Nice win against Bolton "Park Bus" Wanderers!

Anyway, since I'm so into transfers, I thought you guys might be interested in this piece of news.

Gunning for Battaglia

Ok, no quotes whatsoever, but the price and his achievement (just only voted as Boca Juniors' Player of the Year in December 2008) might be something Wenger might consider. However, the downside of Battaglia's only European experience was that he was at Villarreal for a while and flopped.

It is known that Battaglia is a hardman defensive midfielder (I haven't really seen him play so all information are based on websites and opinions from other people), which is just in the correct range of age. Therefore he's clearly an experienced player and could help our young DMs too.

Well, La Liga is very technical. It's very different from EPL. Some La Liga players won't be able to fit into EPL and some EPL players won't be able to fit into La Liga. It's a matter of adaptability though. Remember, Forlan was a flop at Man Utd but he flourished in La Liga. So Battaglia might come good in EPL if he can adapt.

I am merely passing on a transfer speculation. Quotes also don't mean anything at times.

But Wenger doesn't talk much on his potential rumours. And lately Wenger mentioned something about defensive midfielders. If he mentioned that, he might be confident of bringing in someone, or has already been in contact with someone.

Of course, these are all wild guess but let's just take a look and analyse a bit. Don't have to lose sleep over it though.

Actually, I thought another 28 year old signing, especially defensive midfielder, will be a wise move. My opinion is that since our available DMs (i.e. Alex Song and Denilson if you think he's a DM) are still learning and can't always be relied upon, such a signing would help them improve.

A lot of fans have been calling out for experience and I think such signing, especially only for about 5 million pounds, won't hurt us financially I suppose. Besides, we're really a few players away from a strong team again. What do you think, Starghazzer?

Not really though. That's a sweeping statement at best.

Every league tends to have tough, hard players who can adapt to physical challenges. If Battaglia can match those in EPL, then he can easily be a very good player. We can't say anything about him being a flop in EPL before he experiences it.

La Liga isn't as easy as you think though. La Liga is less physical, yes, but a lot of players also flop in La Liga because of the very high technical level in the league. We don't know why Battaglia flopped at Villarreal so you can't say he'll definitely flop in the EPL because of his failure at Villarreal.

This post has been edited by kevlinefm: Jan 11 2009, 03:22 PM

Well, how do you apply the "special talent" on defensive players? Their technique alone?

To be honest, every manager has their own criteria on defensive players. It's easier to spot an attacking "special talent", but a defensive player, i.e. a defensive midfielder is different. Hehe.

If you think Diaby is a DM, you're wrong. He's an ACM who can also play behind the main striker.

Podolski is a forward, a left forward. He was used as a left forward by Joachim Loew for Germany.