Morning folks and let me bestow unto thee a most happy of Tuesday’s. The sun is out in London, The Arsenal are back in the country and a new kit dropped to keep those merch-starved fans sated for at least another week until the next training kit is launched at some stage in August no doubt.

On that kit, it’s not for me, I’m afraid. I just can’t abide a white football kit. Call me ‘yer dah’ or some kind of old traditionalist ‘Legacy Fan’ if you like, but you can’t be wearing a shirt donning the same colours as your hated rivals. No amount of clever nod to the Marble Halls or historical victories of the past will ever change that. I guess I’m not the audience though, so it doesn’t matter and the feedback appears to be good amongst many online with people flooding the sight to get their purchases, which will make both Arsenal and Adidas happy because it’s money coming into the coffers in the absence of any big cash coming in from selling players so far. Which is a perfect segue to start talking about how it appears that we’re starting to make some moves for exits this summer, if some of the more prominent ITKs are to be believed.

Let’s start with the freshest off the virtual press, which was that Ornstein reported that Stuttgart are supposedly in talks to buy Fabio Vieira. He was supposed to be our Bernardo Silva; a little wirey, technically gifted, can chip in with goals and play a very able deputy to Martin Odegaard. I remember when Odegaard was missing for that Brentford game two season’s ago and Fabio slotted straight in, had a great game and bagged a super goal from outside of the box. I thought we’d found a very good – albeit slightly lightweight – midfielder who would be at the club for years to come if he could build on that kind of performance. And at times he did have some good games; I remember one game where he came on against Fulham and he and Eddie combined well to change the game around, although we did end up drawing it 2-2 if I recall rightly. But the component parts of a good footballer are in there, he just hasn’t been able to kick on and I suspect that’s why he is an attractive option for somebody like Stuttgart.

He played plenty of football last season, making 42 appearances in all competitions, racking up 2,600+ minutes and bagged five goals and six assists. That’s not too bad. It’s not ground-breaking, but at 25 (until May next year) he has plenty of years ahead of him and I suspect Arsenal aren’t going to be holding out for a big fee given we paid £30million+ for him I suspect if Stuttgart cough up around the £20million mark, Arsenal would probably be happy to take the cash. TransferMarkt has him at €22million so if you’re getting around the £18 – £20million then that’s probably about right.

I don’t know about you, but it does feel like the selling wheels are in motion though. Reiss Nelson’s convo’s with Fulham must be drawing to natural conclusion, there’s this Fabio Vieira stuff, as well as the noises from a few places that we’ve rejected a £24.3million from Porto for Kiwior. given that we signed him for £20million and he’s just come off the back of an impressive end to the season, you have to be flipping a decent profit from a player like that. Chelsea are about to get £25million for a guy who played 1300+ minutes last season, so if we can’t go north of £30million then we’re doing something wrong. There’s also a few murmurings about Trossard to Brentford or Dortmund. Personally, whilst I’d like to see an upgrade in that left wing position, if we have Martinelli and Trossard as our choices there for next season, I’m not going to get too stressed. I’ve forced myself into the idea that Madueke is an option on that left hand side and I just have this sneaky suspicion about him being used more and more on that left hand side and probably from his perspective he might see this as a chance. If he is going to be the player that Arsenal want him to be, then he’ll offer that ‘X-Factor’ in beating his man. That’s one area that Martinelli has started to suffer from and compared to a few season’s back when he seemed to be able to beat his man a little easier than he does now.

If I’m Martinelli, I’m making best friends with Gyokeres, because I think there’s an opportunity for him to unlock the positive aspects of Martinelli’s game, because of the Swede’s natural left-sided leaning. Back when Martinelli bagged his goals and assists season, he had that relationship he forged with Gabby J, because the Brazilian would naturally lean towards that left hand side and that created a connection which ensured Martinelli could interchange with him, or would pull other defenders away to create space for Martinelli. If Martinelli can find a way to operate with Gyokeres and form some kind of symbiotic relationship, there might be an opportunity for him to recapture his 2022/23 form. Imagine Gyokeres peeling off to the left as Martinelli goes centrally, or Martinelli hugging the touchline, receiving the ball from Big Vik, then interchanging passes and then one of them goes. I feel like I can see that happening in my minds eye, so it will be good to see over these next couple of games this week, whether they get much time to play together.

we’ll soon find out, with Villareal up first tomorrow before Bilbao at the weekend. It feels like these friendlies are the ‘real’ test that we need to see Arsenal on it for.

We’re in for an interesting week ahead methinks.

Catch you all tomorrow.