Sagna in London for talks. Martins at £13m also Arsenal bound?

Some good news at last.

The Independent reports that Bakari Sagna was due last night in London to talk terms after Arsenal agreed terms with Auxerre.

The fee is believed to be in the region of £7.5m. Apparently Sagna will sign a five-year contract and his wages will be about £25,000 a week.

Wenger may be interested in buying additional cover when Eboue will be away at the Africa Nations Cup. This will be an expensive cover at £7.5m and judging by how frugal Wenger is with Arsenal’s cash this may not be the only reason why Sagna is interesting him.

There is a possibility that Wenger will “promote from within” with Eboue being pushed forward to the right midfield position. This may mean that Wenger will not sign another wide player.

It is also reported that Arsenal may trigger the buy out clause in Martins’s contract with Newcastle which is set at £13m. Apparently Newcastle are resigned to losing him as he is dissatisfied with his current 60,000 a week package (he wants parity with Owen who is on 100,000 a week!). I am not sure if Wenger and the Board will actually go that far and agree to this compensation package.

However Martins has pace and given the opportunities he will get you goals. But he is also relatively young at 23 (next October if his birth certificate is to be believed) and I don’t really see him as a centre forward. He is more a winger or an inside forward playing off the centre forward.

Nevertheless if these reports are true then it seems that Wenger will not go for the traditional centre forward but opt for short and pacy front men (like Eduardo Da Silva) who will offer more options and flexibility.

If these two transfers actually go through then I feel that they will go a long way to ease the fears of many Arsenal fans that the team is lagging behind their main rivals in the transfer market.

Will they ease Gallas’s fears though?