Nerd alert - top 3 and then some

If you ever were in doubt that this blog was nerdy, here's all the confirmation you need. I've spent this morning taking stock of Arsenal's Silly Season 2011 so far.

I'm not really good at this. It should of course have been a database with entries easy to sort in different ways. I should have had penpics of every player and some cool graphics. But, instead, there are only numbers compiled and calculated the old fashioned way.

Let me start with the wildest number of them all: Cesc Fábregas has been linked away from Arsenal in 680 different news items published since 1 May. In total he's been linked with five different clubs. And while you digest that number, please remember that I don't include any and every website, only those of some reputation.


This is the 7 August edition of Top 3 Arsenal players linked away - with runners-up:

1. 680 mentions: Cesc Fàbregas - to Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester City, AC Milan or Chelsea

2. 494 mentions: Samir Nasri - to Barcelona, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus or Roma

3. 163 mentions: Nicklas Bendtner - to Fulham, Everton, Blackburn, Bayern Munich, Sevilla, AC Milan, Besiktas, Inter Milan, Sporting Lisbon, Borussia Dortmund, Besiktas, Hamburg SV, Bolton, Benfica, Werder Bremen, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Parma, Fiorentina or Stoke

There were 128 mentions for Gaël Clichy before his transfer to Manchester City (to Juventus, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Roma and City)
74 items linked Denilson away from Arsenal until his loan was confirmed (to Roma, Sevilla, Wolfsburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, Villarreal, Sao Paulo, La Coruña, Bolton, Newcastle, Málaga or Fluminense)

51 mentions: Manuel Almunia - to Atletico Madrid, Malaga, Fenerbahce or Paris Saint-Germain;
49 mentions: Emmanuel Eboue - to Queen's Park Rangers, Bolton or Galatasaray;
40 mentions: Andrei Arshavin - to Fenerbahce, Chelsea, Zenit St. Petersburg, Udinese or Galatasaray;
29 mentions: Henri Lansbury - to Brighton, Norwich or Bolton;
20 mentions: Carlos Vela - to West Bromwich or Bolton.


Then it's the 7 August edition of Top 3 rumoured Arsenal targets:

1. Gary Cahill, defender, Bolton: 222 mentions from 9 May to 7 August

2. Gervinho, forward, Lille: 218 mentions from 20 May until his signing was confirmed by Arsenal 11 July

3. Christopher Samba, defender, Blackburn: 177 mentions from 8 May to 7 August

As you can see, the two longest winded rumours this Silly Season compete for the top spot with a confirmed signing. The runners-up, some of them already with other clubs, make it a top 30:

150 mentions: Juan Mata - forward, Valencia
126 mentions: Phil Jagielka - defender, Everton

75 mentions: Alex Oxlade Chamberlain - forward, Southampton
56: Ricardo Alvarez - midfielder, Velez Sarsfield (signed for Inter Milan)
39: Scott Parker - midfielder, West Ham
38: Karim Benzema - forward, Real Madrid
36: José Enrique - defender, Newcastle

35 mentions: Eden Hazard - forward, Lille
33: Joel Campbell - forward, Deportivo Saprissa
33: Stewart Downing - midfielder, Aston Villa (Liverpool)
30: Scott Dann - defender, Birmingham
27: Phil Jones - defender, Blackburn (Manchester United)

26 mentions: Joey Barton - midfielder, Newcastle
27: Thiago Alcantara - midfielder, Barcelona
21:Adel Taraabt - forward, Queen's Park Rangers
20: Leighton Baines - defender, Everton
15: Radamel Falcao - forward, Porto

14 mentions: Bojan Krkic - midfielder, Barcelona (AS Roma)
13: Mamadou Sakho - defender, Paris Saint-Germain
12: Sebastian Larsson - midfielder, Birmingham (Sunderland)
12: Blaise Matuidi - midfielder, Saint-Étienne (Paris Saint-Germain)
12: Peter Odemwingie - forward, West Bromwich

12 mentions: Arturo Vidal - midfielder, Bayer Leverkusen (Juventus)
12: Willian - forward, Shakthar Donetsk
11: Craig Gordon - goalkeeper, Sunderland
11: Romelu Lukaku - forward, Anderlecht
11: Per Mertesacker - defender, Werder Bremen

30 new signings would make for an interesting first team squad. Not least if 10 of the current first teamers were to leave...