One of last season’s Argentinian Clausura Championship was Velez Sarsfield’s young centre-half Nicolas Hernan Otamendi. The 21-year-old’s impact in the Clausura title race was such that the likes of Real Madrid have been named as interested suitors and the player himself has now cemented himself into Diego Maradona’s international set-up and is expected to go to the World Cup finals. His form has alerted Rafa Benitez who is looking to strengthen his defence with some younger players and the player dubbed the ‘new Roberto Ayala’ certainly fits the bill.

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Arsenal’s title chances look to have been weakened by the sale of two of their star players in Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure. Despite arguably their main striker leaving, the Gunners still have a number of attacking options available including Robin Van Persie, Nicklas Bendtner, Carlos Vela, Jay Simpson, Andrei Arshavin and Theo Walcott. However, the club are still in need of a defensive midfielder and another top class centre-back as the likes of Johan Djourou, Philippe Senderos, Mikael Silvestre and Alex Song have not proven themselves good enough at the top level. Two cut-price Argentines could be the answer to Arsene Wenger’s needs and available for a reasonable fees compared to some of the stars moving this summer.

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Interest is mounting in one of the rising stars of Argentinian football and for once he is not a small creative attacker or midfielder. The player in question is Velez Sarsfield centre-half Nicolas Hernan Otamendi. The 21-year-old’s impact in the Clausura Championship has been such that the likes of Real Madrid have been named as interested suitors and the player himself has broken into Diego Maradona’s international set-up.

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