So it looks like Leo Trossard is touching down in Istanbul today, to finalise his move to Besiktas, and with that, he closes the chapter on his three-and-a-half years at The Arsenal. And considering the fact he was the ‘second place’ option after Mudryk, I don’t think you’ll find an Arsenal fan around who isn’t welcoming, happy for him, and wanting the best for him for his time in Turkey.

I was pretty hot on Mudryk, despite only doing the usual thing of ‘the comps’ on YouTube. We were getting a rapid winger, who De Zerbi (former manager at Shaktar) said could be a Ballon d’Or winner one day, or something like that. Chelsea thought they’d outsmarted us by a bit of the ol’ ‘gazumping’, and we had to pivot.

And what a pivot.

£27million, 174 games, 36 goals, 34 games later, and we say goodbye to a guy who has had a massive impact in the upturn of this Arsenal team ever since he arrived.

When he did arrive, I was fine with it. I’d seen one or two Brighton games in the previous couple of seasons. He’d looked alright, nothing special, good with the ball at his feet, but I’d also seen him miss a few sitters too. What I didn’t realise was that in that season, when we would go on to sign him in January, he was hitting what you’d call a true ‘in his prime’ moment. He contributed both with his own goal tally, but in that first season, he became an assist monster. 10 in total in the Premier League and although the season ended up with us narrowly missing out, we’d found a ready-made wide forward who had end product for our future title charges.

And in that first full season in 2023/24, he really came into his own in the new year, with Havertz and the little Belgian forging quite the connection as we battered team after team as we ran City close. I remember a really impressive performance up at Burnley in particular. His constant will to win was epitomised by his grumpy demeanour, and I remember Arteta even referencing that he gets an earful when Leo didn’t start. That’s exactly the kind of mentality Arteta loves, and I bet he personally loved Leo’s mindset.

It comes as no surprise that the goal that had one of the most profound impacts on last season was scored by Leo at West Ham.

Sure, he could be frustrating at times, but he had patches of form that saw him really frustrate. But when he was on it, it seemed like it was a crucial point in our season over the years.

The challenge for Arsenal becomes replacing him. Martinelli’s form domestically last season wasn’t that great. He barely contributed from an output perspective, so if Arsenal do pull the trigger on Tzolis, he’s going to have to, at a minimum, deliver what Leo did last season. That’s eight goals and 11 assists as a minimum, and in an Arsenal team that struggled to score goals last season, it does put pressure on this Greek lad. He’s going to have to hit the ground running if he really is Trossard’s replacement.

For Besiktas, they’re getting a guy who has just come off the back of an impressive summer World Cup, and who will probably absolutely smash it in that league. He gets a three-plus-one-year deal, and that means he’s securing a decent contract into his mid-thirties.

And, as I’ve kind of already mentioned in previous blogs, the money Arsenal gets is pretty decent, too. £17million in total for a guy who is 31 and with one year left on his deal is a pretty decent fee. Arsenal were never going to get all the money back due to his age, but this is a fine return, and everyone involved in this move gets what they want, ultimately.

If you’d have asked me two years ago, or one year ago, what I would prefer in terms of an exit, it would have been this one. But after Martinelli’s indifferent season just gone, I have sort of changed my mind. Martinelli’s sell value is probably going to be bigger than Trossard’s, and Leo could be understudy to a new big name coming in – if we ever get a deal done there – so this does feel like it was a tighter call than it could have been a year ago. But that’s just how the chips fall, I guess. There was demand for Leo; I guess there hasn’t been that much demand for Gabby Martinelli.

And that might cause a little bit of a problem for Arsenal, if they can’t move on Martinelli (assuming they do). Because if Tolis is the Trossard replacement, is that left-wing position really stocked enough to be seen as an upgrade from what we had last season? Don’t get me wrong, Tzolis might bang, but it’s asking a lot for a guy who was plying his trade in the Belgian League to make the big jump to the Premier League without a bedding-in period and being asked to be ‘The Guy’. Unfortunately, I think we’ve seen enough of Martinelli to know that he is a good player, loves the club, we love him, he’ll definitely contribute, but not enough in my eyes to be given the keys on the left-hand side and told he is the undisputed number one left winger for The Arsenal. He’s had enough seasons to do that, and hasn’t quite made it.

Could Arsenal be looking at two incomings? Maybe. But you’d think they’d have to find a buyer for Martinelli first. Perhaps now the market is open, we’ll see a bit more movement, because other clubs are starting to make moves, and we’re still relatively quiet, respectively.

There’s still time, there’s no need to panic yet, but we probably need to start hearing some noises now. You know that Arteta will certainly be thinking the same.

But for now, to finish today’s musings, let’s tip our hat to Leo and say ‘thanks’.