With all the talk about Arsenal possibly parting ways with star midfielders Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri before summer's end, it's quite easy to forget that the Gunners are still in desperate need of a new centre back to bolster their suspect defense.
Manager Arsene Wenger is all to aware of the struggles of French international Sebastien Squillaci to fit into Arsenal's style of play and may be prepared to punt on his misfit signing once he finds a better replacement.
The most likely candidates have long been and still appear to be Gary Cahill of Bolton Wanderers and Chris Samba of Blackburn Rovers, especially after the way Everton rebuffed the Gunners' �10 million transfer bid and countered with a benchmark of their own of �18 million.
The Trotters are said to want at least �17 million in fees for Cahill, thereby putting "The Professor" in a tough spot as to whom to target most seriously in the coming weeks to shore up his shoddy defense.
The ideal, of course, is for Thomas Vermaelen to heal up and regain his form to be the anchor of the Gunners' back line as he once was, though that clearly is not Wenger's aim at this point.
Wenger has admitted that his club is in desperate need of a centre back, though with the way the Gunners have been troubled left and right by outsiders commenting on Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, he has refused to name names when speaking to Arsenal's official website:
?I don?t want to comment individually because I do not want to destabilise clubs. I do not want to do to other clubs what some clubs do to us so I wouldn?t like to comment individually on any player. Certainly, we will have to find one more defender. We [are] working on it."
?I can promise we work very hard on it. In fairness, everybody looks for players. Everybody looks for the same area and you see that nobody turns up with magic. It?s all about being steady, working very hard on it and being calm as well."
Only time will tell if Gooners' patience is as steadfast as Wenger's.
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