Double Dutch, The Weekly Transfer Rumour Mill

@hahostolze is back with his weekly transfer round up.

So in the last week or so there has been a lot of transfer gossip about certain players. Let me start with Karim Benzema. His agent has stated that he is happy at Real Madrid, but in that same week, Marca said (and I heard that there may be truth in that) that Benzema has asked his agent to manoeuvre a move away and maybe get Real Madrid to lower their asking price.
For Arsenal, that sounds good, especially with rumours doing the rounds that Gael Clichy is a target for Real Madrid.

Palermo’s chairman Maurizio Zamparini stated recently that Arsenal had snatched away a young, talented player from them. Thanks to good work by @JamieDalton82 it turned out this player was Bruno Dybal, a very talented, young, Brazilian playing for Palmeiras. I managed to ask to the player (and snoop around a bit) whether this was true. The links close to Palmeiras said they did not expect it to be true, although the player (naturally) remained rather coy. Since the Arsenal youth blogs don’t have any info on this, I doubt it is true. Keep an eye out though, we have clearly been scouting him.
The Telegraph, and most other sources, this week confirmed that a 1 million pound deal has been wrapped up for Carl Jenkinson, and he will be joining us this summer. I hear good things about him, which is good news, but I have been keeping an ear to the ground about this transfer, maybe we will loan him out to a Prem side, I hear. We will see.

There was also news that we had scouting Malaga forward José Salomón Rondón, and could be looking to make a move. Whilst I don’t doubt that he is an excellent player, a bigger name would be better for us right now. Besides, we scout hundreds of players (literally) and this is just one name Sky managed to find out.

News on the Lille OSC front remains good. Arsenal are apparently looking at Gervinho too now, with his price being lower than the price of Hazard. He might be a good appeasement deal if Lille sell Eden Hazard to Chelsea or Real Madrid instead of Arsenal, but I do doubt the fact that we would be getting both. I still prefer Hazard, but Gervinho would be an excellent addition to any squad, he is great at being a winger as part of a 4-3-3, exactly what we need. Good goal scoring threat from the wing too. He would cost us maybe 10 to 15 million pounds.

Scott Parker is becoming more and more a certainty for Arsenal. Even newspapers are now picking up on what I said as early as April, which is that Parker will be a big priority target for Wenger if West Ham got relegated. They are now and I do not see any reason we would not get him. Parker is settled in London, Man City want him but they are too far north, likewise for Liverpool (besides Man City is too congested in midfield), Spurs are happy with Sandro (for now) and that leaves us as interested clubs. The fee I am hearing would be between 6 to 11 million pounds. Seems reasonable.

My Dutchness has told me that Ryo Miyaichi (who is indeed already ours) will be involved this summer and might have a good chance to stay for next season. Not really transfer news but I will throw it in there.

Arsenal are also looking to poach Barcelona’s talented striker cum-winger cum-back Hector Bellerin, who happens to be on twitter: @HectorBellerin . He refuses to extend his contract at Barcelona and whilst being very highly rated, will therefore leave Barcelona. Arsenal are his preferred destination and who are we to say no? We will just have to follow the youth blogs on this one, but I see it happening. I have reported before that La Masia is not in good shape, still producing the best talents but there is no longer the same harmony as there used to be. Guardiola is not giving as many chances as he was previously and many La Masia insiders did not like the disrespectful remark about Jack Wilshere, who they genuinely consider to be above their current batches in level. Arsenal are still looking to poach Rafa Alcantara, who wants out too, but there are other interested clubs, he is a very well known talent.

Onto the defender front, we have the news that Gary Cahill would prefer a move to Arsenal above any other PL club. I would take Cahill like that, he is a very good central defender, but if we take him we would have to let Squillaci go. I have said before that I do not have a grudge against Squillaci: he was just a bad signing. Never fitted our system. Also still interesting Arsenal are Phil Jones and Christopher Samba. I would kill for Phil Jones, amazing talent, but I hope Samba would only be an addition besides another defender. He really has qualities we need, but he should not be a first choice: rather, a last resort.

On the departure front, I have been in Denmark a lot recently and I can say with certainty that the idea there is that their star player Nicklas Bendtner will not be leaving Arsenal this summer. He loves London and does not think that Munchen, Turin or Milan would afford him the same lifestyle, as well as the situation with his on/off relationship with the Baroness who gave birth to his first child. I genuinely think he will ask Wenger for one more chance, and muck in and maybe even perform.

So there you have it, one week of Arsenal transfer talk. Have I missed anything? Let me know, via twitter or leave a comment. Groeten!

By @hahostolze