With a lot of recent rumours linking Arsenal to full backs such as Andreas Beck of Hoffenheim and Porto’s Alvaro Pereira, maybe Arsene Wenger might be on the lookout for another defender. But is he in for a LB or RB, Pereira is more left sided whilst Beck can play both.
Which side needs strengthening the most would you say? Well Bacary Sagna is probably the best right back in the league but is his understudy, 19 year old Carl Jenkinson up to the mark of filling in for Sagna for the next two and a half months, yes other defenders can play at right back but Wenger doesn’t like moving players from position to position.
The left side is our weaker side, with Gibbs – now out injured – and Andre Santos, both are good players but for me Andre Santos doesn’t cut it as a defender, he almost plays as a left winger, granted he can score goals, make goals and go on crazy runs but is sometimes caught out of position and a lot of teams recently have used that and looked to counter us, Kieran Gibbs has been for some time, the left back who isn’t ready yet but might be in a few years. This looks to be a signal of intent from the Frenchman should he decide to buy a full back.
Pereira has a £25.7m buyout clause in his contract as he over the summer saw a bid from Chelsea for him turned down whilst the fee associated with Andreas Beck who’s linking looks to be the strongest is around €12m. Andreas doesn’t get as many goals as Pereira but is a year younger at 24 and has nine caps for the senior German side. Beck can play either side as a wingback whilst Alvaro Pereira is also comfortable in a midfield position so both are very flexible. Which would I prefer, well I can see Beck being the most likely candidate at the moment due to his lower price tag and for that reason I can’t really see Arsene going in for Pereira.
The full back positions have always been one of Arsenal’s strong points with the likes of Dixon, Winterburn, Cole and Sagna all adopting world class tags to their names. Even players like Sylvinho, Clichy and Lauren were top players in their Arsenal prime. After the form has been picked up, Wenger and many others would love to see it continue now that the internationals are over and what better trip to make than of one to newly promoted Norwich City at Carrow road, can Arsenal manage back to back Premier League away wins since November 2010?
Arsene has always claimed to never like the January transfer window, but he has spent on many players before. Andrey Arshavin arrived on January deadline day in 2009 and stands as Arsenal’s record signing. Maybe a new signing might start to match players ambitions and push Song, Van Persie and Walcott to sign new deals.
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