Another day, another spurious link, with Yannick Carrasco seemingly back on the cards for circa £30million it seems. I’ve gotta say this is one that would get some fans excited about. He’s a Belgium international, showed flashes of brilliance whilst at Atletico Madrid and if it’s true that his Chinese overlords will sanction a move for £30million so he and his family come back to England, getting that deal done would be a good one.

It would also go some way to showing that perhaps the club recognises just how much work is needed to be done this summer on rebuilding what was, frankly, a pathetic collapse towards the end of the season after the team had battled it’s way in to Champions League contention. And I use the word ‘battle’ deliberately because let’s face not, it was a battle at times last season. Or perhaps more accurately we could call it a ‘slog’. You could probably count the number of games we played really well in on one hand and that doesn’t exactly fill a fan full of expectation for the following season when there seems to be no real excitement in the way the team plays.

Carrasco would be a player who could excite the crowds. He has the ability to beat a man. He will drive at teams and has the kind of flair you’d expect from an attacking Arsenal player. He’s also a wide man. I don’t know about you but I’ve been getting pretty sick of seeing all the central players in our team and no real width. So if this link turns out to be true – and given we were interested in him in January i think there might be something in it – then it gives us a little bit of hope that the right moves are being made.

But they need to be made sooner rather than later. we’re all a little low right now and the noises of minuscule budgets aren’t helping the general malaise after the appalling Europa League Final performance. But signings are like that shot of adrenaline that give people a short term fix/boost, so something being announced in the next week or two would give all Arsenal fans a big lift.

There’s also been the exits confirmed by the club yesterday of Ramsey, Cech, Lichtseiner, Welbeck, plus a few other randoms who never quite made the grade like Choen Brammall. That last one was one of the more bizarre Arsene Wenger signings. Came from non-league at an older age, represented a massive punt, never quite looked good enough, didn’t really do it on loan at Birmingham and so you can’t say it’s anything other than another failed experiment. But the kid got to be on Arsenal’s books and you could tell he was just happy with the opportunity to be recognised in that respect when he announced his goodbyes on the socials.

As for the first team players that left, I think only Welbeck is the one that people might be wondering about. Lichsteiner couldn’t cope with the leagues’ pace, Ramsey was going anyway and we all knew Cech was retiring. But Welbeck leaves with the hope he can make it at perhaps a team lower down the league. The thin g about Welbeck though is that he’d want big wages and with his recent injury record it’s a difficult one. If he’d have been fit all season I wonder if Arsenal would have kept him on, but he wasn’t able to do so and so I just hope he can maintain some fitness in his next team because he’s been a decent pro for us, an okays signing, albeit though not the player we hoped we would get after we got him from United.

And that, my friends, is that from me for another day. Catch you guys tomorrow.