Mikel Arteta’s latest injury leaves Arsenal in desperate need of a defensive midfielder with decent distribution, preferably one with Premier League experience. Only one man fits the bill but anyone who thinks Southampton are about to let Morgan Schneiderlin move to a rival team this January is in need of a quick maths lesson.
Southampton are currently third in the table, three points clear of Arsenal and on track to qualify for the Champion’s League for the first time in their history which would be an achievement worth somewhere in the region of £50 million to the south coast side, approximately double Schneiderlin’s current market value.
Southampton might decide to cash in on Schneiderlin in the summer but right now a top four finish looks well within reach so selling one of their most vital players to a team just three points behind them would be pure insanity, both from a footballing and a business perspective.
In this context calling on Wenger to make a move for him this month is an exercise in futility because, while Schneiderlin would undoubtedly be the ideal Arsenal signing, Southampton are not about to strengthen a side who they see as direct rivals in the race for Champion’s League qualification.
This is just one of the many reasons that Arsenal fans hoping for marquee January signings are in need of a reality check. There are definitely players out there who could improve the current squad but few, if any of them are going to be made available for transfer at the midway stage of a season.
Out of favour PSG midfielder Yoann Cabaye is the other obvious candidate to replace Arteta but Wenger would have a job on his hands persuading Laurent Blanc to part with the player while his side are competing on two fronts domestically and preparing for a crunch Champion’s League tie against Chelsea.
What Arsenal fans can expect to see, in light of Arteta’s continued absence, is a prolonged spell in the starting 11 for Francis Coquelin whose surprisingly successful elevation from the outer fringes of the playing squad to the first team shows that new signings are not always the solution.
Coquelin is never going to be a spectacular player but he looks solid which is exactly what you want from a defensive midfielder. He’s been with the club since he was 17, has made a fair few first team appearances and looks to have leapfrogged Matthieu Flamini in the pecking order.
I will always have a soft spot for Flamini because I share his aptitude for pointing and shouting and used to enjoy rolling my sleeves up and flying into tackles during my playing days, although as I was turning out in division four of the High Wycombe Sunday Combination and he’s playing in the top tier of English football the similarities probably end there.
Unfortunately while the Frenchman brings a lot to the side in terms of energy and motivation his distribution skills are severely limited and he has been culpable for the concession of some crucial goals this season, most notably during the disappointing home draw with Tottenham.
Coquelin’s comeback has been greeted with cautious optimism but if he’d signed for £20 million in a fanfare of publicity instead of returning from a loan spell with Charlton the pundits would probably be hailing him as the saviour of Arsenal’s season, such is the importance of perception in football.
There is no defensive midfielder in the current Arsenal squad capable of distributing the ball as efficiently as Arteta and that’s a problem which Wenger is going to have to address eventually but with 17 year olds Ashley Maitland-Niles, Gedion Zelalem and Krystian Bielik all hungry for first team football he has plenty of internal options at present.
Recent absentees Laurent Koscielny, Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey and Theo Walcott are all back in contention and Arsenal’s injury crisis appears to be easing off (down to 7th in the Physio Room table!) so Wenger might well feel that the worst is behind him and the squad has weathered the storm.
Plus the manager’s recent comment that the club is ‘working hard to bring in one or two’ indicates that there is at least a possibility Polish teenager Krystian Bielik, who is supposedly undergoing a medical at London Colney even as I type, will be the only player to arrive in January.
The news that Arteta is potentially out for the season will inevitably spark some wild transfer rumours but the time for strengthening was in the summer and Wenger is much more likely to put faith in an existing squad member such as Coquelin than bring in a big money midfield signing this month.
Schneiderlin might well move to Arsenal one day but it’s not a deal which is likely to happen at this stage of the season and any headlines suggesting otherwise should be treated with extreme scepticism.
