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.