Deadline Day – Let the madness begin 1 September, 2008

It’s deadline day and you know what that means – Sky Sports News has a crazy party. It’s the one day that we’re all sat at the computer with the TV on in the background frantically refreshing various websites. Of course, there will be one or two out there just to have a bit of fun with: “BREAKING NEWS OMG KAKA’ AT ARSENAL TRAINING GROUND LOL!!1″ I was thinking of doing something later but people would think I just wanted hits and being a NewsNow whore blah blah blah…

In recent years this day has been a busy one, last year we bought Lassana Diarra off Chelsea with about half an hour to go. The year before we completed the complicated swap for Gallas and Cole whilst also sorting out a move for a Brazilian youngster by the name of Denilson.

I’m expecting another cheeky last minute deal from Wenger. I don’t think it’ll be anyone special, but I think he’ll just get someone in to bulk up the squad, no one really high profile because I’m sure the manager knows we’re lacking in number. I wouldn’t actually be surprised if he brought in two players tonight. Gunnerblog has compiled a list of his transfer candidates, some interesting options in there.

He talks about the possibility of Alonso still making the move to London. Initially he was expected to leave once Gareth Barry’s signing was completed but that never happened. However Alonso isn’t particularly happy at Liverpool and despite playing every game this season Benitez might be tempted if we came in with a late offer.

What I said last Monday still stands, I’m not happy with Wenger’s lack of signings and we are STILL desperate for players. Ok, with a fully fit squad we’re probably alright but you can’t take that risk! We have an awful injury record here and it’s just not going to happen. Say Fabregas gets injured, who’s his replacement? Ramsey? We still need someone.

I saw this coming, Wenger leaving it ’til the last day and leaving us still in the blank. I still think we’ll sign someone though, Arsene likes last minute cheap deals and I’ll be surprised not to see at least one player announced as signed in the morning. I say I’ll be ‘surprised’, I mean ‘furious’. I don’t even want to start talking about ‘if we don’t sign anyone…’ yet.

Yes, we have been playing well recently. That’s not an excuse not to sign someone though. Wenger said last week that we don’t need to sign just because we lost a game, that’s not what we were saying but that’s what he said. Well now I’m saying that just because we won it doesn’t mean we don’t need to sign anyone. Look at all the other teams, they’re doing well but they’re still keen to add to the squad, make it better. That’s what we should be like.

I do hope Wenger’s busy at work and he can prove me and lots of other Gooners wrong by signing someone. If he does, he’ll still get criticized as to why he’s done it so late and risk points in our first few games, but at that point I’d just be glad to have one extra player to add to our thin squad!

So now we play the waiting game. Not much more we can do. I will speak to you tomorrow, hopefully to announce a new signing or two. Thanks for reading.