"Thomas Vermaelen may leave" - Wenger

[Penguin]

We needed another 3rd choice CB regardless of whether Vermaelen stays or not IMO. He's nothing more than a 4th choice CB for me as he'll never seriously challenge Merts or Kos for a place because he's not good enough. We need more than 'just' a back-up to make up the numbers or we'll be fucked if either of those two picks up a long term injury.

And we aren't going to spend 15-20 million on a third/fourth choice lads. If Wenger spends that it is on a first teamer.... and I am not convinced he believes somebody needs to come in over Mertersacker and Koscielny.

It would be £5-10m net after selling Vermaelen which I don't think is unreasonable considering we would (ideally) be investing in a better, longer term player. Even if he wasn't willing to go that high, remember that we bought Mertesacker, Koscielny and even Vermaelen himself for £10m or less. Vidic and Kompany costed £7m! It's hard to believe that we can't find someone at least as good as Vermaelen.

If Kos or Mers picks up an injury this year, we'd need someone ready to go and we can't afford to bring in someone that's shocked by the pace and physicality of the Prem. Verm has his faults but if we can't coach him to reel it in, how are we going to coach a newbie to adapt quickly to the league?

If Kos or Merts get injured we're fucked anyway, Vermaelen has shown that he isn't up to it time and time again. It's always a risk to bring in a player from another league but you have to put faith in your scouting network and judgment of a player.