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Gunners acquire striker, defenders

Comment: 0 August 31st, 2011 by: admin

BELEAGUERED Arsenal signed South Korea striker Park Chu-young on Tuesday in a bid to address their awful start in the 2011-2012 Premier League season.

Manager Arsene Wenger has been under heavy pressure to rejuvenate his side after the loss of star players Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri badly depleted their roster.

Wenger is now spending some of the 69 million euros (US$100 million) the team got in the explosive transfer deals for Fabregas and Nasri, by acquiring Park, the South Korea captain who is moving to London after three seasons with Monaco, on the penultimate day of the summer transfer window.

The Gunners have just tallied one point from their first here league fixtures. Their latest setback came by way of an embarrassing 2-8 rout from Manchester United last Sunday, the first time since 1896 that Arsenal allowed eight goals to be scored against them.

Wenger said Park will add true quality to their attacks. “He will be a valuable addition to the squad.’’

Park, who is also known as “Ju,’’ will have J.Y. Park written on his jersey No. 9 for the Gunners.

To further bolster their defence, Arsenal are also close to signing Germany centre-back Per Mertesacker and Brazil left-back Andre Santos.

Germany coach Joachim Low has already given Mertesacker the green light to leave the national team to travel to London where the Werder Bremen player is expected to undergo a medical on Tuesday.

Santos, of Fenerbahce, is expected to fill up the slacks left by Gael Clichy and Armand Traore, Clichy is now with Manchester City, while Traore joined Queens Park Rangers.

Premier League clubs have already spent $600 million since last season. The figure is seen to rise higher as final transfers before January are expected be completed on Wednesday.

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