Right about now in the Football Transfer Tavern, our resident Arsenal fans are questioning why they even turned up in front of our big projector for the deadline with there still not being any firm indications that the club will sign anybody on the last official day of the summer transfer window.
Having been linked with an entire plethora of transfer targets all summer long, Arsenal have still only signed Petr Cech from Chelsea this summer for £10.9 million while they’ve seen the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United splash millions to sign the likes of Pedro, Kevin De Bruyne and Bastian Schweinsteiger.
The overriding notion from Arsenal fans by the bar today is simply why?
Why does Arsene Wenger continually opt not to really get aggressively involved in transfer windows to address the clear shortfalls in his squad which right now reside at desperately requiring another defensive midfielder and most certainly another striker.
With Olivier Giroud having registered Arsenal’s only goal of the season so far with two own goals from Damien Delaney and Fabricio Coloccini representing their only other sources of winning points, everybody was expecting the Gunners to sign somebody truly world class such as Karim Benzema or Edinson Cavani this summer.
However, in stark contrast, Gooners are now entering the final few hours of the summer window desperately hoping that any old name rocks up at Emirates Stadium to try and bolster a squad that was meant to have no excuses in 2015/16 regarding their Premier League title challenge.
With just hours remaining now, could any of these five be winging their way into North London before 6pm?
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Click on the image below to reveal the 5 players Arsenal could realistically sign before the 6pm deadline.
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Aleksandr Kokorin
A couple of days ago, cries of ‘who?’ swept around the bar when Gooners read that the club were interested in acquiring Russian international striker Aleksandr Kokorin late this transfer window.
Fast forward to this morning and the Dynamo Moscow striker is again being linked with a deadline day switch to Emirates Stadium with Metro claiming Arsenal are hoping to clinch a loan move for the 24-year-old.
While Arsenal fans of course harboured hopes of landing Paris Saint-Germain’s Edinson Cavani today before the French club made it clear they weren’t letting the Uruguayan go, Gooners would now take Kokorin as a stab in the dark and who knows, maybe he would prove everyone wrong while hitting the ground running.
Of course it didn’t eventually work out for Andrey Arshavin in North London but that said, the former Zenit Saint-Petersburg man actually started off his Arsenal career in spectacular fashion before a dreary end.
The same reports from Metro claim Dynamo Moscow aren’t willing to sanction a move for Kokorin but that said, he remains one of the foremost names linked with an Arsenal switch on Twitter and on the internet as a whole as we enter the final few hours of the window.
Adrien Rabiot
Much has been made about Arsenal needing a top class foil for Francis Coquelin in defensive midfield with neither Mikel Arteta or Mathieu Flamini trusted by the majority of Gooners as reliable back-up.
While Gooners have had to witness the likes of Geoffrey Kondogbia and Morgan Schneiderlin join Inter Milan and Manchester United this summer, the name that could still reportedly arrive at Emirates Stadium is Paris Saint-Germain’s Adrien Rabiot.
Depending on what reports you read today, some claim that Paris Saint-Germain have ruled out the prospect of selling any of their players before 6pm this evening while the London Evening Standard maintains that Arsene Wenger could push hard for Rabiot if he sanctions an exit for Flamini.
Many Arsenal fans would back a move for Rabiot who has been highly rated for some time but in truth, only a select few of them have seen him play and in reality, he has been stuck behind both Blaise Matuidi and Marco Verratti for a regular place in Laurent Blanc’s starting eleven.
That said, perhaps this could be the reason why he’d be keen on a late switch away from the French capital.
Andriy Yarmolenko
What Arsenal fans really wanted this summer was an out-and-out forward to not only challenge but usurp Olivier Giroud in the starting eleven so Gooners have been rolling their eyes somewhat to see themselves linked with Dynamo Kiev’s star man Andriy Yarmolenko.
Undoubtedly a talented player, Yarmolenko is not a total striker but rather a false nine who is far more comfortable on the flanks as a wide man.
With Arsenal boasting Danny Welbeck, Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott who have all not really made the centre forward position their own in fleeting appearances there, do Arsenal really need another half forward?
According to Metro, the Gunners have been mulling over a £14.5 million deal for the Ukraine international in recent days and with the player harbouring ambitions of playing for Barcelona, that of course won’t be happening so perhaps he could find the next best thing in Arsenal?
That said, as we’ve seen in the case of Yevhen Konoplyanka’s failed move to Liverpool in the past, it can sometimes prove difficult to successfully prise players away from Eastern European nations such as Ukraine, especially this late in the window.
Charlie Austin
Not linked to Arsenal by the mainstream press today but discussed as a viable option by the likes of Arsenal blog ‘Pain In The Arsenal‘, Charlie Austin remains a QPR player right now.
Having scored over 15 goals in his first ever season as a top flight player last term, all summer long Gooners have referred to Austin as an option that seems beneath Arsenal’s lofty standards but with the Gunners’ striking situation becoming more desperate by the minute right now, could he really do a job?
Arsenal took everyone by surprise when they swooped to sign Danny Welbeck from Manchester United this time last year and maybe Arsene Wenger might be tempted to make a late move for the former Burnley striker.
Gonzalo Higuain
With Arsenal having finally seen the door slammed shut in their face regarding their reported pursuits of both Karim Benzema and Edinson Cavani, how Gooners would love to hear about some late concrete interest in Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain.
Linked incessantly with an Arsenal switch for the last couple of transfer windows now, the Argentine has never been too far away from being linked with a Gunners move this time around either and the Daily Star reported yesterday how Arsene Wenger is still interested in him late on deadline day.
Spanish journalist Kike Marin confirmed that Wenger is still sniffing around Higuain’s availability although you’d imagine that the Italian club will be looking to hold Arsenal to ransom, especially this late in the window.
For Arsenal fans everywhere, all they can do now is cross everything and hope that a striker of some shape or form is just brought into the club before 6pm – anybody but Emmanuel Adebayor that is!
