Happy new window!

2013 is upon us! Whether the new year will bring joy or misery or both to Arsenal Football Club remains to be seen. What January will bring, though, are new players. At least if the media is to be believed.

Since the summer transfer window shut, a whopping number of 120 players have been linked with a possible move to Arsenal! They are all listed alphabetically here, with individual links to all the stories mentioning them.

Here are the top three most linked so-called targets:
1) Wilfried Zaha, Crystal Palace, 124 mentions
2) Thierry Henry, New York Red Bulls, 102 mentions
3) Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Schalke, 83 mentions

As Huntelaar has already signed a new contract with his German employers, honorary mention goes to Demba Ba of Newcastle, mentioned 73 times in December alone and four times on this first day of 2013.

The intensity of transfer rumours fluctuate with the team's form. When Arsenal had a really rotten spell of form a few weeks ago, any footballer with two legs and an agent fairly fluent in English could be linked with the club. Now, after four league wins in a row, the teenagers for the future are in vogue in the media. That's why the last week's rumour of choice concerns Southampton's left back prodigy Luke Shaw. Zaha is also in this category.

Shaw is, with 26 mentions, the defender most oftened mentioned as a potential Arsenal signing. Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa (9 mentions) and Stoppila Sunzu (7 mentions) are far behind.

Huntelaar and Ba belong to the rumours about Arsenal needing an experienced striker to compete with Olivier Giroud (and, hey! with Theo Walcott). Other candidates here are Adrián López and Fernando Llorente with 39 mentions each.

The hottest goalkeeper rumour is Liverpool's Pepe Reina, mentioned 26 times. Asmir Begovic (10 mentions) and Michel Vorm (8) can't compete.

Among the 42 midfielders linked with Arsenal, Schalke's Lewis Holtby have the most mentions with 23. This rumour can be expected to grow as the English-born German international is an Arsenal fan who has made it clear he'll be leaving Schalke at the end of the season anyway.

But who will leave before all these players are signed? Walcott, for one. If 186 individual media reports between August and here are to be believed.

Walcott's contract wrangle, the all too familiar scenario of 'will he, won't he' reporting, has been dragging on through the whole season so far. He's been linked with eight different clubs, from Chelsea to Spartak Moskva. He's been touted as a part/exchange makeweight for signing Nani from Manchester United, and costing the champions Manchester City fifteen million pounds. The varieties are endless.

As are the possibilites of Marouane Chamakh. Wanted by both Juventus and Cardiff, would you believe.

'On their way out':
1) Theo Walcott, to Juventus, Inter Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Liverpool, Spartak Moskva, Chelsea or Manchester United, 186 mentions
2) Marouane Chamakh, to Bordeaux, Internacional, Tottenham, Everton, Blackburn, Espanyol, Norwich, Fenerbahce, Fiorentina, West Ham, Queens Park Rangers, Inter Milan, Juventus or Cardiff, 57 mentions
3) Andrei Arshavin, to Tottenham, Zenit St. Petersburg, Fulham, Major League Soccer, Reading, Galatasaray or Newcastle, 54 mentions

And, remember, January starts today. All these rumours have come to light before the transfer window has even opened. Happy New Year!