If you believe everything you read on line, you’d be forgiven for getting a little antsy that the supposed new interest in Eze from Chelsea could scupper any potential deal that The Arsenal do.

Personally, I’m not minded to put too much credence in to it at this stage, because Eze would be batshit mental to join that basket case of a club.

We think we’re doing mental gymnastics to work out where Eze fits in at The Arsenal? How about Chelsea?

They sign ALL THE FORWARDS. Eze is, for sure, a creative attacking midfielder, but you can’t tell me that he’s dislodging their irritatingly decent Cole Palmer from that number ten slot, are you?

Perhaps you can make a similar case for Arsenal, with us having Rice, merino, potentially Nwaneri who can all play left eight, as well as Martinelli, Trossard and soon-to-be Madueke in as left wing options. But I think if you asked most neutral fans – i.e. not Arsenal or Chelsea supporters – you’re going to be told that he’s got probably a better pathway to more regular game time at The Arsenal. In the Despicable-money-grabbing-cup competition (DMGC) that has just thankfully finished last week they played Palmer wide right, Neto wide left, Enzo in the 10 and Joao Pedro up top. They’ve just spent £50million on Gittens to play wide left. They’ve brought Delap to play up top as well for £30million. They are not going to play Eze wide right, so where is he going to be shoe-horned in?

I’m not sure they will. Then you have to take into account that Eze was an Arsenal schoolboy and, I believe, he was an Arsenal fan as a kid (although I haven’t done much digging on that to be honest). So there’s a connection there that I think plays into our favour.

And finally, there’s the fact that we’ve (almost) competed for the title for the last three seasons. We have shown that – hopefully I am not jinxing it here – we have a team that is here to stay towards the top of the league and if you’re Eze, the chance of being in an Arsenal side competing for the title surely trumps a Chelsea side who have just scabbed their way to a trophy through the easiest run of nothing games you’re ever going to get.

Clearly I’m biased, but if you’re looking at Chelsea as a better environment to develop yourself, you’re not looking hard enough.

Arsenal still need to do the deal though. That’s the only sticking point in this whole debate. We all know there’s a release clause to be paid and if Arsenal trigger it then I think we’re fine. But if Arsenal need to sell before they drop some money into Palace’s laps, then that could give Chelsea the opportunity to have a free run at the player, because clearly as we’ve seen the rules around PSR don’t apply to them with their financial gaming of the system and every morally grey loophole they can get their hands on.

If that is the situation and it’s just about who triggers the release clause first, you could see Eze with little option but to accept a place on the crowded platform that is the Chelsea Circle Line of rotating players in and out every year.

The other big stuff going around has been centred on Liverpool’s pursuit of Newcastle player Alexander Isak. Hopefully Liverpool get the same treatment as we would have gotten had we gone in for the player; messing around discussing a possible opportunity all summer, only to be told to bugger off at the end of August.

I suspect Liverpool will go back in for Ekitike, but at €90million that certainly feels like a steep one to me. It’s weird because hearing him quoted for that fee – as good as he is – is kind of warming me towards Gyokeres even more now. If/when this deal gets done, we are getting him for £55million. For a striker, in this day and age and in this market, that’s pretty decent work from The Arsenal. As you’ll no doubt be aware there is still Sporting playing silly buggers on the additional €10million in add ons, but by the sounds of this they have previous with that, so any hopes of him getting on that play bound for Singapore are probably going to be short-lived. I think this one will probably drag into next week because, as we’re now learning, that Sporting president is a pain in the arse to deal with. It seems most parties are moving mountains to get this deal done except that guy, which makes me hope that one day they have an interest in one of our players…..

Oh yeah buddy, sure, we’ll sell you <<Player X>>. But here’s the deal, we want add ons. And those add ons? Well, they’re going to be fiendishly difficult for you not to pay. Each add on will be more difficult than the last. How many add ons are we asking for?

One.

Hundred.

Thousand.

Woe betide Sporting ever coming back to us after what’s happening now. I bet Berta can’t wait to get this deal done so he can move on with his life and – hopefully – never have to deal with them again.

Anyway, there was some nice stuff on the official site yesterday about the new academy graduates coming in, being greeted by Big Per and signing their scholarship forms. I can’t even imagine how exciting that must be for them. It was always a dream of mine – and yours too I’ll bet – to play for The Arsenal. That dream came and went in the blink of an eye with the fullness of time, so even the fact they get to experience what they are feeling right now, I have FOMO of, for sure. Maybe they’ll make it, maybe they won’t, but at least they have been able to get this wonderful experience and I hope their parents are telling them to just not think about some kind of amazing and star-studded future – work hard, try your best, but appreciate you have at least got to this position where hundreds of thousands of young boys their age don’t.

Back tomorrow as the team depart for Singapore.