Horse trading

Who here is familiar with the phrase 'Horse Trading'. Loosely put, when horse trading occurs it means that it is everyone for themselves and the best man to trade will generally get the better outcome. Think Del Boy but with something other than hooky gear.

In the not too distant past we have been linked with Yoann Gourcouff and Joe Cole while also being linked with Yaya Touré amongst others. Allowing Barca to keep a lump of cash by giving us Yaya would have represented very bad trading. They probably won't get his true value in the open market because the world and his wife know that both Barca and Yaya want to bring that partnership to an end. Were Wenger to accept him he would have a player who doesn't really want to be here have a lot less cash to find a replacement for Cesc and allow Barca more money than they would normally get were they to come looking for anyone else, Arshavin for example. Bad trading.

Joe Cole is a multiple Premier League winning player with a truck load of international caps. He is English and less likely to want to leave the country and he has played in a few major championships for his country. He would also be a viable alternative to Arshavin or Nasri should either get injured or move, could play in the hole behind RVP and in general give us a lot of options. He would cost nothing but wages. Good Trading.

Yoann Gourcouff is a player who is fast becoming the fulcrum of the French national teams midfield. Hence one would think that he is a talented footballer. At 23 years if age you would expect him to mature and become a more rounded footballer in the coming years. Were he to come to Arsenal, where there is already a world renowned coach and multiple French national players, you could reasonably expect that he would be happy in a home away from home. Were he to be purchased for half of what Fabregas could potentially get you are talking about 25 million pound. Not so bad for someone who could very well become a Zidane type player. This would also then leave Wenger with a considerable amount of money on which to further trade without significantly weakening his existing squad.

Newcastle club owner Mike Ashley recently declared that he would not be making any funds available to his team manager, Chris Houghton, this summer. This could be construed as one of two things. They either (a) have no money, in which case their highly rated centre half Stephen Taylor could be purchased for a reasonable amount of money or (b) they want to give the appearance they have very little money and hence won't be asked to pay too much for any of their potential targets.

Were Wenger to try and acquire Taylor then he would need to call Newcastle's bluff immediately. If they have no money they will take a reasonable offer and Arsenal can start looking at other targets safe in the knowledge that they are stocked up at centre back. If Newcastle turn down an offer for Taylor and then announce a signing of any significance they fall into category b above and we should move on immediately to someone like Simon Kjaer who's price could rocket should he have a decent World Cup campaign.

Of course none of these scenarios might not come into play. Joe Cole might have a decent world cup and stay at Chelsea. Fabregas might stay at Arsenal for one more season and Gourcouff might have to move to Manchester City. Yaya Touré's agent might continue to put his foot in his mouth and pool old Yaya will have to stay where he is.

Regardless of what happens, it will be Arsène Wengers capability to squeeze as much as he can out of each and every opportunity that will have a major bearing on our coming campaign and by extension on his future at the club. Personally I would swap a want away Fabregas for Stephen Taylor, Yoann Gourcouff, Joe Cole and a giant load of cash. Not bad trading.

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