Morning all, hope we’re all ok on this Thursday in August?

It was good getting the business done earlier, eh? I remember too many times getting to the last week of the window thinking “nope, we’re still too short, they HACE to do something soon”. Of course quite often it would be leaving it until the last minute of the window and in some cases that meant paying over the odds for players. I don’t know whether I’m just imagining it though, but I feel like that tends to happen in January a lot more than in August. Perhaps it is because for many clubs the season is in full sway and you have to roll the dice because it’s either that you need to do something to keep you safe or pull you out of the relegation mire, or you are fighting for a European spot and you’re just missing something, or you are perhaps even fighting for a title. Either way, I think the desperation is a bit more and that is why we see inflated prices in January more than the summer.

Perhaps that is also why we haven’t had bids for some of the players who are struggling to make the match day squad? On Monday night we had Tierney, Holding, Cedric, Pepe, Tavares, Lokonga, Elneny or Balogun. Perhaps with the exception of Elneny, these are all players that we probably need to find homes for and whilst some you can question whether that will be an easy task (Cedric, anyone?), perhaps it is simply because clubs don’t feel desperate enough to try to take players right now? The season has just started, many clubs have a raft of fit players and in many instances I’m sure most are looking at what Arsenal want for players and thinking “we can make do” because they are reluctant to part with any cash. It is why I agree with Andrew and James on the Arsecast Extra from Monday this week; James talked about how he suspected what will happen come the end of the window is that Arsenal end up kicking the can down the road and sending a load of these players out on loan just to get them off the books.

I suspect James is right and that will happen, but it does mean that we really haven’t shaken that label as being bad sellers though, doesn’t it? The club have rightly tried to stay firm in their valuations of players like Tierney and Balogun, but clubs just haven’t been minded to do what some of our fans always want us to do and “just pay the f*ckin’ money!” for our players.

It also means one less year left on a load of deals if loans happen, which further reduces their sell value. Perhaps that doesn’t matter as their ‘book’ value also reduces and if Arsenal have avoided paying them for a year then it seems like it at least from an accounting point of view feels like there is some positive work going on, but it doesn’t help the real term situation given that Arsenal have spent over £200million this summer. So far we’ve recouped around £30million according to TransferMarket and if you’re looking at the fact we probably need to get to £100million at least I would have thought that we’d need at least £70million coming in to avoid an ‘unpleasant’ sale of one of the players we like. Loans with loan fees won’t cut the mustard. which is why I suspect Arsenal will basically put off any loan deals until deadline day because whether a player goes on loan or not, it is far better than to hold out for a deal. Sambi Lokonga is supposedly wanted by Brighton, but they only want a loan, which is interesting given all the money they have. They’re willing to take a punt on players from clubs overseas and pay the fee, but not for one who is already Premier League ready?

Perhaps that is because they know they’d have to give Arsenal close to the £17million we paid for him, whereas Brighton prefer to go to lesser known clubs and pick up players from them for £3 – £10million. So perhaps Sambi is a little too well-known for them?

But this goes back to the ‘poor seller’ label we have, because Burnley have just paid around £15million for a ‘keeper from Man City who hasn’t played a game for them. Last season James Trafford was on loan at Ch was on loan at a League One club. Sambi has been playing – albeit not as regularly – at a Premier League team and you’re telling me nobody thinks that paying around £15 – £17million is worth it? Everton have just paid £11million for a Sporting Lisbon kid called Chermiti who scored three goals all season. Forest just signed Elanga – who made 26 starts in all competitions – for around £15million. Last season Sambi made 24 appearances in all comps. So it isn’t like we’re comparing apples and pears here. I just think we need to get away from our historical bad seller moniker and that has to start sooner rather than later.

I have no idea how we do it though. You can’t just magic up buyers for your unwanted players, unless you are Chelsea and you happen to have ‘friends’ from the Middle East who can help you out. The less said about those dodgy dealings the better, methinks.

Anyway, I should probably wrap up today’s proceedings as it is, as there’s little out there other than tittle tattle on the transfer front and, ultimately, we’ve got the team where we want it to be and now we just need to see them click properly.

Catch you wonderful humans tomorrow.