There are plenty more Arsenal transfer rumours this week linking the club with possible moves for a number of central midfielders in the January transfer window. Sami Khedira is still mentioned, although the German star seems set to extend his stay at Real Madrid, until next summer at least.
And there have been many more players toted as targets for Arsene Wenger. One of the latest of these, making a late run into the box as it were, is the Everton and Republic of Ireland midfielder James McCarthy. The Gunners were linked with him before when he was playing for Wigan but he ended up following Roberto Martinez to Goodison Park in a transfer that made him the Toffees second most expensive player at the time.
He has continued to improve and impress and now, according to the Mail on Sunday, he has been identified by Wenger and his assistants as the perfect player to bolster the heart of the Gunners team. The papaer claims that we are preparing a £16 million offer for him in January, but Everton and Martinez may well be reluctant to sell and we may need to go higher.
But even then, especially with Gareth Barry not getting any younger, we may find it hard to bring him to north London. But we do have something that Everton want, in the shape of our young Costa Rican striker Joel Campbell. We are not playing him anyway and have plenty of attacking options, so maybe he could be used as part of the transfer deal for McCarthy.
Everton already fave competition for Campbell, according to the Sun on Sunday, from West Brom so maybe that will; sharpen up their interest in a January transfer and that might just be the leverage Arsenal need to get McCarthy coming the other way.