So…we have our first signing through the door for this summer. Well, ‘NEW’new signing, as Hincapie was done and just needed paperwork and an official confirmation. But yes, it’s Illan Meslier who becomes Arsenal’s first new face through the doors at London Colney, and he said some nice things on the official site.

Plenty of discussion on this one inline, on socials and in the GCs on WhatsApp. I think the discourse on this is predicated on his role. I still maintain I suspect he’ll be number three, and if that bears out, then I’m quite ‘meh’ on this one. I’m not angry, I’m not excited, it’s a body coming in and I’m sure he’ll be a good cheerleader for the team. He’s played 107 times in the Premier League, 265 career appearances, he has experience and he won’t be on mega money at Leeds United. I heard somebody say that it was a two-year deal, which very much therefore feels like a “come be with us for a couple of years, train with the team, pick up a wage, get Arsenal on your CV and you can move on after that”. I don’t think anybody should read anything else into it. We move on.

Who to, next, then?

Seems like this Greek lad Christos Tzolis is the one most likely to go through, with a £35million move being mooted across a few channels yesterday, and I have to say I don’t mind this deal. In a summer where Premier League clubs are looking to charge farcial amounts for their tlent, perhaps looking to mainland Europe to unearth the next gem isn’t a bad idea. I listened to the Arsenal opinion pod earlier this morning on my run and the lads were talking about how City picked up Doku from Rennes, he had a ‘bedding in’ season, then this season and last season he was making a real impact. They picked Doku up at 21-years-old from Rennes for £55million in 2023. This guy is a little older at 24, plays in obviously a weaker league in Belgium, but his numbers are pretty good. If you take the idea that Gyokeres’ target that I set was basically to just be half of the output machine that he was in Lisbon, and he achieved that, if Tzolis is the one replacing Trossard for £35million, having scored 22 goals and got 29 assists in 52 games. If he can translate that into even 10 goals and 10 assists for the first team at Arsenal next season, then that’s absolutely fine.

He’s apparently rapid, he’s got Champions League experience and two goals and an assist, so he’s been playing in the elite competition. He actually played against us in our 3-0 win in December. WhoScored put him down as a 6.5 out of 10 score on the day, which was second best in the team, on a day in which they really were second best, as Noni had arguably his best game for Arsenal that day, bagged two goals, and I wonder if this potential arrival really does signal the end of any chance that we see Noni on that left hand side.

Mind you, given Saka can’t seem to do 90-minutes for England at the moment, Noni is probably looking likely to be starting the season off on that right-hand side anyway, at this rate. That goes the same for a few Arsenal players for the start of this season, methinks. Saliba’s rumoured back problems won’t go away, so if you’re Christian Mosquera you’re looking at the start of the season as an opportunity to rack up some minutes. And whilst a doubt remains over Timber, and Ben White back in training (and having a lovely ol’ catch up with Meslier as the club showed on a video yesterday), he’s probably looking at the start of the season as an opportunity to get himself minutes too. I think a few of us thought that his Arsenal race was run, but I don’t see how Arsenal sanction any move for White whilst we still don’t have full knowledge on the Timber situation. It’s a bit of a worry, I have to say, because what was thought to be only a few weeks, has turned into him missing a World Cup. And even if he is fit for the start of pre-season training, if I was Arteta, there’s no way I’d sanction a White exit right now. He’s experienced, he knows the first team, the Premier League, he is looking fit and he can slot right back into that role and know exactly what Arteta wants. Keeping Ben White, whilst there are so many other questions around fitness of players for the start of the season, is feeling kind of important now.

It’s why the Bruno Guimaraes move now – if it happens (and I still remain sceptical, as I wonder whether it’s an agent play for a mega-deal from Newcastle) – makes sense. Rice is playing with pain and spends half the time with an ice pack strapped to his leg. If Bruno comes in, Rice can be eased in for the new season. Zubi has hardly played this World Cup, so you’d hope he’d be ready and raring to go, whilst Myles will also be in contention. So there are options there for Arteta for the start of the season, even if he decides to give the World Cup lads extra time off to recover. I saw talk that Rice, Saka and Saliba will basically not be seen until October. I suspect that’s a little hyperbolic, but if you give them three weeks off after the World Cup, that takes you to the second week of August. Then they have to pick up as pre-season training again, so they’ll be a month behind the other lads – that takes you to the middle of September, so that October timeline suddenly doesn’t look as unrealistic, right?

If we get the right cover and quality in, then I’m all up for it. We don’t want to see Rice and Saka in particular breaking down and then not being seen until 2027. The club will have all the data and medical records they need, however, so I personally am feeling quite relaxed. Again, as I’ve said once or twice already this summer, that’s the benefit you get when you are champions.

Right – catch you all tomorrow. Hey! I even managed to get through 1000 words without talking the World Cup – great stuff!