With Gervinho almost certainly an Arsenal player now, attention turns to who Arsene Wenger will buy next. We have been linked with a massive number of players since the end of the last season, but some names keep popping up time and time again. Gary Cahill is one of those names, and I can tell you for a FACT that Wenger is very interested in signing him.

The only problem it appears, that may prevent Cahill from joining Arsenal, is the transfer fee Bolton are holding out for. If reports are to be believed, then Cahill has a £17m release clause written into his contract. Arsene Wenger knows about this, but in typical Wenger style, he wants to knock that price down by a couple of million. Bolton obviously are reluctant to agree to this, as there will be many clubs interested in their star player. So The Trotters have decided to set Wenger a deadline of 10 days, to basically put up or shut up.

Personally I think Wenger should swallow his pride for once, and pay the £17m to get the deal done. I know some people will disagree, and say that a fee so big would be a huge gamble for us. But if we have the money to spend, and Cahill is the player we want, then why miss out on him for the sake of 1 or 2 million? It just wouldn’t be a sensible decision to walk away from this deal in my opinion.

What would make it even worse, if we fail to agree a fee with Bolton for Cahill, is the reality that Wenger bid £16m for a 19 year old not too long ago. Phil Jones is the lad I am talking about, and without being disrespectful to him, I don’t think he is even close to the level of Cahill yet. So hopefully our manager and chief executive, pull their fingers out and recognise that Arsenal FC needs to strengthen its defence as quickly as possible. I don’t want to see Chelsea come and hijack this deal because of yet more penny pinching by these two.

Justarsenalfans.com