Happy Wednesday folks. We’ll obviously get to the Trossard stuff, the Eze, as well as how the summer is playing out and the reaction of Arsenal fans to the news that Leo has his pay rise without an extension, but before that, how about what is unfolding with Newcastle and Alexander Isak this summer, eh?

His statement with all of the top players at the PFA Player of the Year awards last night was certainly explosive enough, with his silence broken and shots most certainly being fired in Newcastle’s direction, citing ‘broken promises’ by somebody at the club. Is that Eddie Howe? Is it the Chairman of Newcastle – Yasir Al-Rumayyan – who has supposedly broken his promise? Is it the former Sporting Director Paul Mitchell who left the club in May? My guess is that it might be the latter, because Newcastle’s comment that ‘no club official’ had ever made such a statement feels like it could be one of those cleverly worded pieces given that Paul Mitchell isn’t a club official any more.

Whoever it was, whatever was said, Isak has properly doubled down on his issue and despite the fact Newcastle’s statement said that they will welcome him back to his teammates, this feels like there’s possibly a point of no return that might have been crossed. Certainly from the player’s eyes I think. There’s talk of him possibly going as far as leveraging FIFA’s Article 17 which will mean that Newcastle would be forced to let him join any club for free from 1st July 2026 if he officially triggers this rule. I don’t know all of the detail, but he can invoke it within 15 days of the final match of the season (early June 2026 at the latest) and all Newcastle would get would be compensation, which would probably equate to about half of what they are asking, apparently.

I think this means Liverpool go back in. Holier than thou Liverpool who have clearly had some kind of wrangling’s in this and who have been briefing the press that they want to ‘respect’ teams, when in reality they have no intention of doing that and are clearly working the back channels. There’s no way a player like Isak goes this hard unless he’s been given assurances from his potential destination. It is grubby and for a club who were burning effigies and talking down Trent Alexander Arnold’s move to Real Madrid this summer just gone (in which they got £10million when they really should have got nothing), it is slightly ironic that those very same supporters are cheering and celebrating this move by Isak to force Newcastle’s hands.

From an Arsenal point of view, our closest would be RvP or Nasri, with RvP probably the closest, but we were more forced in to this with the fact that he only had one year left on his deal. Isak has three, so whether Newcastle play hardball or not remains to be seen. In a way I’m glad that it’s not involving us, this saga, but I’m also very wary about just how good Liverpool will be with the Swede in their team.

Arsenal’s challenges aren’t in attack or wantaway players, but seemingly the reverse of that, as it was reported by multiple sources last night that Leo Trossard has agreed a wage increase on his current contract. The bizarre thing about this story, however, is that it isn’t a contract extension. I don’t know about you, but I have never heard of something like this before, when a player gets more money without having at least an extra year added to his deal? It is strange to say the least. The reaction on social media last night was obviously quite extreme from some corners, but I don’t think that was because of a hatred of Trossard, per say, but I think more because it probably represents a decision by the club to stick with what they have on left wing, possibly because they aren’t able to make the required sales to bring in a replacement.

We’ve heard all summer that they were looking at a left winger as somebody to come in, but I don’t think most Arsenal fans wanted to believe that the guy was Madueke. I think most thought he was the squad depth rotation option on both flanks. Clearly, if the window shuts in 11 days time and there’s no additional incomings, that might not have been the case, or it is simply the case that we haven’t been able to make the sales needed. There’s rumours that Nelson doesn’t want to go which is, frankly, ludicrous given that he isn’t getting anywhere near the first team at this stage. There’s rumours that we can’t offload Zinchenko, at a time in which – as one lad put it in one of my WhatsApp groups – “Liverpool have just sold a player who’s never played in the Premier League for £15million” and when you think about how clubs like Liverpool, City and Chelsea are able to offload players nowhere near the first team, it does seem bizarre. I get that Zinchenko’s wages might be a stumbling block, maybe he too doesn’t want to move if his kids are settled and he fancies leaving on a free next year and being a bit-part player, but I would be surprised given it is a World Cup year and Ukraine will probably fancy their chances of getting to the finals (at least via the playoffs) and so he will want to be playing.

Then there’s Lokonga, Fabio Vieira and Karl Hein, whose futures have all not been sorted and you do start to wonder why that is. Are Arsenal asking for too much? It doesn’t sound like it to me. Apparently we’re asking for £20million for a guy we paid £35million for only a few short season’s ago. Vieira is wanted by Stuttgart for £17million and I wonder if Arsenal will just do that deal if they have to, perhaps with a decent and chunky sell on fee of 33 – 50% to recoup some money maybe? Whatever they do, they really should be acting now. Berta was given praise earlier in the window, but it appears now as if that praise is on the turn a little bit with the fans. It appears the same affliction that impacted Edu – the inability to move on players not from Hale End (and in Reiss’ case, he is!) – has been passed on to the current incumbent.

On the Trossard thing, I suspect (without knowing) that promises have been made by the club previously, maybe by people who are no longer at the club, of a pay rise. Arsenal now feel they have to honour that. I also suspect the fan response is that we are possibly going to miss out on the shiny new thing and with Eze on his way to the Scum whilst Rodrygo doesn’t even get on the pitch for Real Madrid last night, there is some projection happening in the fanbase. We all think that our left wing could do with some work and Martinelli’s average pre season hasn’t helped, coupled with the fact that it looks like Trossard will stick around another year and he was good but not great last season, and I think some people are thinking this doesn’t really move the needle with the players that already between them had 20 goals (ten for Martinelli, ten for Trossard) and 15 assists (five for Martinelli, ten for Trossard) in all competitions. But here’s the thing – I don’t particularly hate our left hand side. You look at those numbers and if Madueke chips in with 10 goals and five assists and both Trossard and Martinelli can match that figure albeit with less game time because the minutes will be shared, I think you’d have to say the left hand side is doing it’s job. If we’re expecting Saka to bang around 35 goals and assists on the right, Trossard and Martinelli to get 35 between them on the left, then Madueke to get 15 goals and assists from both flanks, with Gyokeres also adding to what we expect of Kay, we’re probaby talking about the extra 15 – 20 goals this season that is needed to get closer to a title challenge.

What we have to see is more from Martinelli and Trossard with less game time though. The new contract is there and out in the open, much like how many of us weren’t keen on the Madueke deal, we have to hope that the players get their heads down and just start delivering. And that has to start from this Saturday.

That’s enough from me for now I think. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more thoughts as we head into the weekend.