Give us Alonso (+ Inler) and all is forgiven

Now is not the time to act all calm and collected - Arsene Wenger is in a predicament and Arsenal need to buy one or two players within the next seven days, otherwise Arsenal's season is almost certainly going to hit a premature dead-end.

Having patiently waited four years for Wenger to rebuild the squad after deassembling the so-called "Invincibles", the majority of Arsenal supporters will simply not tolerate a backwards step at this juncture. Some might think that's unfair on a manager who has worked wonders at the club - but four years is a long time in football, the brand has changed, the competition has changed and Arsenal have to keep up if they want to remain an established force in Europe.

At the moment I have some sympathy for the Arsenal side that performed so dismally against Fulham on Saturday. I'm really not sure how much more you can demand from a midfield of Nasri, Denilson, Eboue and Walcott - you simply have to recognise their limitations, which is why the fans furore has mostly been directed at Wenger rather than the players.

In a post-match interview Wenger made the point of lamenting Arsenal's first half display in particular, yet whatever he said to boost the player's performance had little effect as Arsenal were equally poor after the break. This indicates that the manager is fostering unrealistic expectations on the players he's putting out on the pitch. I do believe they were trying, but simply weren't mature enough to respond to what was being asked of them.

In respect of possible new signings, Wenger made an interesting comment midweek regarding a possible move for Aston Villa's Gareth Barry. He asserted that there's little point spending £15m on a player who at 27 has no resale value. Just as well Wenger didn't think that when he bought Emmanuel Petit, or Rioch when he purchased Dennis Bergkamp aged 26 - presumably they had no resale value either?

If the papers are to believed, Liverpool's Xabi Alonso (aged 26) agreed terms with Arsenal several weeks ago, but the Merseyside club turned down a £10m offer as it did not meet their £16m valuation. Sounds dubious to me; why would Liverpool allow Arsenal to discuss terms with Alonso before accepting a bid? However, assuming the valuation part was true, how about meeting the Liverpool board half way and offering somewhere in the region of £13m? If Arsenal did outlay that sort of money, their net transfer spend for 2008 would deficit at -£2.2m - hardly a stretch.

Personally, I think Alonso would be a great buy - and if Arsenal upped their offer it might allow Liverpool to increase their bid for Barry. This appears to be the triple transfer axis at play. Gokhan Inler? Sounds like another Flamini to me, but Alonso would clearly be a step-up - so why not go the extra yard and get a top quality international player that is already acclimatised to the Premiership and a good pal of Fabregas to boot.

Or how about getting BOTH and farming Denilson out on loan where he can play Premiership football without the pressurised demands of a top four club like Arsenal? It all sounds like a dream, I know.