:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/27789315/132934229.0.jpg)
Last January, Nacho Monreal came in a surprise deadline-day signing from Malaga necessitated by Kieran Gibbs' injury. This year, the injury to Aaron Ramsey, which appears to be lingering, will necessitate another signing -- Spartak Moscow's 31-year-old midfielder Kim Kallstrom.
According to BBC Sport, the move is a loan for the remainder of the season, and -- in an announcement sure to disappoint all the Arsenal fans buoyed by this month's flurry of Julian Draxler rumors -- might be the team's only piece of business.
Kallstrom (who is not a hot Swedish model, despite a name suggesting otherwise) has more than 100 caps for the Swedish national team, and had a distinguished stint at Lyon from 2006 to 2012 (providing the seemingly-inevitable French connection). According to Wikipedia, it's Källström, so hooray for umlauts!
Here are the deeply depressing quotes from Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger:
We are trying to bring one body in because of Ramsey's setback.We've been hit by the red card of Flamini and Jack Wilshere is also not available so in the area where we had plenty of players, suddenly we are a bit short.
The Draxler situation has been created by the newspapers, not by me. He will stay at Schalke.
The Daily Mail is also reporting that Arsenal might be in for Lazio stalwart and veteran German international Miroslav Klose on a short-term loan.
We'll have more news (and group hugs) throughout the day on our Deadline Day Open Thread. I'll be over here playing "Imagine" on repeat.
