Very important that we keep Dawson in my opinion. I don't particularly rate him as a player but he knows the club inside out and has been through a lot with the club. Invaluable to have his character and experience in the dressing room. Amazing to think of all the competition he's fought off over the yeas too.
Surprised he's not been linked with a move away. Mertesacker and Koscielny seemed a decent partnership so I can't see that being split up anytime soon unless injury strikes one of them. Would Vermaelen be happy as 3rd choice at a club? There are a number of teams who I'm sure would take him.
Thats the boy himself isn't it? *Looks at picture caption in quote. Faceplams* Great news, looks like we've another new player confirmed!!
We'd be mad to sell him. Kos and Mert have formed a decent pairing at the back but the season is long enough for 3 CBs to get regular game time. Vermaelen is out for around 3 months with a back injury at the moment, Kos and Szczesny picked up knocks on the Asia tour but are expected back soon. We've shipped out a couple of turkeys at the back this transfer window, so I don't think we'll be selling Vermaelen
With the injuries you're looking pretty light at the back right now Piskie. Any idea who your targets are?
I still think we need to sign another quality defender, I wished we'd signed Vertonghen when he was linked with us, he's quick, strong and skillful, and can play CB or LB, he'd definitely be suited to us, any chance of him carrying on the tradition of your decent CBs moving to Arsenal ? Vermaelen for me is a top quality defender in the same mould, he had a terrible last season, got injured lost his place and his form as Kos and Mert were establishing themselves together. All top teams need equally as good players pushing those in the first XI and as mentioned the season is long and there are lots of games, so I don't see a problem with Vermaelen's position at Arsenal. I don't know if we've got any transfer targets in defence, it all seems to be about which striker and how much money we'll spend (or not) to land one at the moment, But we've got rid of Squillachi, Santos, Djourou and Meade at the back, so it looks like we're clearing the ground to bring in at least one more defender.
Everyone knows that Arsenal will be linked with marquee signings for the next five weeks before signing two unheard of Frenchmen for a combined cost of £20M, who will be the next Vieira and Henry.
Well you'd be mad not to be looking into getting another decent level CB at least. I certainly hope Verts doesn't go down that route...we love him after a year so it would be very painful for us...lets not think about it! Do you think someone like Ashley Williams is an achievable target? I find it hard to tell if he just looks decent at Swansea, as good as they have looked recently.
Rival watch is the place for the last few posts on this thread. It is supposed to be about Chadli, remember?
I get you Spurf, and far be it from me to side with a gooner.....but he did make the thread so I guess if he wants to lead it off topic it's kinda his call I guess... Point taken though
Lets hope we see some of this from him next season... [video=youtube;XzClKQnRk1A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzClKQnRk1A[/video]