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In order to settle down every Arsenal fan's nerves, and their own players' nerves and make everyone cool, man, Arsenal are considering buying using a bong before matches...erm, sorry, according to a report from John Cross of the Mirror, Arsenal are considering buying Valenciennes' Cameroonian left back Gaetan Bong.
Arsenal considering move for Valencienne left-back Gaetan Bong. Bong been offered to Arsenal after Gibbs ruled him out for three weeks.
— John Cross (@johncrossmirror) January 31, 2013
Bong, 24, has started 13 of Valenciennes' 22 Ligue 1 matches this season, and is 6'2. He's made 30 tackles this season, at an average of 2 per game, and has only been dribbled past by an opponent 6 times, which doesn't really tell you anything unless you've watched Valenciennes' matches and can say how they defend. I haven't.
I have, however, seen Bong play for Cameroon, and he's a fairly decent player defensively; he's big, and strong and kind of quick, he's not a bad tackler and he's an okay passer. He's probably more disciplined than Andre Santos, which is effectively what it's coming down to now, with 9 hours left in the window: can Arsenal find a defensive player who's better than Andre Santos, available, and cheap.
As we alluded to on the live blog, Stephen Warnock, despite John Cross' suggestion, is not that player.