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Arsenal To Battle Spurs For ‘Unsettled’ Spanish Striker

By mac14 on September 16, 2013

It seems we could be set for a January tussle with London rivals Tottenham Hotspur for unsettled Juventus striker Fernando Llorente, according to newspaper reports.

The 28-year-old Spanish hitman only moved to Juve on a free transfer in the summer after running down his contract at Athletic Bilbao but he’s surprisingly found himself out in the cold during the early weeks of the new season, with Antonio Conte preferring to pair Mirko Vucinic with Carlos Tevez up front.

Apparently this has not gone down too well with Llorente and it’s also being reported that he and his family are not settling well in Turin, leading to reports he could already be looking for a move away.

The Mirror claim that Arsenal are monitoring the strikers situation and are ready to offer him an escape route in January. Llorente was hot property before his switch to Juve and we’ve been linked with him in the past, so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if Wenger was interested if the player wanted a move in January.

However, we won’t be the only one’s vying for his signature with the newspaper suggesting that Tottenham and potentially Chelsea will also be in for the striker. Unless Jose Mourinho is ready to ship out either Fernando Torres or Demba Ba, I can’t see the Blues bringing in another striker so Spurs could be our major competition.

It looks as though Emmanuel Adebayor could be on his way out of White Hart Lane in January so AVB will be on the look out for a replacement and Llorente would fit the bill nicely, but I’d be confident the Spanish international would opt for a move to the Emirates over our rivals any day of the week. Let’s face it, any striker in the world would jump at the chance to play in front of Mesut Ozil, Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla.

However, as much as I’d like to see Llorente come to the club this winter, I just don’t see it happening. The player may be finding it difficult to settle and is currently out of the starting line-up, but I’d be shocked if the Serie A champions sanctioned his sale less than 6 months after signing him, so I won’t be getting my hopes up.

Click here to read more Arsenal transfer gossip

Which striker would you like to see Arsenal go for in January? Would you like Llorente?

13 Comments

Steve

September 16, 2013 at 9:14 pm

And any strikerwould also love to play off of Eriksen, Paulinho, Dembele, Lamela and Soldado.

Its an Arsenal website so understand the obvious biased view but be realistic. Spurs have just as good attacking players as you, not to mention Lewis Holtby , Aaron Lennon and the emerging talent Townsend

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- Jim
  
  September 16, 2013 at 10:15 pm
  
  Hmmm.. I didn’t see those Tottenham players showing much attacking prowess in the recent north London derby. They may have potential but I think you’re reaching a bit by saying they’re as good as arsenals equivalent players right now.
  
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  - Dan Gunner
    
    September 16, 2013 at 11:51 pm
    
    Yes but to be fair we were their first really good team this season and the way I remember it we finished up with six defenders trying to hang on to a one goal lead at home against a spuds team that will have gelled by the time we go to sh** hart lane.I’m all for getting behind the team but we have BIG probs that ain’t been addressed.Spuds have sorted their probs now they just need time to gel whilst trying not to drop points,which they seem to be doing.We are suspect defensively and as good as Ozil looks I wonder how he is gonna fix our issues.We’ve given away 3 stonewall pens in 4 games! with our best defender giving two of them.I think we have a better player in Ozil than any of the Spurs players at the moment but if I’m honest which I might as well be they have picked up some real class.I think Santi and Mesut are the only ones that would compete in their squad.Wenger needs to sort it out.We have been duped with the purchase of Ozil.My Arsenal were a much better team than this and I have concerns.
    
    Reply
    - Jim
      
      September 17, 2013 at 12:59 am
      
      I think you’ve moved into areas that I wasn’t really disputing… And yes, I think most arsenal fans would agree with your overriding views on our thin squad.
      
      I don’t think it’s a given that all the spurs signings will flourish though, and it will be interesting what will happen at the end of the season if they don’t achieve CL football with their increased wage bill and outlay. You mention only santi and ozil would compete in their squad, but which spurs players would you take to replace Gibbs, mertesacker, giroud, ramsey, wilshere?
      
      Of course it’s hard not to look over at spurs and be a bit envious of the organisation and speed they spent the Gareth bale money. But even though I’ve got issues with wengers stubbornness, he does seem to at least know how to finish above spurs.
      
      Don’t know where you’ve got the ‘3 stonewall penalties’ line from.. Even if you are ignoring the fenerbace games then I wouldn’t call the two at villa ‘stonewall’… Anyway, we’ve always been the kind of team to give away penalties due to committing men forward.
      
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      - Bogus
        
        September 17, 2013 at 4:48 pm
        
        if you look at the salaries of the players Spurs sold against those they bought i think you’ll find they pretty much broke even, or atleast they will once Adebayor is gone. They struggled to sell some of their dead weights because of their high salaries and the players coming in are on much less than media reports
- bc
  
  September 16, 2013 at 10:31 pm
  
  hahaha including paulinho and dembele as attacking players is a little optimistic. whilst adding holtby and lennon is simply taking the piss. townsend is up there with gnabry and ryo, but we didn’t even mention them.
  
  I am sorry steve but you currently do not have a player that gets into our front 6. paulinho and vertonghen may get in our first x1, whilst lloris is the only player that definitely would
  
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- Dan Gunner
  
  September 16, 2013 at 11:50 pm
  
  I agree.We have a couple of the best players but you have more better players.
  
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- Ne`
  
  September 17, 2013 at 4:10 am
  
  Yeah, i agree with you on that. Spurs also have a lot of quality players but they bought too many this season and not sure about the teamwork. At the moment, those players try to score from wings instead of passing the ball to the center. Until now, those doing great are players bought last season. For now, Arsenal has a bigger chance to get more big names and we need one ST and one DM. We still can offload players like Diaby, Park. I wish we still had V Persie.
  
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Steve

September 16, 2013 at 9:15 pm

Im not a Spurs fan by the way but I like the way both Arsenal and Spurs are set up this season. Quality, dominating, attacking, free flowing total football!

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oby

September 16, 2013 at 10:35 pm

apart fro the class of özil,wilshere and santi, i gues every striker wud prefer playn’ at the emirates to white hart lane

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Dan Gunner

September 17, 2013 at 12:07 am

I worry about my beloved Arsenal.We were very lucky on the weekend in the end.If Sunderlands 2nd goal had stood they might have sat back and shut the door.Luckily we were on the right end of some poor refereeing.All I know is that all summer we were screaming for signings to strengthen our defence.We needed a good Keeper,Centrebacks and a Holding mid’ and although I was excited about Ozil his signing fixed NONE of our issues.You can all berate Spuds new players but I remember us being linked with a lot of them and most of us being excited at the prospect of them coming to the best team in London.I’m gutted and it seems like Wenger’s idea of appeasing us with one player paid off.To think we could have had all their top players but missed out due to stubbornness.Lloris,Vertonghen,Capoue,Lamela,Eriksen we could have got Paulinho if we tried.I feel duped and I am not the only one.

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Dan Gunner

September 17, 2013 at 12:15 am

I saw an article earlier comparing Ozil to Eriksen and I thought it was taking the pi*s but when I read it and after watching motd he seems to have done just as well.Differenc is we paid £30M more and they will get 4 more years out of him.I can’t believe we didn’t get Eriksen when we had the chance.He would have probably chose us over them given the chance.I love Ozil but we didn’t even know it was gonna happen to be fair.I feel justifiably bitter.

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Antique Gunmen

September 17, 2013 at 6:50 am

I think Spuds will find out that this season is a long hard one. It’s true that they’ve up grading their personal quality almost in every sector of the pitch. But they also change and sacrifice the last year team core. They’ve to gel quickly to make a new core. Dropping points is sure in foreground in this transision procces. Just look at Chelsea who slipped againts Everton.
In other side, gunners probs might be come from our long list injury. No worry about our team gel or the quality around them as our level of confidences significantly arise.
Which side Llorente goin’ to pick if the option is beetween us and Spuds. Offcourse he’ll pick us by a mile with Ozil’s la Liga familiar face and world class quality. Get dream and wet Spuds-fan! Ozil and his kind of quality is not on your league.Bale was great. But, honestly what he had did compare to Ronaldo to be the world most expensive player? Very little. London is white, what a joke!

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