The Times are reporting today that Arsenal are ready to launch a huge £15M bid for Newcastle’s Moussa Sissoko in January.

Moussa Sissoko sent off yesterday at West Ham Arsenal interested

If we had seen the headline that said Arsenal to bid £15M for Newcastle central midfielder, we would have thought that was referring to Cheick Tiote, who was linked with joining Arsenal last summer.
So it may be that Arsenal are after both Cheick Tiote and Moussa Sissoko – if you believe all the transfer stories being reported – which we don’t.

But one thing Arsenal do lack in their side this season is a strong physical central midfielder,  and both Moussa and Cheick are that type of player.

And it was only  a matter of time before Moussa was linked with a bigger club than Newcastle, because of his great form this season,  whether the news is true or not.

Moussa signed a six and half year deal at Newcastle in January of last year, when he arrived form Toulouse for about £2M, so he is contracted to us until the summer of 2019.

Mike Ashley made the mistake last January of selling Yohan Cabaye for £20M to PSG and not replacing him, and Newcastle suffered big time in the second half of last season, and we slumped very badly.

So we are hoping that Newcastle will not sell any of their top players in January, but rather bring some new players into the squad.

Mike Ashley has always made it clear by his actions, that if the right bid comes in for any player he will be sold, but we are hoping the Newcastle owner is learning from his mistakes, and that it would not be a good move to sell Moussa or Cheick in January.

But that doesn’t mean that one or both players will be with us come next September,  if some big clubs are willing to bid big money for either Cheick Tiote or Moussa Sissoko.

Mike Ashley’s doctrine at Newcastle United seems to be to sell a star player for big money,  and then  replace them with a player costing about a third of the price.
That’s one reason Newcastle’s finances are in such great condition – if not the team.