Had a fair bit of work stuff and other bits going on yesterday, so didn’t find the time to compose some thoughts in the wake of the rapidly evolving Madueke story, so shall we have a chat today about it?

Firstly, I think it’s difficult for me to row back from my original thoughts and feelings about the player. I have been told by two Chelsea fans – one a season ticket holder – plus last night had a chat with my Godfather who used to take me to The Arsenal when I was a kid and he was saying that two of his work colleagues had told him “you’ll get 10 minutes of football out of him every match”. I hear that stuff and I find it difficult to get too enthused. Then I see that we’re giving Chelsea a £20million uplift by signing him for £48.5million in initial payments (they paid £28.5million two years ago to PSV) and it just annoys me. If you’re talking about £30million then I can get behind this deal. Why? Because this deal does, I think, mean that other hopes many of us have for the window don’t happen. By investing that kind of money on Madueke – a rotation option for Saka as it stands – is a lot of money that I think could probably have been spent elsewhere.

And I don’t think Arsenal are spending it elsewhere on all the players we want. Well, all the players I want, should I say. I would have loved an Eze to come in. That could still happen and I suspect after the club have sorted out the messy Viktor Gyokeres saga, they’ll turn their attentions to Eze, so we may yet see that develop more. But I also wanted us to really try to push the boat out and go for Rodrygo this summer. He’s a quality player, he’s an impressive player, he’s a guy who I think would have moved the needle on that left hand side and my hope was that with Martinelli playing there too, we’d have two superb options to battle it out.

I can’t see that happening now. You don’t go out and sign Gyokeres AND Madueke AND Rodrygo. I can’t see a world in which that happens financially or from a squad balance perspective. Especially with the news I’ve seen this morning from a few sources that Arsenal are getting close to a deal of extending Trossard’s contract. I did wonder if Arsenal were to look to shift him on, but I think if he signs then that’s our forward line for next season:

  • Saka
  • Martinelli
  • Havertz
  • Trossard
  • Madueke
  • Gyokeres
  • Eze

That’s seven players for three positions and I think that’s too much as it is. Now, I know there are caveats, because we might see Kai in at left eight, Eze too playing there or 10, whilst we haven’t actually got any closer in the Gyokeres signing, although I think most of us think that’ll get done. But there isn’t a world in which we get all of those players AND then go for Rodrygo, even if the reporting is that Arsenal are mad-keen on the Brazilian. In fact, I even wonder if Trossard signing a new deal means we don’t go after Eze? I don’t think it’s outside of the realms of possibility.

And I think that’s probably where my Madueke stance is, because from what I thought we were getting this summer, it would suddenly feel underwhelming. The player himself, when you look at what he’s bring, I’m kind of like “fine, let’s give it a go”, but for me I think it’s all the things that Madueke doesn’t represent that has also impacted my perspective. So that’s:

  1. The fee that might impact other signings
  2. The stories about the player, his style, attitude and the fact Chelsea fans seem happy to be offloading
  3. The space he takes up that might stop some kind of other deal happening

Do I hate the player? Of course not. Am I going to abuse him when he signs? Absolutely no way. Will I pray this is another Havertz situation (I didn’t want him either and said so on this blog)? You betcha. But that doesn’t mean I can’t have reservations given all of the above, right?

Now, having said that, I think I – and a lot of Arsenal fans, podcasters, bloggers, etc – are all now a little bit in ‘Justification Mode’. Because I didn’t see many people jumping up and down with joy when his name was first mentioned. So there’s a lot of people who – like me – are going to have to go into, as I mention, Justification Mode to get behind this signing (well, apart from some of the football hipsters who deliberately take the alternate view so they can be uber ‘told you so’ if the player does do well, in some kind of race to be the first who is right). And that’s ok. That happens. We have opinions, we share them, as long as you’re not a dick about it (like putting white paint ‘Arteta Out’ nonsense across NorthBanksy’s murals by the ground – whoever you are you are an absolute idiot and you’ve destroyed a wonderful bit of fan culture that we’ve had for a couple of years, you cretin), then I think that’s ok.

As soon as he’s in that Arsenal shirt, get behind him and hope that whatever Arteta has seen in this player, it comes out in spades over the coming years. I’ve seen some liken him to Alexis Sanchez. Give me that kind of output and approach and Noni, my boy, you’ll have me singing from the rafters about you as an Arsenal player – I can tell you that much.

And maybe there is something in there that is about to go ‘bang’? Maybe we might see something that takes him to the next level and we will all be saying in 12 – 18 months that we got him for a bargain. That’s where my head is at right now, as I enter Justification Mode. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all. We’re football fans. We’re allowed to change our minds and those of us who do have our minds changed when players step up like Havertz did, we are all the happier, because it means we’re doing the right things. That’s all I care about.

Back tomorrow.