The punters in the Football Transfer Tavern have been feeling grateful of late but why you ask? Well, the sheer fact there is an entire plethora of football on our big screen over the Christmas period while in the likes of La Liga and Serie A, there is a break from the action.
Of course, given the end of the 2015 is right upon us, attentions will be switching to the January transfer window very quickly and who clubs will be landing to try and achieve their respective goals come the end of the campaign.
For Arsenal, Arsene Wenger’s men have coped with their injury crisis well with the likes of Joel Campbell and Mathieu Flamini stepping up well for the most part in Alexis Sanchez and Francis Coquelin’s absence.
That said, despite Arsenal enjoying more of a prosperous season in the Premier League so far this season, a lot of their supporters here by the bar believe that Arsene Wenger should further strengthen his side in January should more injuries and suspensions blight their hopes.
An injury for the likes of Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott or Aaron Ramsey right now could prove incredibly damaging with first team players thin on the ground and thus, reinforcements aren’t the worst idea.
With this in mind, we’ve scoured the transfer rumours so you don’t have to while listing what we believe to be the five most believable Arsenal January rumours heard so far.
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Click on the image below to reveal the five most believable Arsenal January transfer rumours so far.
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Mohamed Elneny
The most recent big Arsenal transfer story to hit the bar concerned this man, FC Basel’s Mohamed Elneny.
A defensive midfielder by trade, Elneny actually looks as if he’ll be joining the Gunners imminently with the speculation now having reached BBC Sport with their correspondent David Ornstein confirming last night that Arsene Wenger’s side are in talks with the Egyptian international.
According to Physio Room, Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla’s return dates are scheduled for February and March respectively at present and for once, Arsenal fans are actually quite hopeful that Arsene Wenger will take action this time.
Given this first choice duo are still out for a large chunk of the season, a defensive midfielder is what Arsenal will be prioritising and an affordable choice such as the £5 million-rated Elneny could well be the answer for Wenger.
Marcelo Brozovic
Considering Arsenal have been interested in landing Croatian international Marcelo Brozovic before, their rekindled interest in the Inter Milan loanee seems more believable compared to alternative rumours.
The latest from Metro states that the Gunners have already opened talks with Inter regarding his transfer and despite being on loan from Dinamo Zagreb at the moment, he is expected to be making his Italian switch permanent next month so the Nerazzurri can arrange a transfer if they wish.
Not a first choice starter for Roberto Mancini every week in Serie A, he seems more indispensable than other Inter squad members and Arsene Wenger will be hoping this is the case having been a long time admirer of the 23-year-old.
Aleksandr Kokorin
When it comes to Arsenal and transfers in recent years, we’ve grown accustomed to not being able to second guess what Arsene Wenger and the Gunners board will do.
With signings such as Nacho Monreal and Danny Welbeck coming out of absolutely nowhere, left-field choices are often the order of the day for Arsenal and somebody who’d fit this category is Dynamo Moscow striker Aleksandr Kokorin.
Linked with a Gunners switch late in the summer where a transfer deadline day switch was mooted, the Russian international has made the headlines yet again lately with The Express carrying quotes from fellow countryman and ex-Manchester United player Andrei Kanchelskis who has advised the striker to move to England.
Kokorin would come cheap at around £4.3 million according to the same reports and with Arsenal thin on the ground for strikers right now, adding another looks beneficial on paper although Gunners fans will hope Kokorin boasts more longevity in a potential Arsenal career than Andrey Arshavin before him!
James Maddison
How many times have high profile Arsenal transfers been mooted by the press while Arsene Wenger has moved to sign a star of tomorrow instead of for the here and now.
One player who fits the latter category right now is Coventry City midfielder James Maddison who The Independent have claimed Liverpool and Arsenal are interested in at the minute.
The 19-year-old has been reported to be the best young talent in League One and having seen the likes of Tottenham’s Dele Alli master the step up from this level with MK Dons recently, perhaps Maddison might even be ready sooner rather than later.
That said, like Alli, Coventry would be interested in re-signing their academy product on loan for the remainder of the 2015/16 season if a deal is struck with a big Premier League side this January.
Watch this space.
Danilo Pereira
While we’ve seen Arsenal linked with the likes of Victor Wanyama, Lars Bender and William Carvalho in recent weeks, surely that trio will prove incredibly difficult to attain with Southampton, Bayer Leverkusen and Sporting Lisbon going to play hardball again over their prized assets.
An alternative defensive midfield solution could be FC Porto’s Danilo Pereira who talkSPORT reported that Arsenal are preparing a bid for lately.
A player embarking on the peak years of his career at 24-years-old, Pereira broke into the senior international Portugal squad in 2015 and may be easier to attain than his sought-after club team-mate Ruben Neves.
After all, Porto have proved their ultimately a selling club down the years and if Arsenal land Pereira, they’ll be landing a huge physical presence for the midfield with the Porto player standing at 6 ft 2 in.
