Wanyama Won’t Be Sold, But Arsenal Have A Plan B!
Arsenal have been dealt a blow in the pursuit of the Southampton midfielder Victor Wanyama as Saints boss Ronald Koeman has confirmed that no player will be allowed to leave St. Mary’s in the upcoming winter transfer window. The comments from Koeman follow increased speculation of a potential £15 miilion bid from Arsenal for Wanyama.
As reported by Sky Sports, the Dutchman was quoted as saying: “They can prepare whatever they like to prepare. Don’t spend time trying to buy a player from Southampton because it’s impossible. They talk about players from Southampton because we have some good players and there is always interest in players. And the ambition of players is about playing Champions League.
“We know what we like to do and how we like to do our business. That means in January nobody will leave Southampton.”
Despite Arsene Wenger’s obvious interest in the player, I think most Arsenal fans would have known that signing the Kenyan international in January was not going to be easy. Surely, Koeman will not be allowing one of his best players to leave with the squad currently struggling to find form and languishing in the bottom half of the table.
But in my opinion, Arsenal have a great Plan B in case we have further injuries in defensive midfield, and that is Laurent Koscielny! With excellent physical strength and agility to go with a great reading of the game and a good range of passing, I believe the Frenchman has everything needed to play there and can also be very effective making forward runs from the middle of the park.
Fortunately, Arsenal have a top quality centre-back in Gabriel to partner Mertesacker should Koscielny be moved up the pitch. Considering the fact that both Koscielny and Gabriel aren’t really prone to serious injuries, we can really depend on these two players should Arsenal’s midfield injury crisis worsen. To anyone wondering why I didn’t mention Calum Chambers, I am not a big fan of him playing in midfield
Anurag.
Really?! koscielny?! our best defender to be shifted to midfield?! We might as well have Giroud playing center back!
@Admin, Are these Kos6 in Dm Articles pop up ads? Because they keep coming back and everyone thinks they’re stupid.
smh
OT:
heard that Man Utd is locked horns with Arsenal over James Rodriguez.
Maybe it isn’t true after all.
@Admin
I believe many here will give your suggestion the thumbs down but I actually thought Arsenal could have employed Kos as DM, and Mert and Gabriel at CB in the past fortnight when we played Olympiakos and then Man City …As it turn out we didn’t need to, as Flamini surprised many of us with his good performance….Regardless, I still like to see Arsenal experiment this formation in the less difficult games first to see how it work out.. Gabriel is a top CB wasted sitting on the bench and Flamini can’t play every games now at his age…Given Ramsey penchant to atttack….I believe Kos would provide stronger defensive coverage and presense than Flamini as he still got decent speed and stamina…. In fact I believe he would be an awesome defensive screen in front of Mert and Gabriel….
Bearing in mind we need to play Barcelona in two months time maybe without Coq,,….I think it would be worthwhile to try out this formation now in some of the upcoming games.
Plus Chambers not yet ready, Arteta always injured, and any new defensive signings would surely need time to bed in….Who else besides Flamini that we got in the middle that could be counted upon to do a decent defensive job….Debuchy?
Debuchy use to play on the right side of French midfield anyway…and he is not getting any minutes at all now….I still hope Arsenal would get a new top quality DM ie Lars Bender in January anyway…but as a plan B I think its worth a try…
merry xmas to my Gooners family and may the new year brings us many 3 points that would be needed to win the league
Leave Southampton alone. Haven’t they got skinned enough? I’m happy no one is leaving St. Mary’s.
Am just worried Gabriel is not getting game time, the dude is too good to be a bench warmer, especially for Per!!!;
Koscielny as a DM is a great idea.
Keown played in this role also as well as centre back..
My only concern would be that he would have cover more ground than usual and because of his back problem and the increased work load it may very well result in injury.
However, with caution, he would be awesome, he brings the ball foward so quickly.
@psytripps
I have the same concern, because a DM have to cover more ground and I am not sure if his body can handle it……
I was thinking of maybe using Kos in the middle sparingly in the less difficult games first and if it works out great, only use him there in difficult away games to give Flamini a breather. I remember last season Flamini started strongly but several games later into the season, his form started to tail off….I am not sure if he can maintain his good form for the next two month playing every games, not to mention being injury free.
Alternatively Arsenal can also play with a back 3 but with Mert lacking pace we would have to defend a bit deeper, this would just add more pressure to the backline….
Actually psytripps, I was thinking of those Adams, Bould, Keown days when I thought of Kos playing in the middle and I started to watch him more closely….He is the most mobile of our CBs and have almost no weaknesses. The only concern in terms of ability is that he occasionally mistime his interception of high balls (remember Southampton 0-2 defeat away last year)…lost the player he is suppose to mark ( West Ham first goal 0-2 defeat at home this year). Other than that he has been SUPER SUPER….
“Considering the fact that both Koscielny and Gabriel aren’t really prone to serious injuries”
heh heh Koscielny is pretty prone to injuries afaik
wenger will not buy the powerhouse just for backup.
Who wrote this useless article .really our best cb in DM.never gonna happen