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Arsenal Linked With Surprise Raids On Man City & Chelsea

By on July 1, 2013

The transfer window is officially open, let the madness begin! While we are still waiting for the ‘imminent’ arrival of Gonzalo Higuain and an opening bid of £20m has apparently gone in for Wayne Rooney, the transfer rumours are showing little signs of relenting.

The Mirror are reporting that boss Arsene Wenger has identified Chelsea flop Fernando Torres as a potential target this summer (stop laughing!). The newspaper believes that new Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho doesn’t see Torres as a regular first team player next season and would be willing to cash in this summer, and they think Wenger wants to bring him to the Emirates.

It appears Higuain is in the bag and Wenger’s first choice would be to also bring in Rooney, but that deal is looking unlikely so the boss has drawn up a list of alternatives and the Mirror claims Torres is the next man he’ll go for.

If that’s not funny enough, the newspaper suggests that we will play Torres alongside Higuain up front next season. Now unless Wenger is planning a drastic formation change, I fail to see how that’s going to happen given the fact we only play one up top and both Torres and Higuain are out-and-out strikers.

Saying that, we all know how the boss loves to play players out of position, so perhaps we’ll see Torres out on the left wing next season? He can’t do much worse than he does through the middle!

But seriously, Torres to Arsenal?! Silly season is certainly in full swing. No chance of that happening.

The next player the Mirror have linked us with is Manchester City defender Micah Richards. Now this one isn’t quite as surprising as the Torres rumour, as we’ve been linked with Richards one and off for years now, but I’d still be shocked if we see him come to the Emirates this summer.

The 25-year-old has failed to establish himself at City over the last couple of seasons and a series of injuries haven’t helped his cause, with him playing just 7 matches last season.

The Mirror suggest City are ready to offer him a new deal, with his current contract having just 2 years left to run, but the defender is understood to be keen to explore his options as he searches for more first team football.

Arsenal are believed to be monitoring his situation as Wenger looks for potential replacements for Bacary Sagna – who with only one year left on his current contract has been linked with moves to PSG and Monaco – but could face competition from Inter Milan for the £12m-rated defender.

I’d personally like Sagna to stay for one more year, despite his patchy form last season, as I think Carl Jenkinson would really benefit from having his experience around. But if the club aren’t prepared to lose him for nothing and an extension isn’t agreed soon, it seems the 30-year-old could be off leaving us with a hole to fill.

Richards would be a decent purchase but his injury problems are a huge concern. The last thing we need is another player who’s going to spend more time on the treatment table than the pitch, so I think there are better option around if we do need to sign a right back.

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Do you think there’s any chance of Arsenal signing Torres? Would you like to see Richards come in?

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