Italian newspaper Gazzetta Dello Sport claims Arsenal’s quest to bolster their attack has them knocking on the door of the San Siro waving a suitcase of cash in the direction of Argentine striker Mauro Icardi.
The 23-year-old, who started his career in Barcelona’s youth ranks, has been playing his football in Italy for four years; first with Sampdoria, who he joined from the Camp Nou in 2011, and currently as captain of Inter Milan.
It’s reported that Inter have no intention of selling Icardi as things stand, however, with the player eager for a new deal, despite being under contract until 2019, it’s suggested he could try and force a move.
Much of this stems from comments made by Icardi’s wife, Wanda Nara. The 29-year-old Argentinian ‘personality’ manages her husband’s affairs and told Corriere della Sera last week:
“There are many offers, but I do not negotiate with other clubs. I only talk about Mauro’s contract, that’s my role, not doing negotiations.
“Atletico Madrid, Tottenham and Arsenal have made contact. Napoli and Roma are also interested now.”
It seems like a big pile of steaming nonsense to us…almost worthy of an Arsenal-related song/pun…perhaps “The Wanda of Poo”?
Elsewhere, a report in Germany claims we’re chasing a Kevin de Bruyne lookalike from Hoffenheim.
Philipp Ochs, a 19-year-old striker, is currently playing for Germany in the under-19 World Cup and has apparently caught our attention.
What do we know about him? Here’s Bild’s insightful take on this young talent…
Given our kits are red and white, yellow and grey and blue and neon yellow, it doesn’t look like much of a goer, does it?
A shame, as the lad could have brought a new level of political activism to the dressing room.
the story that Arsenal are meeting with Icardi’s reps is legit-ish – the reliable Di Marzio is behind it
HOWEVER the story’s probably been leaked by Icardi’s reps themselves and we know that agents like using Arsenal’s name to attract interest
My take is that Icardi’s team is clearly looking for a way out of Inter for him. Whether Arsenal are interested is up in the air but I think we could probably get him if we are keen
Sadly we are not ‘keen’ on any transfer. Our approach is to look indifferent and hope they make the first move. Bit like me at a disco and I can confirm, it doesn’t work!
i love that you go to discos. Makes me feel old but not alone.
Hm. It makes me feel alone – but not old.
Not to stomp all over your comment, but is di Marzio’s reliable? I see his name on Arsenal stories every summer, and they’re usually pretty outlandish. Maybe he’s reliable for clubs that do business with Serie A teams and Italian agents? We’re pretty quiet on that front.
James Horncastle who is an expert on Seria A confirmed as much on Twitter. Inter changed owners and there’s cash coming in, seems if Icardi is angling for an improved contract.
As much as I want Arsenal to sign a striker, signing Icardi would be a bit underwhelming signing. He’s a firey character and captain at Inter but not sure if he’s much of an upgrade to Giroud. ?
An additional body to supplement Giroud will always be positive. I’m not sure what you’re basing Icardi’s performances on. But he looks pretty decent to me and has a bit of fire that would suit well in England. Plus he looks like he can definitely play alongside Giroud. Not believing any of the rumours yet though (I’ve set my bar pretty low regards to any more potential transfers, probably the best means to survive as an Arsenal fan)
We won’t get an outright upgrade. Simply there aren’t that many around. What we definately need is another body to supplement, maybe add a little bit different, maybe with potential for more. There’s simply not much “world class” (whatever that means) strinking talent around, that we can actually get.
The most important thing for this transfer window is to avoid the situation of going in to the season with walcott as our second choice striker, or even the starting striker in the first few games. Would be more than happy to have Icardi or that German kid instead.
Maybe if we stop broadcasting to the whole world how rich we are and how much wonga we have then we can stop being linked with players and actually buy a couple.
Braodcasting? Hardly a secret the PL is flush with money. Doesn’t take too much deducing that Arsenal is financially in a great position. Selling clubs know that, players know that and agents know that. The problem is people take too many of those stories at face value without considering whose releasing the information. In this case it’s the player’s camp. So what may his motives be to do that?
But it’s definitely easy to pressure Arsenal compared to other clubs. Underachieving (on the field) for the past 10 years? Check. Tons in cash reserve? Check. Highest ticket prices in the country? Check. A fanbase at unrest with the way the club is run? Check. Flaunt your player’s name with Arsenal and they’ll probably cave into negotiations. If they don’t, other clubs will follow suit.
Just like any other club, I guess. Arsenal are in an akward position, we’re an super club, but at the bottom of that chain. We can’t compete with Barca or Bayern Munich and neither do we pay their kind of wages, so we’re stuck there. The club is acutally as far as I see very discret about their buisness, but agetns and the press love to flash the club’s name around to gain leverage in negotiations. Most “interest” reported doesn’t amount to much.
I think also that we like to use players we are not interested in to move along transfers we are in interested in carrying out. I think this is a gambit, i might be wrong but i find it dofficult to believe that Wenger is interested in Icardi. Not for lack of talent, but for the really quite unsettling things you hear about his off the field life. Not good for our “team spirit” the cause and solution to all our problems.
We’ll probably sign Ochs as LANS
Like A New Sanogo
I came at that Sanogo.
Icardi would be Wandaful if true
Don’t need to grab my coat. I’m already dead.
What is Wenger playing at?!? The striker we need should have been identified, tapped up, signed and settled by now.
Has he put all his eggs in the Vardy basket?…..really??
More mismanagement from Wenger as he has to trolley dash around the globe….and we end up with a player who ‘needs 6 months to get used to the premier league’. Bollox.
Just a few hours back.. I saw, Icardi’s Wikipedia page saying he plays for English Football club Arsenal.. It got me excited!
Now unfortunately they have changed it back to inter..
He would be a terrific buy.. At least better than the 80 million deal we have been linked with for a 29 year old player. (I know his name)
Let me ask this. Why would every other Big Club, in particular Juventus, spend the money required to buy the best striker in Italy, but Arsenal wouldn’t? This striker almost guarantees we will score more goals for the next 3 seasons than we did in the previous 3 seasons. A period of time during which Arsenal’s chances of winning the League will increase exponentially. The same league title we have not touched in a decade. Is the 29 year old still too “expensive”? When you want to win trophies and potentially even try for the CL, what is more important?… Read more »
Do we know as a fact that Juventus made an acceptable offer?
No we don’t…but what what we do know is that if they had the money they sure as heck would!
We ‘Know’ that do we?
I guess we’ll find out if the rumoured Pogba deal goes through.
Brilliant to ask. I’d rather we fans thought like this instead of bickering about the price of certain players. We are loaded with cash, but certain fans won’t have us pay 5million over what they themselves think the value of a player should be. Great if we don’t go nuts like manure last season. But never ever do I want to see “bargains” like gervinho or squillaci again. Buy class, get class. We damn well can afford it
A deal for Higuain at his release clause plus wages would cost GBP 120 million over 4 years. That’s nearly the whole of the club’s current cash reserves. Puts things into perspective, doesn’t it? Before you say other clubs don’t have cash reserves as big but still spend big, those are oil clubs and commercial juggernauts and Arsenal are neither unfortunately.
There is no guarantee that Higuain will be a success in the EPL. A lot of “top” strikers from La liga and serie a have failed to deliver.
This guys is a massive douchebag. He slept with his best friend’s (maxi lopez) wife and after they got divorced, he went on to marry her. And now he posts pics of himself with Wand and Lopez’s kids on instagram. Huge dick head but very good striker. We’ll see…
He ain’t a “very good” striker. Average at best
he has 47 goals in 88 games for Inter… hardly terrible 🙂
And that is in the Serie A were it is pretty much established that it’s quite difficult to score an abundance of goals. Unless you’re Higuain.
so wait….. he fell in love with his best friend’s wife…..
they marry……
he treats his step kids like his own….
the horror!!!!!
if those step-kids were once your best friends’ kids and you’re doing it out of spite, it is a dick-headed move on the biggest level. Especially when you go on to sleep with the wife of the guy who was trying to make you feel at home at a new country and club.
I don’t see the problem here.
Cant be more of a dickhead than Vardy
Meh. Will be annoyed if Mahrez ends up at another premier league club.
Up the Arse
Icardi is not the answer we need and I’m sure it’s his crazy wife making all this up. The guy is way too wild for Wenger. Pretty sure the German kid is a winger too. I’m just gonna go on a limb and say we’ll end up with Yarmolenko. -best player in Ukraine (I know, means nothing, but considering this is exactly the kinda player Wenger would get years ago; best player from an unknown league). – started off as a RW. Very good dribbler and creative. And great finisher. Honestly, surprised no one has signed him yet, seeing as… Read more »
Usually agree with your views on football (yes Yarmolenko has quality) but Icardi is absolutely good enough for Arsenal. He’s portrayed as some kind of Latin Macho Lothario nutjob but he’s captained Inter and scored over 1 in 2 at the age of 23.
Also, I cannot comprehend how dismissive we are about other team’s strikers when our options are Walcott, Campbell, Akpom, Sanogo, and the ghost of Daniel Welbeck.
Oh I wasn’t commenting on his quality, his quality is what we need.
I just think he’s really far out from a Wenger signing in that he brings too much baggage and drama with him.
Could be wrong, but I really doubt it. And I would be worried about how he could affect the team balance.
But F it, bring him in.
I do agree we are way too dismissive of other teams strikers.
Our current options are Theo, Akpom and Sanogo. And the saviour of it all is Giroud, who I like, but we all know what we get with him.
Icardi has a very Suarez like player in him and he’ll make much more sense than a Higuain
We can get Icardi and Mahrez for the same cost as Higuain and he’s only 23
Imagine a front 3 of Sanchez Ozil Mahrez behind a quick and pacy poacher like Icardi?
Sounds too good to be true but if Wenger lets Mahrez go to Chelsea it will be typical Arsenal and a massive massive disappointment if we end up with shite
Honestly that foursome has huge potential with Giroud backing up. Icardi has the Pippo Inzaghi knack of scoring goals just when you think a defense has got to grips with him.
Meh… not exactly super quality.
Looks like our midfield better step up their goal contributions!
a poo called Wanda
I heard we’re signing a centre forward called Papa Lazarou to play up front with Icardi. You’re my wife now Dave
Does anyone else see the real issue here? Who would have their wife as their agent!?
Why not? She will have the best interests of both himself and his family in mind. Seems reasonable.
This is already getting ridiculous; if we think that Xhaka’s signing alone will be enough for us to challenge for the title then we’re totally delusional. By now it’s clear Wenger won’s sign a good centre back nor a top striker, and we need at least those to fight with city, united, chelsea, etc.
Lack of ambition is evident and really hope this is the last season we deal with Wenger….
Bet Wenger’s left testicle he ain’t signing no one not until the winter window opens.
Phil Ochs was a 1960s counterculture protest singer.
‘New York city has exploded and it’s crashed upon my head..’
Perhaps he – the modern one – could pen a ditty about Stan’s syrup ?
Being linked to Phil Ochs makes a refreshing change to the usual transfer Boll Ochs.
Is it just me or are there others who have that feeling of “Nahhhh, rubbish media rumours” on being linked with established players and the feeling of “Oh U19/U21, we are definitely interested it seems”?
Oh to be a Gooner!!!!
You’re not wrong and it honestly angers the shit out of me
Man I’m really losing all my patience. Everyday we’re linked to a new striker. Are we really that bad at transfers? Icardi thing sounds a bit bs to me for a better contract. That wife/agent of his is damn sly. Just last year Inter tripled his wages and now she’s again asking for a raise since Inter have new owners now. I would love Higuain, it’s been my dream signing for many years now but then I dont see us paying that crazy release clause. Plus there is no resale value on him. I guess Lacazette is our only realistic… Read more »
I’d say we need to go all the way and sign Lukaku. I mean, do anything we can to get him, because for sure many other strong clubs are already over him.
He is strong, tall, quick, and could develop into a better striker than Giroud. Has much more potential and years ahead of him.
You do realize that 90% of those “links” are completely 100% made up by the press for the precise purpose of getting under your skin and therefore getting you to click on their muggy links?
You can’t really blame Arsene for journalists making crap up.
Wenger did hint that he likes south American strikers so that may be a clue as to who we may sign
Maybe Wenger is just way too busy looking for Pokemon at the moment, completely understandable..
Mkhtaryan played as a number 10 for a manure the other day which kind of explains why he didn’t want to join us. As talented as he his he probably knows the one person even better than him is Ozil.
My point is we have Ozil BUY A STRIKER FOR GOODNESS SAKE
Wenger doesn’t know what he likes anymore, always looking for something that’s not there and when it is there he won’t pay the money. Will end up fighting for scraps again on deadline day.
This Icardi story broke the poo-o-meter, which wasn’t built to handle such quantities. The Arseblog News Hound had to borrow one from the London Zoo, the one used to measure gorilla poo.
Who knows with Arsene & Arsenal…!
Phil Ochs eh? he was a damn fine political activit nd singer songwriter, I’m surprised to see he’s now playing in Germany.
Wanda sounds a bit fishy to me
I’m gonna have a week off of this site. I can’t deal with speculation anymore, hopefully when i come back, i can talk about our new signing.
for the cb we need Wenger would buy Holding guy for almost free
as for the striker Wenger buys a back up(competetion at most) for Giroud not a first 11 quility to match Oezil and co’s play making
dont have your hopes up, we’ll never win a league with Arsene Wenger again. not only lack of transfers and ambition but also out-dated tactics is what he’s reduced to (been saying that for half a decade and I wont be surprised by your blind thumb downs. big denyers)
Guess we’re all losing patience now.
Why can’t Wenger go for Jesse Rodriguez, he’s fast and will now come after Morata in the Real’s attack pecking order.
Not another BarcaDNA guy or a teen we’re going to loan out please, Arsene.
do your research??
That’s not a question.
Why is anyone suprised.
It’s the same every summer.
Can guarantee we will be starting with no new striker in August.
Rather than doing tv work in the summer maybe Wenger should spend more time on securing new players we need.
After all he does earn a nice 8 million a season.
His salary cap must not include himself.
Arsene Wenger Sept 1st 2016 Faces the media: ” Unfortunetly we weren’t able to sign the players we needed, a winger, striker and defender, we tried very very very very hard to secure those signings but it hasn’t worked out. We work really hard, morning until late night, to try to get one or two players in.” Am sure you heard about the number of players we’ve been linked to. However, remember that i always said i will only sign top top top top players, and i have proved that right with Xhaka and Asano AKA the panther. Honestly i… Read more »
Ridiculous.
We aren’t even close to end of window.
16 goals and 4 assists in a league that’s regarded as far more defensively astute and tactically superior than ours, is a pretty good return.
Would provide Giroud with competition and offers a mobile alternative.
The ‘big boys’ aka Lewa, Higuain, Aubameyang aren’t going anywhere unless its for 60+mil, so a player of Icardi’s caliber is realistic.
Has just above a 1:2 goals to matches ratio for Internazionale which is brilliant.,
47 in 88 since he joined Inter at a 20 year old.
I’d be very happy if this went through
And at 23yrs has propensity to get better. PLenty of upside.
Familiar with central role and holds the ball/distributes well. Draxler is also potentially good but carries risk in transitioning and may cost more.
Both Morata and Higuain are priced much higher.
Its a reasonable option to say the least. It could be like getting Higuain before he hit his peak. Icardi will likely get better with the right tutelage.
Good insight, I mean I’d love Higuain, and even @ the value Napoli have slapped on him we can afford him, but like you say, if Icardi has the goalscoring rate now, his trajectory, barring a terrible injury, can only go up. I have the feeling even if we did get Higuain, the budget would be gone and Wenger wouldn’t get a CB to pair up with Koscielny, which would be a problem. I see the value on Draxler is ludicrious, our wide areas aren’t an issue and we can’t afford to have a Henry convert winger into striker type… Read more »
These stories are a form of fan abuse.
If it’s not bad enough they’re bollocks but the kind of players mentioned are pretty bollocks too.
I can say right now that I would be VERY SURPRISED if Ozil and Alexis sign new contracts with Arsenal. They did not come here to win the FA Cup. No offense to anyone but nobody outside of England thinks the FA Cup is worth anything. They are simply not being shown what they were no doubt promised when they signed for us. I remember reading some article about what Wenger told Ozil to lure him to Arsenal. Wenger has fulfilled none of it and Ozil will have been here for THREE seasons now. Wasting away the prime years of… Read more »
This was supposed to be the window where Wenger righted his wrongs. Not signing any outfield players last summer turned out to be a mistake. Having faith in certain members of the squad proved foolhardy. The team is close to departing on its pre season tour and here we are with 1 excellent signing and 1 for the future but nowhere near enough business done. I completely agree with Blogs that a wide forward and a CF are a must but we don’t appear to be doing anything except undervaluing players. We were sitting on a shitload of money before… Read more »
When you spend is important. The prices are astronomical at the moment. Look at Pogba rumoured at 120m. Higuain at 80m, Hulk went to China for 47m Do you understand money? We need to get the striker in for a reasonable amount for us because we may also need to add at Cback. There are 7-8 teams who can spend way more than us and some have similar requirements. That we nipped ahead of a number of those teams for Granit early on at 30m is not highlighted conveniently by some. Many of these teams United in particular wuld have… Read more »
Nonsense. If the spuds seal the deal for N’Koudou they will have signed a proven Premier League player at DM (Wanyama), a highly rated CF (Janssen) and a wide player with potential (N’Koudou) in the same time frame and for the same amount as Xhaka and Asano. What’s so different about Pochettino’s understanding of the transfer market or sense of timing?
Rubbish! Again, why does EVERY other team manage to sign the players they need while having a significantly less transfer budget than Arsenal?? Why are every other team decisive in the transfer market, seek out who they want and go right ahead and do their business? We have a manager who is frugal to a fault, and while it certainly leaves Arsenal in good financial standing it also will almost guarantee that we are never able to truly compete with the big boys of Europe. Keep making excuses, because those are exactly why Arsenal as a club has stagnated. If… Read more »
Icardi could be a possibility. All options remain open. He’s only 23yrs so plenty of room for improvement. Who knows he could develop into the next Higuain. He’s also good at holding the ball up despite a smaller frame (I think he’s about 6 foot) and can act as a node for the other players to come through him. Needs a bit of better finishing but you’ll probably have similar issues with Draxler converting to the middle if not slightly more risk. I think it all boils down to pricing. Higuain is priced very high at 80m+ for a 28yr… Read more »
Are you a coach by any chance?
Read that Murillo who also plays for Inter, is a player we are interested in as well, highest no. interceptions in the Copa.
Send 50mil Inter’s way for the both of them I say
This guy and Lacazette are really the only viable options left. He’s a superb finisher and while his allround game isn’t that great, he has the potential to get better. Definitely a better finisher than giroud and would thrive playing in front of our midfield.
We need goals…we need an additional 15-20 goals.
Every rumour is accompanied by a torrent of diarrhea
Arsenal may have some of the most moronic and infantile supporters on social media. Most of the commentary,is the usual mix of buffoonery and cognitive dissonance. Relying on rumours on crap clickbait sites as the basis for discussion is just sheer lunacy. Expecting arsenal to pay silly money for average strikers because it will show ‘ambition’ is why I’m we have sensible people running the club!