late and he will no doubt partner Laurent Koscielny on Wednesday against Ipswich in the first leg of the semi-final of the Carling Cup.
But if either of them get injured we would have to revert to may Alex Song at the back or perhaps recall Kyle Bartley from Sheffield United. Yesterday there were tabloid reports that Sol was on AW’s radar – surely not.
Other supposed targets in the past have been Brede Hangeland but he signed a new long-term deal at Fulham. Then there is Phil Jagielka at Everton. Other targets include Jan Vertonghen or Per Mertesacker, but it is unlikely such a move would to happen in January. Christopher Samba has also been mentioned but although he is certainly a powerful player there are questions over his technical ability.
Have you heard of any other targets?
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