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Interesting Read

THE TIMES ARTICLE

Wenger has last word
JONATHAN NORTHCROFT

Ashley Cole grabbed the headlines, but the Arsenal manager had the last laugh when the transfer window closed


Even before the main business was concluded on transfer deadline day, it was clear that Arsenal had come out best. It was a coup more spectacular than if West Ham had signed Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, then Lionel Messi to boot. The Gunners got rid of Pascal Cygan. Even more extraordinary, they persuaded someone — Villarreal — to give them money (£2m!) for him.
Arsenal may not always win the Premiership, but they are usually top of the acumen league, and even by the standards of Arsène Wenger and David Dein, Thursday was a shrewd old day. William Gallas plus £5m for Ashley Cole, Julio Baptista plus £3m for Jose Reyes, the £3.4m signing of the Brazilian Denilson, Cygan gone.



So much attention was focused on the controversies of Cole and Chelsea’s mutual courtship that few people examined the actual transaction. Chelsea needed a convincing left-back and got a player with claims to be Europe’s best in that position. But full-backs don’t win cups and championships, centre-backs do. Strip away the hype for England players such as John Terry and Rio Ferdinand, and there is no better central defender than Gallas in the Premiership.

Since the start of Sol Campbell’s decline two seasons ago, Wenger has yearned for the right partner for Kolo Toure. Gallas — fast, versatile, intelligent, French — is his photofit Arsenal footballer. Even if he had received the £30m that Dein initially demanded for Cole, it is not certain that Wenger could have used the money to make a more suitable signing. The capture even has the secondary effect of weakening a rival. Jose Mourinho was desperate not to lose Gallas, but because he is 29 and had a year left on his contract, Chelsea valued him at just £9m. To Arsenal he is priceless.

Baptista for Reyes, in a loan exchange with Real Madrid that is likely to become permanent, also looks nice business. Wenger has long coveted Baptista and made four bids for him in 2005 when he was still a Sevilla player, the last worth £14m. Versatility — that quality again — is the Brazilian’s key attribute. He is young, scores goals, plays defensive or attacking midfield and even second striker, and his nickname (The Beast) indicates why he was originally identified as Patrick Vieira’s successor. The £3m that Real also paid Arsenal represented the difference between their £14m purchase price of Baptista and the £17m that the Gunners spent on Reyes. But given that £6.9m of the latter was dependent on future success and appearances, and will not now have to be paid in full, the cash adjustment in Arsenal’s favour is greater.

Cole and Reyes have football ability that would make any manager loath to lose them. However, their future usefulness to Wenger was uncertain, given Reyes’s problems in adjusting to the English game and Cole’s irreparable fallout with Dein and the rest of Arsenal’s board. He wanted to leave so badly that the consequences of denying him a move might have been self-defeating.

Wenger completed his deadline day dealings by landing Denilson, a cultured 18-year-old midfielder and captain of Brazil’s under-19 team, from Sao Paolo for a fee that could rise to £3.4m. He could prove another triumph for Arsenal’s youth scouting. In the Under-17 World Cup in Peru last year, Denilson was outstanding, captaining Brazil to the final. Wenger already has his hands on the leading scorer from the side that beat Brazil there, Mexico’s Carlos Vela.

Wenger’s shrewd history in the transfer market hardly needs rehearsing. Reyes’s departure leaves as his most expensive player Thierry Henry, who, costing £10.5m from Juventus seven seasons ago, may just about have been value for money. Over the past eight transfer windows Arsenal’s spend has been £63.9m, while Chelsea have paid out £325.7m, Manchester United £117.7m and Liverpool £95.6m. It’s easy to get swept away by the thrill of the purchase. Any shopper knows it’s only when you return home and open up the bags that you see what you have actually got. Some clubs may have felt pangs of regret the moment the deadline passed on Thursday night. At the Emirates stadium they couldn’t believe their luck.

Arsenal finished the day with £6.6m in their pockets, the best defender in the Premiership in their squad, both “the Brazilian Steven Gerrard” and Brazil’s youth captain arriving, and two underperforming players and a malcontent off their books. If they ever remake The Sting, Wenger and Dein should get the Robert Redford and Paul Newman parts.

Gallas’s future is likely to be at centre-back, but he may begin by filling the berth vacated by Cole. How Baptista fares will be intriguing. Six feet tall, direct and as hard of shot as he is in the tackle, he scored 38 goals in 63 games for Sevilla and has the potential to be the dynamic midfield all-rounder who fares best in the English game. At Real, where he played wide or up front, never in his favoured position, he still got eight goals last season.

He was called The Beast because of his strength and physique even before he arrived in Spain, but there the sobriquet was embraced and Baptista became La Bestia. When assessed at the Copa America two years ago, he was so strapping, Brazil’s doctors warned him his muscle tissue was growing too quickly. “I’ve never been one of those guys that are in the gym all day to try to beef myself up. Although I must say there are not a lot of players about with such a strong and powerful physique as mine,” Baptista said.