It’s like Christmas Eve, and boy is it a good one for Arsenal! Mertesacker and Santos had their medicals yesterday, including personal terms getting agreed, whilst there is two more medicals booked in today. We are after M’Villa (defensive midfielder) and want an attacking midfielder. The club worked tirelessly yesterday on many deals and it’s looking like we’ve got the most packed day ahead for transfers, Arsenal has seen in years.
Keep yourself on the site, as soon as I hear some news it’ll go straight up, so keep refreshing! Check out the new Fifa 12 game if you haven’t already. Should be awesome!
11:15: Bendtner is likely to sign for Stoke by the end of the day. He hasn’t signed anything as yet, but Thomas Bendtner has been there this morning talking to the club and the talks are progressing well. Quotes from the player (cannot verify) from the Danish website Sporten.dk state: “It’s as close as it possibly can be. I’ve not signed anything, but expect clarification this afternoon”
11:25: QPR, Blackburn, Norwich and West Ham are interested in Lansbury.
11:47: Contrary to reports, Honda is not having a medical with Arsenal. Confusing stuff.
11:50: Wenger is currently in Heathrow Terminal 5 chatting with Andrew Villas Boas. One is boarding a flight to Geneva and the other Nice.
11:56: Confirming snippet of news on Keisuke Honda, his agent says he’s in Japan and not London, therefore meaning he won’t sign.
12:09: Andre Santos has just confirmed to Turkish Media that he is joining Arsenal today.
12:17 Giles Sunu has left Arsenal for Lorient apparently
12:20: Henri Lansbury set to join West Ham United on a season loan.
12:29 It seems Stoke have chosen Cameron Jerome, of Birmingham, over Bendtner. SSN reporting the move for Bendtner is off.
12:33: Ajax technical manager Danny Blind has said: “Never any contact with arsenal over Miralem Sulejamni.”
12:36: Newcastle having previously shown interest in Bendtner are in definite need of a striker and following his Stoke move falling through, watch this space.
13:26: All a bit quiet currently, maybe lunch breaks for everyone? Either way that’s where I’m off for a bit. See you soon.
15:18 BACK INTO THE ACTION: Arsenal have confirmed the signing of Andre Santos and he will wear the number 11 shirt. Check out the report here
15:28Unfortunately it seems we won’t be signing M’Villa today; Rennes simply won’t budge from their £30million price tag and we will only pay £25million.
16:19 BACK ONLINE AFTER SERVER ISSUES: Apologies, due to the huge demand on the site today the bandwidth limit was reached and the site went offline briefly. Thats all been sorted now. Since the downtime Arsenal have announced ‘an agreement has been reached with Mertesacker.’ Click here to see the official announcement.
16:25: Joel Campbell is in talks with Lorient for signing on loan, after he was denied a work permit earlier this month.
16:38: Henri Lansbury to West Ham on loan confirmed.
16:53: All the national newspaper journalists saying we’ve gone in hard for Arteta this afternoon. Can’t comment on validity, but makes a lot of sense.
17:12: Heard confirmation of our £10million bid for Arteta. Everton are haggling, as you would expect, but deal is looking like it should go through.
18:14 In response to ‘Jon’ in the comments, Arsenal are only working on Arteta deal now. We inquired about Dempsey but got no further than that.
19:16 Arteta deal currently not happening.
19:44 Appears to have fallen through on personal terms. Gonna be Yossi or no one.
20:04 QPR have inquired about Bendtner
20:45 One year loan deal for Benayoun agreed. Disappointment.
21:25 Matt Law, John Cross and a few other journos reporting Arteta deal could suddenly be coming back on. QPR will not get Bendtner. Now much more likely he will go to Sunderland on loan, after they missed out on Crouch. He is on international duty, but it could still happen. Arteta’s back on as he’s dropped his wage demands, which were stopping the move! COME ON!
21:33 Arteta is adamant he wants the move now. If we don’t him, it’ll be doubly devastating. Benayoun still on as well.
21:47 Confirmation of both points above. Arteta deal is moving swiftly and has no bearing on Benayoun. He is still coming currently.
21:55 Per Mertesacker deal officially announced and completed. Click here to see details.
21:58 Just confirming what I said at 20:45, Yossi Benayoun deal completed. One year loan.
22:00 1 HOUR TO GO.
22:23 Bad news, Moyes is refusing to sell this late and deal is off, currently. Arteta is desperately trying to Resurrect deal. Fingers crossed..
22:31 Benayoun confirms on his twitter account he has joined Arsenal.
22:40 Bendtner still talking to Sunderland
UNDER 15 MINUTES TO GO
22:48 Quote from David Moyes: “Mikel informed me that he wished to join AFC. I am disappointed to lose him but the prospect of CL was something I can’t offer”
22:51 9 Minutes to sign Arteta
22:53 It looks like Bendtner has completed his loan move to Sunderland, only issues is paperwork getting completed. Everything else in place.
22:58 According to SSN, we are preparing the paperwork for the Arteta deal. Big rush!
22:59 I’m hearing Arteta has signed…
WINDOW HAS CLOSED
Waiting on confirmation of Arteta…
23:09: Bendtner has completed his loan move to Sunderland
23:14 Various media journalists are reporting Arteta is completed.
23:15 Good days work, predicted two moves at the start of the day on top of Mertesacker and Santos and that was correct. Tune in tomorrow for reports on signing. Good Night and remember COME ON YOU REDS!
