Howdy folks and welcome to Tuesday – how we all doing?

I’ve woken up feeling a bit chipper and that is grand. I don’t know why though; maybe just a good night sleep and after the grim grey day of yesterday it is sunny outside today. It won’t last – this is England.

And it is The Arsenal, for which I don’t know about you, but it feels like there is a bubbling of activity that seems to be happening. There is nothing that has arisen to the metaphorical surface yet, but I just have a ‘feeling’. We’ve heard about the Raya rumours, there was also news that Austen Trusty is attracting interest from Sheffield United, last night there were a few articles out there suggesting that Sambi Lokonga could be on his way to Burnley to link up with Vincent Kompany again, plus we have a wee ripple of noise around Charlie Patino potentially going off to Luton or Sheffield United.

On the Lokonga links, that feels very much like the world is putting two and two together, making itself a nice little four in the process. Kompany raved about Sambi and apparently was the one that said to Arteta “you need to get this kid”. Obviously that was the Man City connection when Arteta was a coach at City, but he trusted Kompany’s assessment and to be fair, I think we have seen glimpses of the best of Sambi. But the challenge is that it was only glimpses and the result has been him falling down the pecking order, to the point in which none of us are even thinking about him establishing a first team place next season. When he went on loan to Palace in January I thought it would be to get game time, impress, then come back and be a guy who we should talk about as an outside bet. I liked his style and the way he played at times, but he seemed to be one of those guys who was very much a confidence player. Give him minutes, give him confidence, then he will do well. But in an Arsenal team that has been steadily getting better each season, he found his time limited and I think that impacted him a lot more than other players.

We of course know this with the now infamous canteen chat with Sambi and Eddie, in which Eddie said “you think you’re the only one not playing, my friend?”. Eddie has grown up around the competition, he knows that getting in at Arsenal as a main man who plays every week is bloody hard, yet Sambi suddenly seemed quite down and frustrated quite quickly. And do you know what that documentary made me think of at the time?

Lassana Diarra.

He was a very talented young player who we picked up from Chelsea in August 2007. But after Flamini stepped up with some monster performances and his game time was limited, Diarra started complaining in the media and by the January of 2008 he was gone. Sambi has of course not complained in the media, but we can all see that he is a young guy who had been used to playing every week and then when it hasn’t quite worked out and he hasn’t got as much game time, it kind of felt like he wanted to move on. And actually, I don’t blame him too much you know, because he was given the Anderlecht captaincy at a young age and when you get that so quickly, you aren’t going to be happy just fighting for minimal minutes at a club like Arsenal. I suspect Sambi’s plan involved him coming in, surprising everyone and by now he would have either Thomas Partey’s position, or the one occupied by Xhaka last season and probably Havertz this season.

I suspect if Sambi could have his time again he’d probably want to go from Anderlecht to another club in Europe not as big as Arsenal, to further his reputation. He feels like the sort of guy that, if he’d have joined a Brighton, or a team like Lille, or Sampdoria, Villareal, etc, then he’d probably have played more regularly and if he’d have succeeded then he’d be looking to make a move around about now or next season for big money. And if that happens – regardless of whether it is to Arsenal or not, then he probably gets the more guaranteed game time at one of Europe’s big clubs. Because as we all note when we talk about our signings, you don’t spend £50-£60-£70million on a player and then have them as a rotation option. People might point to Pepe in this current Arsenal team, but in his first season at the club having signed for £72million he made 42 appearances and 29 starts in all competitions. In Sambi’s first season he started 16 times in all competitions. So it goes to show you that when there is a big price tag, you get the initial time when you are a new player to play more games.

So at this stage and with Sambi’s demands surely that he will get more playing time, this loan with a potential obligation to buy sounds like it is probably best for everyone. If it happens, I hope he can get those minutes he craves because I think there is a good player in there and perhaps he just needs to complete and utter trust of somebody like Kompany to bring it out of him?

On the Patino stuff, I think there is a similarity in the situation too, because he apparently doesn’t want another move having tasted first team football at Blackpool. I don’t think there is too much noise on this yet but I saw something about a £15million buy back or big sell on clause, with Luton and Sheffield United both interested. Apparently the player wants Luton and I get it; he is from Watford, it’s just a short trip up the M1 to Luton, plus he was in their academy as a kid before he joined us. Luton don’t have a big budget but if he goes there, plays in the Premier League, hits it off and then looks like a star in the making, if we sell him for £5 – £10million and then get him back as a wonderkid star who has lit up the Premier League, then it feels like it would be sensible business. It’s kind of a weird way of doing a version of a loan, I guess.

And so that’s it for me for today. A couple of things that seem like they are mere ripples right now but could quickly progress as we rapidly hurtle towards the start of the season.

Let’s see what plays out today.

Catch you all tomorrow.