Summer Target no.1 Captured – Thomas Vermaelen 20 June, 2009

Well as I’m sure you are well aware Thomas Vermaelen has signed for Arsenal and as always it’s ‘on a long term contract for an undisclosed fee’. Ajax have confirmed he has been bought for £8.5m but could rise to £10.2m depending on appearances and what not. I have a feeling we will be paying that full fee of just over ten millions pounds though – he is the most expensive defender we’ve ever bought and I’m expecting him to go straight into the first eleven alongside Gallas or Toure.

However the futures’ of those two are not sorted; Kolo Toure could be on his way to City if The Times are correct with their reported incoming £12m bid. I’d feel really confident about our defense next season if we could keep Vermaelen, Gallas and Toure but I expect all three demand first team football. If I had to say I think one of Toure or Gallas will leave and if we do get offered that reported £12m for Toure then I think we’d be mad not to take it.

I love Kolo Toure, but as much as I don’t like to admit it he is in decline. Man City would be paying for experience and heart, which is why I’d still be gutted if we lost him. There’s still a chance Gallas could go, there’s talk of Milan lining up a bid and Gallas himself might try to engineer a move if he’s not happy at the club which wouldn’t surprise me. If I had to choose one of the two to keep it would be a tough choice – my heart says Kolo, but my head says Gallas. Since he lost the captaincy he was a solid defender and a true professional.

Anyways, back to Vermaelen. It was obvious we needed a defender and I’m glad we have that sorted now. I believe Wenger’s back from holiday now so I look forward to a couple more additions this summer; one isn’t enough. Vermaelen seems to be everything we need though – He’s an experienced defender, he’s got a good few years ahead of him, he’s played many games in Europe, he’s an established International and he’s left-footed. Once upon a time you could’ve said all those things about Silvestre – Vermaelen is the much younger and much improved version of the ex-United centre-back so I think if any of our defense is leaving it’s going to be Silvestre.

There’s been a lot of talk about Vermaelen’s height and in his official factfile the club have listed him as 182cm (6 feet). I don’t know why there has been so much fuss about how tall he is though, if he can defend he can defend. I’d be a bit worried if he was 4 foot 8 but he’s not so lets just forget about it.

I can’t wait to see him in action this pre-season. All I remember of him was him he and van Persie squaring up when we played Ajax that time. He’s coming here with a fresh reputation and can work to become a respected Premier League defender. I do know that he is a committed player and he says:

“I just want to assure the Arsenal fans that I will give everything for this Club and I hope we can enjoy winning some trophies together next season.”

He also said how he was sad to be leaving Ajax, which is understandable. He fell just short of 150 appearances for the Amsterdam club and became captain of the side during his time there. They will sorely miss him but hopefully he can be just as successful here.

As I said, I don’t think we should close the chequebook here though. A holding midfielder should be the next item on our shopping list, a long overdue purchase but one that’s still required. Also, there’s bound to be departures this summer and we might have to account for those too. It must be said though we do look a little bit more complete with this signing. A little bit more complete than Man United anyway who are now without Ronaldo and Tevez for next season, leaving them just Rooney and Berbatov who has hardly impressed since whoring himself from Tottenham.

It’s nice to come back from my break with some proper news to report. Not a great deal has gone on whilst I have been in Kent and there’s no point in me re-capping it all now. The fixtures were announced on Wednesday but that’s all been discussed elsewhere now. The only other bit of news today is about Emmanuel Eboue who says he’s had no contact with PSG. He says they are a good club but has no immediate plans to leave Arsenal, however he did say he wasn’t happy with the lack of appearances he’s getting. Well with Rosicky, Arshavin, Walcott and Nasri to compete with next season I don’t think it’s going to get any better for him.

Right that’s your lot for today, thanks for reading and speak to you soon.