Morning all, hope we’re all good? Feeling chipper?

I had a lovely ol’ fine dining experience in London last night, got home at 2.30am, yet feel surprisingly chipper I have to say.

It’s not because Arsenal have signed anybody though; they certainly haven’t sold anyone. Which is interesting because we all thought – well, anyone I talk to – that the sheer volume of players needing to go out the door would mean that we’d already have moved a few on. But we do seem to find it difficult to sell players. Unlike some clubs, who seem to just be able to get what they want for their deadwood. The Scum were close to selling Harry winks for £25million (!?!), Liverpool and City can basically sell unknowns from their academy for seven figure sums, yet when we want to offload Premier League, experienced, players, we seem to find it difficult.

Fulham are apparently interested in Bernd Leno, but what’s the betting we get like £5million for him, eh? If he was training at Melwood Liverpool would probably get an extra £10million without even thinking.

Is it because they are a successful team and therefore success begets success? It’s not as if Liverpool, United, Tottenham or Man City have brought through more youngster of a high enough and sufficient quality to break in to their team that their academies are viewed as the creme-de-la-creme of Europe, is it? Hale End produces some great stars, but we don’t get mega fees for players who have barely even just put on a bib as a sub on matchdays.

I might sound like I’m grumbling as I type but I promise you I’m not, I’m more curious as to what can be done to move on some of these players and also how we can get to a point where we can get decent money for players we’ve seen little of in the first team. Is it as simple as “success begets success”, in that we need to be at the top of the pile and people will naturally come for our young talent? Not sure. Feels like it.

Anyway, we have Turner, we need to sell Leno, let’s hope a deal gets done and soon. There was also talk of Maitland-Niles to Forest but it appears they’ve gone abroad for Giulian Biancone from Troyes for £5million. I guess if we’re looking at selling Ainsley our asking price is probably double that, which is why Forest might have been put off, but you’d have thought we’d be able to get that for a capped England versatile player, right? I would have thought Ainsley would be very good at a number of clubs – Forest, Everton, Leeds, Bournemouth or Brentford, for example? Wolves were interested a few years ago but I think they’re in a bit of financial trouble because of their owners, so I’d be surprised if they stumped up the mega cash.

So we’re left waiting for people to pick up those who won’t make the team this season and they’ll be left training at London Colney, which will be made to look worse because the season starts so early. Who knows though, maybe the early start to the season will help? Teams will start with their teams and one or two defeats will perhaps see some teams think that they need reinforcements for a long season and perhaps that is when we can start to shift some players. If that’s the case we won’t have to wait too long. Less than a month in fact as the season begins on 6th August.

Can Edu find homes for all of our remaining players in that time? Probably not. 31st August,  possibly,  but there are a lot of strays – Torreira, Maitland-Niles, Leno, Cedric (please), Nelson, Bellerin, probably Pepe. Plus loan moves out for some of the young players. I reckon he’s got to average one a week between now and the end of the summer. It’s not impossible, but will mean a few less barbecues for the lad I reckon. Better put down the tongs and pick up the phone, mate.

Anyway, it’s a short one today on account of there being absolutely bugger all going on in the Arsenal world, so I’m offski and I’ll see thee in the morrow.

Laters people.