Arsenal are finally starting to get moving in the transfer market as last night Sebastian Squillaci was on his way to London to undergo a medical, put the finishing touches to his personal terms and, all being well, will ink a three year deal for a fee of £5.5 million initially but with add-ons taking it to £6.2 million, or so I have been told.

Given the long, drawn out transfer saga’s that have run this year (Chamakh, Cesc, Koscielny lasted a while too…), this deal has been refreshingly short and painless.

To be fair I know very little about the guy, my basic knowledge is that he is 30, right footed, a center back, good in the air and apparently a hard nut. Those attributes tick the required boxes so lets pray that he doesn’t get so me sort of injury during his medical and signs on the dotted line. We should have some form of announcement by Tuesday afternoon by the latest I would think – nothing to back that up just a hunch.

A comment made by Arsene Wenger the other day shows that there is more than just the option of bringing in Squillaci, as I wrote the other day there are numerous targets that Arsenal have been in dialogue of some sort with whats believed to be six targets as a whole. The boss said ‘We might be able to sign more than one, it depends on the opportunities’; I think we will sign another player in addition to Squillaci, maybe even another center back, but the next position on the managers mind must be a goalkeeper, there has been too much going on to turn back on that now. It may well be Schwarzer or bust so Arsenal will have to go out of their way to get him.

Yesterday morning there were rumours all over the place that there had been some sort of talks going on with Real Madrid and there has been a bit of contact between the clubs but the role was reversed and Arsenal were interested in buying from Real rather than the other way round. It is believed,and this is far from confirmed, that Raul Albiol was the subject of some very tentative inquires along with a defensive midfielder. There was a name mentioned to me but I’d be laughed off the net, and again, its pretty unsubstantiated stuff.

Overall I’m glad that after Wenger saying for most of the summer that we need new recruits, especially in the defensive areas, we are starting to really get rolling. Man City look done in the buying market so that has allowed for a bit of normality to return and it seems that we are picking up Squillaci for a decent price, remember that we are also buying Champions League experience and experience of winning titles from his time at Lyon.

– — –useful links + other news — – –

It seems that despite scoring the second hat-trick of his professional career at just the age of 21, Theo Walcott still can’t please some people. There is an article by David Hytner in the Guardian having a go at a few well known TV pundits *cough* Alan Hansen *cough* for kicking when he is down and trying to kick him down when he is on top of the world. It is typical though, that on a weekend where two young England players, one just left out of the World Cup squad, and one player set to be called up sooner rather than later in Andy Carroll, they can still find a reason to moan.

A rather perky Arsene Wenger talks after the Blackpool win on the official website.

There was a lot of kerfuffle yesterday over an alleged failed medical at London Colney and was said to be that of Mark Schwarzer. It isn’t true. At first I reported that there was a chance it was, someone I trust mentioned that there is a chance it is true and that its a knee problem that caused the failure, the same issue I reported a couple of months ago when he underwent checks by a third party doctor with the consent of Fulham and Roy Hodgson. Thankfully it was a false alarm. I believe he will sign.

Right, that’s it for another day.

Til tomorrow