It appears Arsene Wenger has inadvertently left his January shopping list lying around and somehow it has ended up in the hands of the Daily Mirror. The paper claims the Arsenal manager has drawn up a list of seven names as he spends the rest of the month "scouring Europe for a striker to fill the gap" left by the injuries to Robin van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner.
Two of the seven are teenagers, 18-year-old Eden Hazard, and the 19-year-old Italian stallion Mario Balotelli, currently impressing at Inter Milan. Hazard plays for Lille in Ligue 1 and though a Belgian his touch is more reminiscent of a Brazilian. "Arsenal have been tracking Hazard for months," says the Mirror, and a £6 million move is a possibility, if not in January then certainly in the summer.
Balotelli, nicknamed "Super Mario", is in his third season at Inter and though he is in Wenger's sights the Gunners' boss admits that Chelsea have the greater purchasing power should the Italian club wish to sell.
Two of the names on Wenger's list are Premier League players – West Ham's England striker Carlton Cole and Aston Villa's 23-year-old dynamo Gabriel Agbonlahor. The Mirror says Wengers admires Cole "because he's big, strong and scores goals", and likes the Villa man's "ability to destroy opponents". Agbonlahor comes with a £20m price tag, according to the paper, but Cole – with his injury record – is a much more reasonable £9m.
Bordeaux's Marouane Chamakh is among the "Magnificent Seven" despite the Moroccan-born forward's recent assertion that he is happy in France, at least until the end of the season. Apparently Arsenal would be prepared to wait until the summer but "want him to sign now".
A surprise name is Ruud van Nistelrooy, the 33-year-old Dutchman, currently languishing on the bench at Real Madrid. Not the most popular man with the Arsenal faithful during his time at Manchester United, van Nistelrooy would only arrive at the Emirates on a loan deal if Wenger failed to land any other big names.
But the player who is "top of Wenger's wanted list", according the Mirror, is Edin Dzeko, the towering 23-year-old Bosnian striker who plays for German club Wolfsburg. "Arsenal have tracked him for more than a year," the paper says, and though they had a £10m offer shoved back in their faces last season, this time they are prepared to buy at £25m.
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