As the Austrian training camp draws to a close, Arsene and his staff have a better understanding of where the squad needs to be strengthened in particular now the Adebayor has left and Toure is virtually a Man City player too, whilst Eboue and Senderos are also looking at Arsenal exits.

If Arsene sold the remaining four players he would have £55 million to spend, but before people go mad, he will not spend that sort of money.

A centre back is a top priority and Hangeland of Fulham is the prime candidate.  He has already rejected a new contract at Fulham, and an offer in the region of £12million would be hard for Fulham to turn away.  Vermaelen is a quality player who likes to play the ball out of defence, whilst Hangeland is a fully blooded typical English centre back, the type of player we need.

The striker situation has cleared up slightly with both Chamakh and Huntelaar available. The Dutch striker turned down a move to VfB Stuttgart in the hope of securing a transfer to the Premier League.  Tottenham have bought Crouch and have released Bent to Sunderland, unless they can sell Pavlychenko, and nobody is prepared to pay £13million for him, then they are no longer in the market for Hunterlaar.  This leaves the usual suspects, Liverpool (could be used by Real as part of the Alonso transfer), but where will Benitez, I only play with one striker, play him or Manchester United whose financial problems have meant that Fergie has had to hand over the Ronaldo transfer fee to the Glazers to help them pay off their debts.

Arsenal’s other target is Marouane Chamakh, who claims he has agreed terms with Sunderland, Fulham and Blackburn.  Sunderland have bought Bent and Campbell, so I would be surprised if they looked at further striking options, Fulham are unable to sell Zamora, so will only go for Chamakh if they sell Hangeland to Arsenal and Blackburn, well who cares about them.

One paper has us looking at Cattermole of Wigan.  I do not see this personally and if we were to buy a central midfielder I would prefer Mohamadou Diarra from Real Madrid, he has experience and will not cost a fortune.

Next week should be a busy week for Arsene.  He will be back in England and will be able to assess the situation further once the Emirates Cup has ended.  Next week will see the arrival of players at Arsenal that will give us that adrenalin burst that we need to hit the floor running in our quest for the Premier League.

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# Официальный сайт «Манчестер Сити» сообщает, что экс-защитник «Арсенала» Коло Туре подписал 4-летний контракт с клубом, став, таким образом, шестым новичком «горожан». Ранее на «Сити оф Манчестер» переехали полузащитник и голкипер «Астон Виллы» Гарет Бэрри и Стюарт Тэйлор, форвард «МЮ» Карлос Тевес, нападающий «канониров» Эммануэль Адебайор и его коллега из «Блэкберна» Роке Санта Крус.