Arsenal Rumours Abound But No New Players To Report

The new season is getting so close now and still there's no sign of Arsenal adding the players they need if they're going to truly challenge for the title. We all know a striker is an absolute must while a central defender is a priority too with an attacking wide player well up on my list. There's no doubt that the club are looking to bring players in, but to no avail at the moment.

Of course Granit Xhaka arrived, but that seems like an age ago and since then we have only brought in players for the future. Rob Holding certainly looks like a real prospect at centre back, but he's not the experienced player we need with Per Mertesacker on the long term injured list. As it stands he might have to play an awful lot more than was expected in the upcoming season.

The transfer window doesn't close for another four weeks, but by then we will already have played three games. Unless something in our transfer policy changes quickly it looks like we will be scrambling around in the dying days of the window looking to pick up whatever players might be still available. It's not a prospect I'm looking forward to, but at the moment it seems like the most likely scenario.

The squad are back from their exploits in the States and they have two more games to play before the season starts. There's a game against Viking FC on Friday and then we play City on Sunday in the final warm up game before the season kicks off at home to Liverpool the following Sunday. It's hard to see the squad in a strong light ahead of that game and we might have to struggle through the games against Liverpool, Leicester and Watford before we see the much needed additions.

It doesn't help that Mesut Ozil, Laurent Koscielny and Olivier Giroud won't be available to start the season or that Aaron Ramsey and Alexis Sanhez haven't kicked a ball in anger yet. Added to that Santi Cazorla won't be ready from the start, Mertesacker might not play again this season and who knows when we will see Danny Welbeck again. To top it all off Jack Wilshere has a slight knock to his knee, but we all know just what the outcome can be when Wilshere picks up any sort of knock. 

There isn't a Premier League team with more players unavailable as we approach the start of the season and yet the transfer inactivity continues. I know we can't lay all the blame squarely at the manager's door, but he has to answer for the squad he has put together and all of it's deficiencies. It's not as if this is something new and it's a situation we seem to find ourselves in annually.

There's still time to sort it out of course, but the belief that we will get the players we need decreases by the day. It looks like the coming season is going to be a very competitive one in the Premier League and Arsenal are going to need a stronger squad to compete. There's more money than you can shake a sick at in the bank of Arsenal and now is the time to spend big.

To join my fantasy league go to the official site and set up your team after entering your details. Once you've set up your team go to the league's option and join a private league. The code for my league (Ever Arsenal league) is 64693-22498 and there's already over 500 teams in it.

For my predictions league go to the official site and make your forecasts for the first set of games (you can change them later if you want) and then go to the mini leagues option. Go to the join a mini league option (invitation code) and use the code for my league 64693-215432 to sign up. After that you can join in the fun of predicting every single game in the upcoming season.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.