He's not perfect, but he sure is cheap

If news reports are to be believed, Arsenal have swooped in and made a £750k offer for Manchester United whipping post Mikael Silvestre.  I don’t want to put too fine a point on this but my initial reaction is: don’t Arsenal have enough error prone defenders?  And, wouldn’t it be better to let our youngsters make mistakes than let a washed up old man (he’s 31) come in to the team and let teams like Watford score on us?  I mean, if Djourou or Song make a mistake, there’s an opportunity for them to learn from it.  But if Silvestre makes a mistake, well, he’s already had a career full of them I don’t see him getting better.

I guess you get what you pay for and £750k is just about the right price.  Because, on the one hand, Silvestre has won 4 League medals, an FA Cup, the League Cup, Jose Mourinho’s favorite trophy (the Community Shield), and most notably a Champions League medal.  And on the other hand, he’s also provided some comically bad defending in all of those tournaments; defending so bad that United often won in spite of the player.

Another thing that’s odd about the player is that whenever he makes a huge mistake in a game, it seems like he then redeems himself by either scoring a goal or providing an assist — in that same game.  That link isn’t the only example, just google him and you’ll see what I’m talking about.  It’s rather uncanny.

I guess, regardless of all this stuff, he’s damn near the perfect Arsenal signing: he’s big, pacy, versatile, French, cheap, and technically good.  He’d be the absolute perfect Arsenal signing if he was 16 and completely unknown.  Plus, theoretically, bringing in Silvestre will challenge Senderos and Djourou for the backup center half spot and provide needed cover for Gael Clichy at Left Back.  These are all good things and so, maybe £750k makes him a steal.

Oh yeah, one more thing…  signing Silvestre would prove me wrong on just about every front.  Wenger mentioned buying a Premiership player; I said he wouldn’t do it.  Wenger said he wanted a defender; I said he wouldn’t do it.  Wenger said he needed one more body; I said he wouldn’t do it.  It would be just like Wenger to prove loud mouthed bloggers like me wrong.  Go on, Arsene, sign the guy, it’s a bargain.

YOU LEAVE THEO WALCOTT ALONE!!!

Arsene Wenger made an impassioned plea for everyone to give Theo Walcott some room to breathe, much less grow. Sure Arsene, I don’t think I really criticize him, in fact I like the kid quite a bit.  If anything, I think the team doesn’t respect him enough: there have been whole matches where his teammates just don’t look for him.  But maybe that’s something he can work on, imposing himself on his teammates a bit more.  I don’t know, according to the boss, Theo’s a footballing genius, maybe he’ll figure all that out.

And that’s it for today.  If Arsenal sign someone I’ll make a second blog.  If not, see you tomorrow!

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