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Arsenal To Miss Out On Romanian Hitman?

By on September 16, 2013

Some more transfer gossip for you to digest this evening Arsenal fans with the Mirror reporting that we could miss out on the free transfer signing of Romanian striker Ciprian Marica.

Despite the transfer window closing earlier this month, clubs are still able to sign free agents and widespread reports in recent days have suggested that we are closing in on Marica. The 27-year-old left Schalke at the end of last season and his agent, Ioan Becali, claimed last week that he was close to making a move to the Emirates.

“Marica is a really great striker who has already got experience in western European football and so it’s natural that big clubs are eyeing his career. He’s close to joining Arsenal , but we have to wait for the next week.” [source: Mirror]

However, it seems we could be set to miss out with the Mirror claiming that Fiorentina have made a late move to sign the experienced forward. The Serie A side are on the look out for another striker after Mario Gomez was ruled out for up to 12 weeks with a serious knee injury and Marica has emerged as their top target.

Our current striker situation could be best described as ‘precarious’ with us heavily reliant on Olivier Giroud staying fit. We are extremely thin up front, so if we could bring in another option outside of the window it’s worth considering.

Marica is a striker of international quality who has previously played with the likes of Shakhtar Donetsk, Stuttgart and Schalke, while he has also scored 22 goals in 64 games for Romania, so he’s certainly for plenty of experience behind him.

He wouldn’t be the world class striker we were hoping for during the summer but he’s certainly better than nothing, but any deal would have to depend on the contract he was looking for. Being a free agent I suspect he’ll be looking for big wages and a lengthy contract, which is unlikely to appeal to Arsene Wenger and perhaps explains why we haven’t yet tied up this move.

I’d prefer we have another striker available to challenge Giroud over the coming weeks but I have the feeling Wenger will hold out and try to get by until January when he’ll have another go at trying to bring in a forward of real quality.

Click here to read more Arsenal transfer gossip

Do you think we should sign Marica or make do until January? 

5 Comments

  1. Divine

    September 16, 2013 at 11:05 pm

    It’s okey

  2. dukeofarsenal Malaysia

    September 17, 2013 at 12:55 am

    why not start with the kids that we have. Start giving them experience that they need. Gel them slowly so as not to shock them. Give them valuable knowhow and responsibilities.
    GoGunners4Eva

  3. RealG

    September 17, 2013 at 1:50 am

    Those quotes are over a month old now and for some reason somebody picked them up again and made new stories, which the newspapers then picked up on!! Unless a week in Romania is like 4/5/6 weeks in real time, then it was never gonna happen!! I remember reading an article on newsnow and that site saying the agent is saying he is near to joining Arsenal to force the hand of other interested clubs! Nothing more than this and that was a month or more ago so that agent has either tried to get the quotes back out there or some lazy journalists with nothing else to write about (because the transfer window is shut) have decided to link him with Arsenal again because the player is still a free agent and Arsenal are on the look out for a new striker…

  4. colario

    September 17, 2013 at 6:31 am

    Untold Arsenal will help your blogs.

  5. Gunner T

    September 17, 2013 at 8:23 am

    A news outlet spreads a rumour about as player we were never going to sign. (Why doesn’t anyone else want him?) The vast horde of followers copy the story, then when it doesn’t happen we’ve ‘Missed out’ apparently…

    Hmmm.

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