I'm undecided as to whether this Silly Season is sillier than others. 94 names have been tossed up into the air as potential Arsenal January signings. A relatively small percentage are repeated after first being mentioned. The Top 3 rumoured signings are the three most mentioned since 1 September.
1. Eden Hazard, 40 mentions
2. Gary Cahill, 32 mentions
3. Mario Götze, 13 mentions
The Belgian international Hazard is linked with a host of major European clubs. Today, the Daily Star Sunday are the latest so far to suggest that Arsenal are being jostled out of the competition for his signature by Barcelona. They report that Arsène Wenger might sign as many as four Barcelona youngsters instead - a cliché if I ever saw one.
The rumours of players leaving are less concrete now than last summer. The delay in contract talks with Robin van Persie have inspired almost every mention of him looking to leave the Arsenal.
1. Robin van Persie, 35 mentions
2. Marouane Chamakh, 13 mentions
3=. Andrei Arshavin, 11 mentions
3=. Theo Walcott, 11 mentions
The percieved under-performances of Chamakh and Arshavin have led the stories of their possible departures, while Walcott is sometimes linked with Juventus (as before) and sometimes associated with van Persie as another Arsenal star with contract issues.
It is, in my opinion, a rather quiet Silly Season, where the mass of names suggest that the media are struggling to unearth proper stories. We haven't yet seen the whole pack of the press hunting one rumour like in the Vieira or Fàbregas stories of old.
But there is still a month and a half until the window opens.
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