Julian Draxler and Gonzalo Higuain, two players heavily linked with Arsenal in recent summers, have again been tipped for moves to the Emirates in the last few days. However, it looks as though there’s very little meat on the bones of either rumour.
It was suggested this week that Draxler, Schalke’s exciting 21-year-old attacking prospect, was of interest to both the Gunners and Manchester City with the player eager to make a mark in the Premier League. His agent though has shot down such claims stressing that his client needs to focus on his fitness after an injury peppered season.
Agent Roger Wittmann told Bild: “There is nothing to it. Top English top clubs have been interested in Julian for years but at the moment there is nothing specific. Julian has to regain full fitness first.”
Draxler is believed to have had a tour of London Colney in January 2014 before a bid from Arsenal was rebuffed. He went on to sign an extension that has him under contract in Gelsenkirchen until 2018.
Meanwhile in Italy, it looks increasingly unlikely that Higuain, 27, will leave Napoli. The Argentine striker moved to the Stadio San Paulo in July 2013 after his proposed move from Real Madrid to Arsenal collapsed at the last minute when Arsene Wenger began an ill-fated pursuit of Luis Suarez.
Napoli’s recent failure to qualify for the Champions League triggered suggestions Higuain could move to pastures new, but president Aurelio De Laurentiis said newspaper speculation surrounding his record signing is ‘a sea of lies’.
“The papers don’t know what they’re writing,” he told Sky Sport Italia. “They’re inventing a sea of lies.
“The contract will be respected. He’ll only go if a madman offers the buy-out clause. However, Gonzalo still belongs to Napoli.”
Arseblog News suggests you knock them off the list until January.
Yawn. Dismissed, as will 99.7% of transfer rumours be…
No club in the right mind would concede to losing players before the bidding begins, just business sense. However cant see either of these happening this window(higuain in any window)
Honestly, I’m indifferent toward Higuain and hardly find him as an upgrade to an in-form Giroud
An in form Higuain is world class…something that can’t be said of Giroud.
Please can you define what you mean by ‘World class’? My missus probably doesn’t qualify as world class but I don’t remind her about it every 5 minutes?
Let’s have it right, we would All love wenger to get us a 30 goal per season monster… Not too many of them around to be fair though…. And let’s be honest – giroud gave a pretty good account of himself last season
…. Well until the titi incident anyway.
He did…i’m just saying something any REAL football fan knows….we won’t be winning the league anytime soon with giroud upfront.
Whether it sounds harsh or not, its the truth.
Giroud is just a decent striker who would be second choice in any BIG team.
Yet typical fanboys talk about him being better than benz when benz starts over him in the NT.
They don’t want a better striker because it means hfb goes straight to the bench.
I wish people would just stop with this baseless slur that Giroud is not ‘world class.’ For you and all the other ‘real’ football fans, read this carefully: Giroud is leading the line for Arsenal Football Club, which *by definition* makes him world class.
Of course its “baseless” because its giroud.
I bet you weren’t putting world class in parentheses when henry and van rapist were scoring 30 goals for us.
Keep coming up with more excuses.
I will pick Welbeck any day over Higuain.
He might contribute a lot to the overall team play but we have a lot of players who do that, and for the time being his finishing is nowhere near Higuain’s.
Please read this article by 7amkickoff in which he compares some strikers that have been linked with Arsenal. You will be surprised by some of the conclusions!
http://www.7amkickoff.com/2015/lacazette-higuain-benzema-griezmann-does-arsenal-need-an-upgrade-on-giroud/
Stop smoking that strong stuff.
Stop being a prick
Stop being a dick rider…
Haven’t you already been banned once under a slightly different name?
Is that what you’re hoping for?
Banning someone who has a different opinion to yours??
How mature of you. Like I said before, ignore my post if its too “negative” for you or just you know….
We’ve been linked with Lars Bender and Karim Benzema as well, seems like they’re just recycling rumours from the last two seasons.
They’ll claim we’re in for Serge Aurier sometime next week.
Bender yes ,as for benzema the moment he becomes available wenger will do everything to bring him at arsenal he admires benzema from young age and always is talking about him, but the thing is i don’t see real m to sell him because they can’t find better striker than him that is available for buying, maybe aguero but city will not let him go in million years or billion pounds. Unless bentiez decide something stupid and tried to play ronaldo as ST bought someone else like pogba marquee signing and sell benzema, we now benitez can make stupid things… Read more »
I’ve never considered Wenger a madman
Jackson Martinez – Gone
Higuain – Gone
Draxler – Gone
Benzema – highly unlikely if RM don’t get Aguero apparently
I’m starting to panic. Will we really get a great CF this summer?
Panic? You can’t do anything about it.
I’ve just been enjoying the sun. Do something you can control.
Draxler wasn’t a CF anyway?
Also, how much money was Draxler asking for in the end? A ridiculous amount if I remember correctly. Bollocks to that. We don’t need him.
The great Welbeck, Giroud and Walcott.
What other greatness do you desire Sir Palulu?
Cavani? Arsene has bid for him in the past…
Draxler is not a CF and Benzema isn’t great!
So you need to update your list than to panic! I’m would think Wenger would have his eye on a Eduardo type player playing in a low profile team or league.
Its been a while since he unearthed a rough but ready diamond (Bellarin and Le Coq are more of a youth product)!
While I agree with your comment overall, to say that Arsene hasn’t found a few gems recently is wrong. Monreal certainly wasn’t well known, neither was Santi in England. Nor Ozil for that mat…. no wait, he destroyed England in 2010 prompting all English pundits to have an agenda against him.
I don’t think we were going to sign a centre forward anyway. I reckon Wenger is going to give Welbeck and Walcott another year to try to show they (or at least one of them) can be the alternative to Giroud that’s been missing. Whether that’s the right choice or not is up for debate. Neither is the proven striker we would like to have, but Walcott sure made a good case for himself at the end of last season, and Welbeck has excellent potential. I don’t think Wenger is currently prepared to sell or permanently bench either of those… Read more »
I’m not too worried, either we will stumble across a ozil like sequence of events and get a new world class striker, or we will strengthen elsewhere, we have giroud walcott welbeck alexis, im not TOO worried, if some1 who genuinely improves us turns up available then grab him, if not we’ll be fine there’s more than 1 way to improve a squad.
I wouldn’t worry about them. None of the above apart from Benzema are great CFs anyway.
All paper bull#@it as it always is
Telegraph and Mirror writers confuse fantasy football with real life.
No poo o meter?
We have always threatened buying players when we are not willing to pay the premium, we are no different this time as we will take scraps from other clubs. You pay peanuts you get monkeys. Remember Arsenal is coached by an Economist and not a football coach.
If you’d said this two years ago, I might have agreed with you. As it stands however, you’re a little behind the times.
Have you ever considered that wenger has shielded the board for years… Gone along with lies about having a huge war chest at his disposal to keep up appearances etc?? Because based on the evidence of his transfer business since paying off the ground…..Why would you paint him as a miser? Remember the last 2 summers at all. Maybe stop reading the tabloids and pay attention to the slow yet progressive transformation of our club.
By the same logic…. Are Chelsea a club managed by a translator, not a football coach?
Higuain as a world class striker is a myth…he is a good striker and if you look closely at his stats over the last 3 seasons they are good…thats just that….how can we pay all that money for someone who’s scoring rate is only slightly better than Giroud?..
Napoli are desperate to sell to raise some money…and one way of attracting attention is to come out and say the player is not for sale at any price!..yeah yawn!..
I am sick of this Higuain sage we don’t need him and infact I see another Falcao or Ballotelli!..
does anyone else think we should ve taken a gamble on a falcao loan ? it has taken him too long to recover from the ACL injury but its highly unlikely that someone of his quality he ll be crap for 2 seasons in a row. Unfortunately maureen always seems to be one step ahead of us. If falcao fires next season along with costa and fabregas feeding them some inch perfect passes, i dont think we ll be able to catch them im afraid. higuain is alright but not as good as players like aguero, suarez, , lewandovsky or… Read more »
Think it’s just you.
ah finally someone who seems to be smarter than maureen who just won the BPL.
Chelsea were wrong on Shevchenko, Torres and some others who I can’t even be bothered to remember. It may come as a shock to you, but human beings aren’t infallible.
by the way mr DoubleDoubleDouble i suppose im ALSO the only one who thinks that letting fabregas join chelsea and get a bucket load of assists to help them clinch the premier league title was a massive mistake by Arsenal.
What has Fabregas got to do with Falcao? I don’t recall Fabregas spending a season on loan at Man Utd and doing bugger all.
Yep, pretty much. We have midfielders who do that.
I think you’re being sentimental where fabregas is concerned, mate…. I love him too but when it comes down to it Who would you have let go to make room for him? Wilshere? Ramsey? Carzola? Oil?
I think your right.
@DoubleDoubleDouble
i dunno. i just brought it up.
and yeah i dont recall it either. haha
@stewart robsons therapist
yeah thats why we ended up THIRD.
12 points behind.
You’re arguing for getting Falcao, who played for Man Utd last season…they finished behind us.
From Mourinho’s perspective, it probably looks like: have complete squad, could use extra attacking flair to prevent tame draws, have Falcao’s strike partner from his most successful period, have money to burn, don’t care about overpaid prima-donnas sulking on the bench.
From my perspective it’s: stupid wage demands, mercenary attitude, 4 goals in 26 PL games.
You’ll have to read about Falcao’s attitude more. If there’s anything to believe about what’s written about him he’s a very humble and hard working player. He’s far from being a prima donna.
With that being said, the money is ridiculous to risk on him, for us, though. I believe if he can get over his injury he’ll be a great player for whoever, but the money, insane.
Or it could also mean another epl title for him and more misery for us(while coming up with the usual injury excuse)
Since you willingly named yourself after Andre Santos, forgive us if we don’t take your opinion on how good different players are entirely seriously.
lets see at the end of the season.
i dont see us winning the title unless we sign miraculously sign a top quality striker.
@Andre Santos: We’re going to have a top team next year, no matter what. Also, I agree with your comments. I have thought it was a big mistake to just let Fabregas go to Chel$ansk, but you just can’t control everything (Arsene can’t and we can’t). I also think that Falcao, unless he can’t get over his knee injury, could make Chel$omsk crazy good in all competitions. I hate to say these things because I hate Chel$kutsk, but I believe they are true and that we have to have a strong response to what is going on around us. Not… Read more »
cheers mate !
Who knows maybe AW will surprise us with benzema.
We got to somehow pull it off next season.
The Guardian reports that Mourinho will only countenance Cech moving to the Gunners if Oxlade-Chambo moves the other way. I can’t see this happening — but also wonder how Mourinho could possibly dictate where Cech goes if the keeper is out of contract.
Cech has a year to run on his contract.
And the Ox is firmly harnessed to the Arsenal.
Because it’s Chelsea and they just write off the fees, that’s how.
But Ox won’t be going to them. Wenger would never allow it.
Mourinho doesn’t seriously think he can get Oxlade Chamberlain-the fact he wants to stop an up and coming talent with frightening potential for a (admittedly very good) goalkeeper entering the latter end of his career is proof of that-it’s derisory. Instead, he’s just cunting it up doing what he threatened to do: trying to unsettle a member of our squad because he can’t get his own way. Of course, he conveniently forgets that in his time he’s tapped up his fair share of players, and that he’s had an unlimited sack of cash to spend; oh no, not Jose. He’s… Read more »
Andre santos just like his name suggest will make you yawn when reading his comment
well you were nt yawning on may 13 2012 🙂
go google it son. off you go
Hey guys. My first comment on the arseblog so yay! Shame it’s not relevant to the published article. I read on the bbc that the richest man in Africa Mr Dangote intends to buy the Arsenal as ” they will not be successful under current leadership”. He is said to be able to finance such a deal when his oil refinery is operational, sometime in 2017. My question is for someone who claims to have been an avid supporter of the Arsenal since the 80’s, wouldn’t him taking over undermine everything that Mr Arsène Wenger has strived to achieve, in… Read more »
congrats on your first comment.
Yes you are right. This dangote fellow shouldnt be allowed anywhere near Arsenal.
Welcome, Nacho. Your first comment is absolutely spot on. This Dangote character sounds like absolutely the last person we want having anything to do with our Arsenal.
Right, that’s out of the way, let’s talk real business…now, Salomon Kalou…
In ambition you seem to be lacking
lets start off with … Kim Kallstrom.
loving the banter over here along with the trolling.
thats what happens when the windows quiet and there s nothing else to do.
I hope we add another CDM (for cover) and desperately required position of GK. The biggest struggle attacking wise is for Wenger to understand which attacking combination to play when home/away and opposition team faced. For me, Giroud’s effectiveness against big/physical CBs is limited. I would much prefer to see us attack with pace and get behind such defences’, playing the ball quicker in between the defensive lines… Also we’ve struggled against lowly opposition putting 10 behind the ball, again Giroud’s effectiveness has been blunted. This is not to say we need to replace Giroud, but certainly need a different… Read more »
No need to sugar coat it…we need a better striker than giroud.
Look past the “hfb” stuff and honestly assess his performances over the last 3 seasons.
Has he improved?? YES
Can we win the league with him upfront? NO
Its as simple as that. Some people are just letting this hfb thing cloud their judgment.
If being hfb makes him score 30 a season, then i’m his biggest fan ever.
I feel a bit sorry for Giroud. OK, he isn’t in that tiny bracket of ‘top, top quality’ elite players like Messi or Ronaldo, but then who is? – Well, Messi and Ronaldo, obviously, but there aren’t many more. He is in that group just behind those two, though. Doesn’t he average a goal every 2 games or so? Obviously if we could get someone in who was much better, then we should, but it’s never as simple as that. There are quite a few clubs now with seemingly unlimited funds, all competing for the few elite players out there.… Read more »
Nothing against Giroud but every season we have the same discussion. Many think he is a great striker for us. I would like to see Higuain or Benzema to get an opinion about how good Giroud is. If I was midfielder I would want a faster striker to play in front of me. One that can open room because of quick movement. Giroud is good for one touch passes and shoting. The rest is not top class…
Its simple: to stand a chance of winning the league, we need a striker, dm and gk.
Some people as usual are getting carried away with our end of season form.
Anyone who thinks we don’t need new signings clearly wants us to come 4th place again. All you need is just an injury to alexis and ozil, and the team will struggle.
exactly. ozil and the rest of the cast are creating too many chances that go wasted because giroud can’t convert. dm and gk are no brainers as well. if arsene does anything less than strengthen in these areas i doubt our chances of winning the prem and/or competing in europe. this is an important summer for arsenal.
Cech, Kondogbia & Higuain would sum a perfect transfer window for us!
Too many unanswered questions. Maybe the reality of the answers are not worth knowing.
like asking Ashley Cole “why you wanna stick a phone up your arse?”
Just discovered the tune on YouTube. 4 years late but hilarious nonetheless.
“… an ill-fated pursuit of Luis Suarez.”
You say it was ill fate. I think it was a blessing in disguise.