Gunners Are A Go For Grenier

Flying off to Arsenal: Wenger's first signing?

Clement Grenier is the latest of a string of names to be linked with Arsenal. The talented French play-maker, who plys his trade for Lyon, has one year remaining on his contract and is expected to move on. Speaking on the French programme Telefoot, Wenger said 'We are following him. His intelligence of play pleases me. He has interesting qualities. He reminds me of Nasri.'

It is unlike Wenger to make such a strong comments about a player. It either means two things in my opinion.

1) We are in advanced talks with Grenier and Wenger does not fear mentioning his name as he knows it is not possible for anyone to hijack the deal.

or

2) Wenger is not actually interested in Grenier and he is merely a smoke screen for other targets; indeed this is a technique Wenger has often employed in the transfer market.

Having watched Grenier a few times I most likely think that the correct scenario is option 1. Grenier is a typical Wenger player. He is neat and tidy on the ball, while also possessing strong physical attributes. Like Nasri and Fabregas, two players Wenger likened the Lyon player too, Grenier has the skill to unlock the tightest of defences. He is also a free kick specialist, indeed in the last two weekends he has scored two absolute screamers. Such stunning free kicks have lead people to dub him 'the Little Juniniho', naming him after the Brazilian maestro who was so successful at Lyon. Grenier has been Lyon's star performer this season and anyone who watched him play against Spurs will be able to back this claim up.

This season however could have been so different for Grenier. Last summer Lyon were looking to offload the 22 year old, with clubs like Nice touted as possible destination. However no move came to light and Grenier was instead given his opportunity in the first team, and boy did he take his chance.

Now Lyon are in the embarrassing situation where Grenier has a solitary year left on his contract. Understandably they want him to stay, but his loyalty to the club has certainly diminished - how could he forget that they wanted to sell him just 12 months ago. For this reason Lyon have to sell Grenier, or risk losing him on a free.

Although the Lyon President has come out and said Grenier's value is equal to that of Mario Gotze, I expect him to depart Ligue 1 for a fee of around £12 million. This would be somewhat of a coup for Wenger and it would provide us with a player who could take some of the weight of responsibility off Santi Cazorla, it would provide us a player who could become a world beater.

Comments and views welcome,

Come on you Gooners!