ARSENAL CLEAR-OUT AHOY

Arsenal fans will shed no tears at the two names featured in the Daily Mail's story of senior players leaving the Emirates in January, with Sebastien Squillaci and Marouane Chamakh very much surplus to requirements.

Fifth-choice centre-half Squillaci is available on loan to anyone who will stump up his wages or for around £2m on a permanent deal, but the Mail offers no price tag for Chamakh, who has had a nightmare 2011 after a promising start to his Arsenal career.

Oh and Manuel Almunia is available for around £300,000 while Schalke are apparently sniffing around perma-sub Andrey Arshavin.

CITY EYE MARTINEZ

Manchester City definitely need more quality players so there's little surprising about the Daily Mail's claim that they have sounded out Athletic Bilbao over Spanish international midfielder Javi Martinez.

Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea have all shown an interest in the really rather good Martinez, who has a £34m buy-out clause in his contract.

"When you hear of interest from United, you feel proud but I'm happy at Athletic," said Martinez before talk of the other Manchester club getting involved.

KEITA MAKES REDS WAIT

Here are some quotes from Barcelona midfielder Seydou Keita in The Sun: "Liverpool are a great club and it is fantastic to hear they are interested in me but you know how I feel about Barcelona.

"But we are in football and nothing is an absolute, so let's wait until the end of the season. I want to play more games and the Premier League is very attractive and exciting for anyone."

The 31-year-old Mali midfielder has started only five league games for Barcelona this season.

AND THE REST

Liverpool are closing in on the signature of Swiss teenage striker Nicholas Hunziker from FC Basle...Fulham are lining up Swansea's former Chelsea winger Scott Sinclair as a replacement for Moussa Dembele, who is wanted by Tottenham...Sheffield rivals United and Wednesday are set to go head to head to sign in-form Rotherham striker Lewis Grabban.

Read more >>

Like a love affair, Arsene Wenger had stated in a pre-season interview posted by The Guardian that he would fight until the last second to keep midfielder Cesc Fabregas by his side. Why do managers continue to reject monetary offers and wage war against a courting club when their player is dejected?

The ex-Gunner isn’t the first footballer whose importunate plea to leave a club governed headlines on the sports pages (Fabregas’s contract with Arsenal would have ended in 2015.) He signed with Arsenal in 2003 at the age of 16 and had been successful as their captain. So what was the straw that broke the Spaniard’s back?

A clue could be in Wenger’s Guardian interview, as he said, “…we will fight for everything because you do not educate a player for eight years as we have done only to want him to go once he is at an age to deliver.”

Certainly this may be the problem. Wenger is celebrated for building the careers of young players, but when they hit their peak and are about to deliver they may be curious to seek bigger and better opportunities to deliver and reap rewards from. It is akin to keeping a first love tied down by saying, “I taught you everything you know, now you are indebted to me.”

While you can teach one the dynamics of a football game, passion is something one cannot learn and when it runs in your blood, as Lionel Messi claimed in Fabregas, one cannot change.

Arguably Fabregas’s “first love” was Barcelona and his Spain teammates (namely Andres Iniesta) wanted to hook up with him again as they did in the World Cup.

His longing to return to his former boyhood club is more like a love story for his roots than it is for anything else, although trophies could be tempting, as it is no coincidence that his boyhood club is a superior club housing the “best player on the planet.”

At what length or fee would a player go or pay to simply break free?

Javier Mascherano’s dire need to cop out of Liverpool and into Barcelona was blatant after he informed ex-manager Roy Hodgson that he wanted to leave the club which resulted in failure to show up for matches and dodged Hodgson’s phone calls.

Another ex-Reds player who made a last-gasp confession of dissatisfaction at Anfield sold for a record-busting 50 million pounds and had taken a beating in the press for his scoring drought while spending a significant time at Chelsea warming the bench.

It doesn’t make sense for a manager to hold a player to contract when they are miserable and then when questioned in an interview lie that they are fine.

So, what are contracts for if there are break clauses or constant breach?

The issue may not be resolved overnight and may have to sit on a shelf, but Wenger would be wise to seek players who’ve been around the block instead of players who are looking for, well, a trip to someplace else.

Read more >>