United, Arsenal, and Chelsea all chase same player.

Chelsea are looking to beat Premier League rivals Arsenal and Manchester United to the signature of Inter Milan defender Andrea Ranocchia,

The Italian international has had limited first-team opportunities at the San Siro under manager Walter Mazzarri and the Milan club are prepared to sell the defender this January.

According to Italian media, Jose Mourinho hopes to sign the 25-year-old to Stamford Bridge as a replacement for David Luiz who is wanted by La Liga giants Barcelona. Manchester United and Arsenal are all also said to be interested on the giant defender,

 

Arsenal’s January transfer targets.

British newspaper of the year The Independent highlighted The Gunners January transfer targets today. Here Gunnerswatch rates the possibility of them.

Luis Suarez 1/10 Arsenal had their chance in the summer. Liverpool will not let him go in January and the player would cost upwards of £60 million.

Karim Benzema 6/10 Wenger is a long term admirer of the Real Madrid striker, but any deal is likely to be in the summer rather than January.

Julian Draxler 4/10 No doubt a talent, but The Gunners are over-run with quality midfield players.

Konstantinos Mitroglou 7/10 The Greek striker on form would provide a reasonably priced back up option for Giroud. Liverpool also keen on the player.

Cheikhou Kouyate 6/10 Wenger has tried to sign the defender in two separate windows now, but this is another one that is more likely to happen in the summer.

Antonio Sanabria 7/10 The Barcelona starlet dubbed “the new Messi” has already agreed a pre contract with Arsenal according to The Spanish media.

 

 

 

GUNNERS MESSI MOVE

Arsenal have been reported as making an attempt to sign Lionel Messi in a new book by Guillem Balague.

The Gunners are said to have tried tried to lure Spanish centre-half Gerard Piqué and Messi from the Barca academy during the 2002-03 season.

In the book – “Messi” – Balague says Arsenal representative Francis Cagigao met with one of the Argentine’s agents, leading to an offer being passed to Messi’s father, Jorge. 

However,  Messi decided to stay where he was , and Piqué eventually joined Manchester United before sealing a return to Barcelona in 2008. Fàbregas would rejoin his boyhood club eight years later.

Balague explained to The Sport Review : “They (Barca)  didn’t feel it [a move to Arsenal] was right because it would have meant a lot of bureaucracy again and starting over.

“Barcelona, more or less, started to protect him. But Arsenal tried.”

He added: “Real Madrid felt at some point that they could have taken him, Inter Milan felt they had a chance… there were moments when it could have happened differently. “

Balague added that the upheaval of switching to the English capital could have been too big a hurdle for Messi to overcome.

“He didn’t need that [a move to Arsenal]; a new language and a new culture,” he said.

‘Messi’ by Guillem Balague is available from Orion Books, priced £20 / eBook £10.99

Bayern didn’t want Arsenal

A number of players for the current German and European Champions have come today made it clear they wanted to avoid Arsenal in the last 16 draw.

See a few of their comments below.

Jérôme Boateng, Bayern defender Arsenal are the toughest team we could have drawn. They will be highly motivated after we knocked them out last season. We are expecting two very intense games.

Philipp Lahm, Bayern captain It’s a good omen, but tough opponents. They are the strongest team we could have drawn and it’s certainly not what we were hoping for. Arsenal have made some quality new signings and will prove a real challenge for us. However, our goal is obviously to reach the next round.

Manuel Neuer, Bayern goalkeeper [They’re] a team we know very well and attractive opponents for us. Perhaps it’s a good omen for us, seeing that we also played them last season at this stage. We obviously look forward to playing against our team-mates from the national team and we have good memories when it comes to London.

Dante, Bayern defender We will need to be highly focused in both games. It’s not the best draw for us, we wanted to avoid Arsenal and Milan, but that’s how it goes in the Champions League. There are lots of quality teams out there. Arsenal have improved a lot this season compared to last

Suarez spotted at the Emirates

but sadly only for an awards ceremony…

Stories floating around on Twitter tonight that Luis Suarez is at The Emirates. This is true, but only for the FSF awards ceremony and not for any other reason despite those on Twitter reporting otherwise.

Arsenal football club would never conduct transfer talks at The Emirates regardless of who the player was.

I dream of signing Suarez – Wenger

Arsene Wenger has admitted he “dreams” of signing Liverpool striker Luis Suarez. 

Arsenal tabled two bids for the Uruguay international in the summer after they were led to believe an offer of over £40 million would trigger a clause in his contract. 

That was eventually proved to be false and Suarez – despite his desire to swap Anfield for the Emirates – stayed put. 

However, Wenger has now admitted he still admires the in-form star and refused to rule out making another bid in January. 

He told Telefoot: “He is an angel.

“He turns into a demon when he is on the pitch. We all dream of having players like that. According to information I had about him, he is beyond reproach away from the pitch.

“He has a provocative personality. All the English defenders hate to play against him.”

Gunners chasing highly-rated German

Arsenal are eyeing a move for Hoffenheim winger Kevin Volland. 

Blessed with blistering pace and mazy dribbling skills, the 21-year-old has emerged as a genuine talent this season and has alerted a number of English clubs.

Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool are also watching him, according to the Daily Mirror, and a bidding war could ensue when the transfer window reopens in January. 

Volland is valued at around £12 million – a figure well within Arsenal’s budget. 

Ozil issues grovelling apology after Mertesacker clash

Mesut Ozil has issued a grovelling apology to Arsenal fans after he decided against applauding the travelling support following the Gunners’ 6-3 defeat to Manchester City. 

The £42.5 million signing from Real Madrid was berated by compatriot Per Mertesacker – as GunnersWatch reported earlier today – for his failure to show his appreciation to the support after Saturday’s loss at the Etihad Stadium.

However, he has now taken to Facebook to apologise. 

He wrote: “Sorry I didn’t thank the fans at the end of the game!

“You have been brilliant to me and I know you had travelled a long way and spent your money to support us. I was upset with the result and know I should have come to you to say ‘thank you’ and I know it is a big Arsenal tradition win, lose or draw.”

Wenger: “It’s a bad day”

Arsene Wenger admitted Arsenal had a “bad day” on Saturday as they were thrashed 6-3 by Manchester City. 

Manuel Pellegrini’s men ran riot at the Etihad Stadium and Wenger was disappointed with his side’s defensive indiscipline throughout. 

Speaking after the game, he said: “It is not beyond a bad day, it is a bad day. We conceded six goals, we lost our discipline at end and were too open when I took [Mathieu] Flamini off.

“Out of the six goals we gave them five and when we came back to 2-1, we had a chance but could not take it.

“They scored the goals and you cannot say they did not deserve them. We have to come back to reality and it’s about us defending together and we have not done that today.”

Wilshere faces swearing rap

Jack Wilshere faces an anxious wait to find out if he will be punished by the Football Association after he appeared to make an offensive gesture during Arsenal’s 6-3 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday. 

The England midfielder was caught on camera by BT Sport appearing to aim the gesture at City supporters after protesting at the award of a goal-kick.

Martin Atkinson is not thought to have seen the incident but Wilshere may yet face suspension, as Liverpool’s Luis Suarez was fined £20,000 and banned for one game for making a similar gesture in a game against Fulham.