Thursday, June 7th, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Billy the Dog McGraw

Many of the players in the Euros are not more or less out of bounds in terms of transfer talk.  If the deal is nearly there then the agent can see it through – but even so, no club will sign a player in the Euros at this stage, for fear of a broken leg or worse in the tourney, unless they are really, really sure.  So we are now looking at comments made before players left for the Euros, and the non-Euro players who use the Euro period as a way of pushing their own case forwards.

Here’s three: Lucas Biglia, who has said he wants a move, Lewis Holtby who has one year of his contract left and wants to come to England, and Nick Powell who fits the Walcott, Oxland-Chamberlain mould, and we tend to sign these players.

Of course, as always, I don’t have a clue who we are going to sign, but putting together a record of everyone means that there is a chance when a signing happens I can claim that we were ahead of the game.  (Well, everyone else does). (And at least I admit it).  (And anyway it is raining again so what else is there to do). (I like brackets, don’t you.  What’s your favourite humming sound?)

Sorry.  So off we go…

“Lucas Biglia has claimed that Arsenal are in talks with his club over a possible transfer this summer.”

That is the story.  Another one is that Real Madrid are after him.  Another one is that each side is trying to scupper the other’s offer.  Another one is that we don’t actually need any more midfielders since as we pointed out here a few articles back, we’ve already changed half the midfield and attack for next season.  Another one is that Liverpool and Man U are “monitoring” him, which probably means they have men in cars outside his house watching to see if goes out partying, eats the right breakfast, and practices the piano before going to bed, as well as a phone tap, and men going through his dustbins to establish what magazines he reads.  Actually I must tell you about Wayne Rooney’s dustbin that I was contractually obliged to raid last week… [No, please don’t.  Tony]

Anyway, he is of particular interest because he wants to leave Anderlecht and is quoted in commentaries by the Daily Mail (source of at least 30% of made-up stories) as saying that the club know he is off.

He is an Argentine, which is bad news as if he is recalled to their squad he’ll have jet lag after every one of these ludicrous international breaks, and has played 155 times for Anderlecht and scored 8 goals.  He’s said to be going for around £8 million and is said to be an alternative to M’Vila.

So what else?

Biglia started with Argentinos Juniors and then went big time with Independiente, finally moving on to Anderlecht.  With Anderlecht he has won the first division twice and the cup once.  with Argentina he played in the Fifa under 20 world Cup in 2005

Next, Lewis Holtby – age 22.

The problem with Holtby is that he hasn’t actually said that he wants to play for Arsenal, but rather that he would like to play in England.  When pressed he said Everton.  Maybe we could introduce him to Arteta and try and fool him that the sponsors had insisted Everton now play in red and white.  That seems to be the in thing these days.

He joined Borussia Mönchengladbach when he was 11 (that’s the club where the most unpopular man on the terrace is the guy who shouts, “Give us a B….” )

He didn’t make it there and went to Alemannia Aachen (which has led some Arsenal fans to confuse him with our ex-keeper, but the point is Almunia is a man’s name, not a club name.  Difficult I know, but you have to focus).  He stayed tehere for five years before going to Schalke 04, with a contract that runs out next summer.   He has also done a loan with VfL Bochum and FSV Mainz 05.   He has played for Germany from under 16 to under 21 (where he was captain) and for the first team in the Euros.

In terms of his play, he takes the centre of midfield and links to the attack, delivering passes that even Liam Brady would find interesting.  To get a flavour here is a bit of a report from October 2010: “A month ago Holtby was a teenager on loan at Mainz from Schalke. It did not register as one of the transfers of the summer but it looks one now. Indeed, the 20-year-old has become the smiling emblem of Mainz’s surge.  Man of the match on Saturday, Holtby created three goals and scored the other.”

And last this time around, Crewe’s £10m-rated, 18-year-old striker Nick Powell – another attacking midfielder.  He joined Crewe aged five, played for the first team age 16 and this last season was a regular in the team that got promotion, getting young player of the month award for last December.

He also won all five awards that Crewe give out each year: Goal of the Season, Young Player of the Year and Player of the Year, best sending off of the year, and nicest mum of the year.  (Actually I made those last two up.  There were two more but I don’t know what the other two were so can’t actually write them down in a proper and serious fashion as befits a column in Untold).

He has played at Wembley in the League Two play off final this year and has played for England at under 16, under 17, and under 18.

That’s it.  Three more.   Here’s all the other ones…  If we buy the lot we’ll have a very big squad.

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