Arsenal are desperately looking, hoping to sign a striker to help them become a bit more formidable and consistent offensively this season, but as of now aren’t really close to any big name. David Villa of Barcelona, who hasn’t been getting too many chances off the bench lately, isn’t going to join them as well.
It’s been a rough return for David Villa this season after missing most of the previous one due to injury. The 31 year old striker, who has won everything with Barcelona and the Spanish national team, hasn’t started in a La Liga match since mid-November. It’s been twice not even coming off the bench, while getting less then 15 minutes the other times. Some say that his “feud” with Lionel Messi, which on the surface is no more than a couple of arguments on the field about not passing to Messi when he’s open, is the reason for the sudden freeze out.
Arsenal have been looking into the option of signing the veteran striker, who has scored five league goals this season and 28 in 61 matches since joining Barcelona, but after a few weeks of speculation, seeing as both Vilanova and at the moment Roura as well don’t feel like throwing him into the front 3, despite the lack of goals from Pedro and Alexis, Barcelona are officially declaring him off the market.
Andoni Zubizareta, the club’s Sporting director, simply told Arsenal to forget about it. It is important to remember that Barcelona is a club that habitually does not accept offers for star players in January. That’s the way of the world. David Villa is a star player, at least by name if not by ability which we don’t see enough of, and star players don’t move from Barcelona to Arsenal, it’s the other way around.
Cesc Fabregas in 2011 and Alex Song in 2012. Song hasn’t featured much since the Barcelona defense has gotten into a healthier mode, and he’d probably be making a much more useful piece of the puzzle at Arsenal. Still, that’s the situation – Arsenal aren’t at the elite level of clubs in Europe, and can’t afford to hold on to a player when one of the big fishes comes knocking with cash in their hands. The problem is Arsenal don’t really have another option for striker at the moment, after Klaas-Jan Huntelaar announced he’s staying with Schalke.