Although Arteta was tight-lipped on that arrival, the Ornbomb has already dropped and it appears we’re loan-optioning him for the season and clearly we’ll drop the actual cash on Leverkusen’s lap in the summer of 2026, which makes sense given that we probably don’t have the cash lying around to make this deal a permanent one now. What it means is that Jakub Kiwior heads to Porto for what Ornstein says is a pretty much guaranteed £23million from Porto. A Polish international who starred for our team towards the end of the season and proved he is a very good left-centre half, leaves the club for about £3million more than we paid for him. It’s been said on social media, but if he’s a Chelsea player, he goes for around £10million more from that, I assure you. They’ve just sold Renato Veiga, who made seven appearances for them last season before being loaned to Juve, for €24.5million. That player is nowhere near as established or good as Kiwior, yet they’re getting a couple of million Euro’s less. We can all be happy with the superb work of Berta this summer in terms of incomings, but the sales continue to be under valued and that is an issue we need to address.

Apparently Marseille are after Zinchenko but wages are a sticking point and with just over a day and a bit left in the transfer window, Arsenal have to ship him, Nelson, Fabio Vieira and Sambi Lokonga. It’s a lot to ask to get those turned in to permanent deals. If Palace cough up £15million for Reiss then I think that’s good work. If Arsenal can get £15million for Zinchenko then I think at this stage you have to take it. But I suspect Lokonga and Vieira will be last minute loans from one club. Which would be a shame for them and us not to sort their respective futures out.

These are the problems we need Berta to fix, because ours attention – and certainly Arteta;s – has to be on how we win at Anfield for the first time in 13 years. He was asked the usual questions about player availability and of course we know all of the absentees that are guaranteed at the moment (Saka and Havertz) but I was encouraged by what he said about the skipper Odegaard. His words when asked if it was serious were “there’s an injury there, but hopefully, if everything goes well, he can cope with it. But we don’t know yet”. The fact he’s saying that he can cope with it suggests to me that I think he might be alright. That is a boost because although Ethan performed well last weekend at home to Leeds I thought, I think away at Anfield you need somebody with Odegaard’s experience on the pitch. There’s also the fact that Liverpool barely have any injury worries, with Mac Allister having trained and Bradley back in training too, as confirmed by Slot yesterday.

Arteta talked about the ‘aura’ of Eze in his press conference and I think this time tomorrow there’s going to be quite the clamour for Arsenal fans to see him from the start. I’ll touch on team news tomorrow, but whilst Arteta wouldn’t be drawn on that yesterday, I do think he’s not going to be tempted in to using him straight from the off. We have Martinelli who always seems to play well at Anfield and there’s Trossard too, so there are options there and at least of that we can be pleased.

I liked that he asked whether he wanted to play Liverpool later in the season, because it’s a question I’ve been flip-flopping over in my mind. On the one hand it’s good to get it out of the way early, when the damage doesn’t feel as terminal as if we had to go there in April and win to keep any title hopes alive. But on the other hand it could be seen as an early blow and then when you think we have City to play within two games after tomorrow, it puts a little more added pressure on that game if we get beat tomorrow. Arteta didn’t really properly answer the question, but I do wonder if he’s happy that we are getting it out of the way now? I wonder if he’d also rather play City away than home in a couple of weeks too, in that same vein, because that would have ticked off Old Trafford, Etihad and Anfield within the opening weeks of the season. Meaning later in the year you get the benefit of home soil advantage for the crunch games. People who say “you have to play everyone twice it doesn’t matter” I think miss the point; look at how gee’d up Man United were on the opening day. Now look at them having just lost to Grimsby and their fans are turning. I think they’ll beat Burnley next weekend, but the next ‘big game’ they’ve got, I think they’ll have been softened up a bit by some of these results and so you can’t say it’s the same United side that we played versus one that looks like it is on its knees.

Back to the press conference, in which Arteta was asked about keeping everyone happy and what problem that might cause and he rightfully said he doesn’t worry about that, more that players are as happy as they can be. I think that’s where the communication comes in. Arteta might have Trossard knocking on his door wanting to play, but if he communicates in an effective way that they needed to bolster based on last season, that he is still a great player and one we value, that he will get minutes but he needs to accept that we needed a bigger squad based on last season, I think even the likes of Trossard will understand. I remember back to that Leicester City game last season and we played with Sterling, Trossard and Nwaneri as the front three, with Merino coming on in that second half to break the deadlock. We can’t have that situation again. Plus, I think with the injuries we have already, we can all see that players are going to play. When we get in to mid September it is sometimes three games a week, so Arteta is 100% going to have to rotate players in for those midweek games. That also links in with the question he was asked about Martinelli, who he was pretty emphatic that he wouldn’t leave this summer, which also makes me think about whether he’ll sdtart tomorrow, but as I have said above I think Martinelli might just start tomorrow. Just a hunch I’ve got.

Other than that there’s not a ton else that came out from it. Tomorrow I’ll take a look ahead at the game, who I think might play and also how Liverpool might approach this one but for now, you have yourselves a great Saturday.

Why dedicate the first 75-ish words to another team today? Well, we’re up next against them and if they are as defensively suspect as they have been for these first two games this season (and also the Community Shield), then there will be opportunities for us to exploit at Anfield next weekend.

As I said on the Same Old Arsenal podcast that we recorded yesterday morning, I’m not particularly confident of us going there and getting anything (no win since 2012), but based on the small sample size I’m looking at so far, it is not a Liverpool team that look like they’re going to sweep everyone aside and whilst we know they have goals in them, we also know that defensively they are not looking rock solid.

Of course that’s one of the areas of the pitch in which Mikel Arteta has prioritised for some years now and with the news that we’re supposedly in for this Hincapie fella from Ecuador, whose plying his trade for Bayer Leverkusen, it seems as though Arteta and Berta aren’t quite done with their spending spree. This one looks predicated on the outgoings of the likes of Kiwior and Zinchenko it seems, but given the money that is supposedly on offer, you do have to wonder where we’re getting the cash from. Supposedly Porto want to give us €20million for Jakub Kiwior.

I’m sorry, how much?

We paid £22million for him, he’s improved since arriving, he’s a Polish international and he still has a few years left on his contract. How are we having the poverty card flung at us by Porto?? We need to be telling them that €20million is the loan fee, then they have the obligation to buy him next summer for another €20million. As somebody from my social media timeline remarked yesterday “If this was Chelsea they’d already have £40million for him in their back pocket”.

We’re all loving the decisiveness with which Arsenal have moved in the market to get the incomings this season, but that outgoings situation is still problematic and as I sit here today and type out these thoughts, we are still to make a significant sale. Remember when we all thought that by being good again teams would naturally come and take some of our rotational option players? Whatever happened to that? That’s what City and Liverpool have done for years as the two best teams in England. I thought we’d be able to get on that squad player gravy train, no? But instead we find ourselves with one week left of the window and still quite a bloated squad.

Do you know what though? Maybe it’s not just us? I’ve just seen this article on Football365 about the size of each Premier League teams’ squads. We’re joint 12th. We’ve got 28 along with Newcastle and Liverpool whilst Sunderland have 35, Burnley have 34 and Brighton have 33! So perhaps there’s been a trend of stockpiling this season anyway and this is a natural consequence. I suspect it is just that some clubs seem to be covered with deals across the media and one instantly projects that they are doing fantastic business whereas we can’t find clubs for any of our players, but the truth is probably a little more distanced from that I think. Many of these teams have been setting their squads up now and only the likes of Villa, Fulham and Everton are those that need to pick up some bodies as we hit the last week of the window. Fulham might try for Reiss Nelson again I suspect, but I do wonder if what James said yesterday might be the name of the game in the last week of this year’s summer window; lots of loan signings with options to buy from clubs both in England and overseas.

I suspect homes will be found for Fabio Vieira, Sambi Lokonga and Reiss Nelson, but whether there is a permanent nature to them or not remains to be seen. Stuttgart want to pay us €20million for his signature when TransferMarkt has him at 22. That’s probably a fairer price but for a player who is still 25 and cost us £34million (€40million), that’s quite some tanking in value. If Arsenal end up accepting something like that, you’d have to think they’ll be putting a fat old sell on clause in there too. It’s how we’ve managed to make our money back on Nuno Tavares, but with Vieira I think that’s a hopeful pipe dream to claw back all of the money outlay that we did back in 2022.

But we need to do something. Zinchenko isn’t being shifted because of his bug wages and so I suspect that will be an overseas loan where we pay a chunk of them, because I can’t see a Fenerbahce coughing up all of his £150k+-per-week wages. So we’ll have to find a solution that doesn’t mean we have a guy on our books who will take the cash and not get anywhere near the first team. I’m sure he will want that solution too, to be fair, because no footballer wants to be left to just rot in the reserves when he could go somewhere else and play regularly in the autumn of his playing career. Zinchenko is still only 28 and so has plenty of time left in his career, so I’m sure a solution can be found.

That’s me done for today. One step closer to the weekend thanks to the bank holiday yesterday, so I’ll be back tomorrow at the mid-working-week point with some more Arsenal musings as always.

Catch you then.

This time yesterday I was writing about the Trossard deal, trying to justify what felt like quite an odd move from the club, as it appeared as though we were unlikely to be doing any more business. I pondered over what we needed from the trio of Martinelli, Trossard and Madueke in terms of goals and assists.

By lunchtime – or just after – that had become even more important, because the news was breaking that Havertz had suffered an in jury and was due to be out for a ‘significant’ period of time, as reported by David Ornstein. That was the counter-signed by a few journalists and as the club took part in an open training session in front of the fans at The Emirates stadium, the absence of Kai was very noticeable and a worry for us all.

Cue the hand-wringing from us all. This is what happened last season and this news meant that, like last season, a big player for us suffered an injury that would cause big ruptions in our aspirations this season. Our attacking options were supposed to be Big Vik AND Kai, not just Big Vik.

So I think it’s fair to say that the mood was pretty low. We’d been dealt another accursed injury and the season hadn’t even got going. And spare a moment for poor Kai; he’s had a knock in pre season, having missed a massive chunk of last season, yet here he is with another spell on the sidelines. An important player for us, loved by all of us, who can’t do the thing he’s good at. I’m gutted for him.

And yesterday afternoon I was gutted for us, because the news that was permeating from various sports journalists who had clearly been briefed, was that Arsenal were looking for loan options or something to replace Kai that would be on the cheap. The chats started. Vardy at 38? Nico Jackson? Asensio on loan?

None of them were optimal, none of them were Havertz, few really inspired.

Then it dropped.

Ornstein and Fabrizio, not long after each other, with a Bomba and a Here we go.

Eberechi Eze. The Arsenal. Fee agreed. Player wants move.

The online explosion was amazing. It was like a set of beautiful fireworks were going off across Arsenal social channels everywhere. This was the one we wanted. An Arsenal lad, a player who has been the talisman for a rejuvenated Palace side towards the end of last season. A guy who should have been the match winner last weekend.

Eberechi Eze. A Gooner.

Jobs not done, player still has to go through the medical and tonight he’ll be playing in the Conference League at home to Palace, but by the sounds of it Arsenal have moved swiftly to conclude this and he may be an Arsenal player by the time the weekend is done.

Honestly, the level of decisiveness that has been shown in this deal really is quite something and dare I say it, quite un-Arsenal like. We like to take our time on these types of deals. Just look at what happened with Gyokeres. Clearly a lot of that was down to the Sporting Chairman and clearly Steve Parish is a man who is loyal to ‘Ebs’ and wanted to do right by him. There was a fee and Palace were happy to go with that fee. And so he should – hopefully – become an Arsenal player.

The deal was ‘dead’ apparently. I heard through a mate that it was off a while ago and I don’t think any of us really batted an eyelid. The Scum had a pressing need, we were looking at our front line and left wing, there needed to be some sales and clearly we weren’t pulling the trigger on a ‘nice-to-have’ player unless we had space for him. The Havertz injury has clearly changed that and, worryingly, it makes me wonder if this is a really bad one that means we might not see him until at least 2026. If that’s the case, he will take time to get fit and so most of his season is probably hanging on a knife-edge, because there’s no way you sanction a £60million deal for a player like Eze as quickly as we did unless there is a big problem with Havertz. I am delighted we have moved, we have a versatile player in Eze who will fill a number of positions, but that joy is tinged with a little bit of sadness for the German.

There will also need to be a re-jig on how we line up now I think too. Eze for Havertz is not like-for-like. Eze can play left eight, left wing, I think he’s done right wing once or twice and he plays in the pocket as a 10. That’s a lot of spaces that Kai might have taken up, but if we’re looking for a rotation option for Gyokeres now, it feels like we’ll have to find an alternative solution. Martinelli? Trossard? Merino? None of which are optimal, but perhaps in some games we will need more from those wide players.

Whatever Arteta has planned for Eze, one thing is for sure now, which is that we are well stocked in those attacking positions. And we’ve brought in players who like a shot, like a dribble and can play more direct. That should make us much more unpredictable this season and given some of the stodgy stuff we saw last season, that is welcome news to all Arsenal fans.

Finally, before I sign off today, perhaps the juiciest of cherries on the cake, is all of the #content out there from Spurs fans. They came in their droves. They posted on TikTok, they gloated on X, they lorded on Threads and they chuckled on BlueSky. Facebook was awash with mems and the joke was, supposedly, on The Arsenal.

No no no my friends. Whatever happens in life, the joke is always on you.

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.

The ‘real talk’ bit is that as much as many of us would like to, there’ll be no rowing back if he goes to that lot, in terms of the quality of the player. Many of us have twerked for him all summer in addition to some of the big moves we’ve done, yet him ending up at the wrong end of North London is going to end up stinging quite a bit, I reckon. Sure, they’ll claim the whole ‘we beat you to his signature’, they’ll drop a couple of “biggest club in London” nonsense when we all know the reality there. But if this moves in the way it appears to be advancing, then we’ll be feeling the sting a bit when everything becomes official.

Of course, things could change, but we’ve known all along that Arsenal needed to make sales before anything else gets done. That we simply haven’t been able to shift players on probably has the biggest impact on what is happening right now, as I’ve spoken about before and even as much as yesterday where I talked about how we need to offload before we can reload. The Scum clearly know this because if the player wanted Arsenal, he’s most likely telling them to back down, but I think these moves show that the player wants Champions League football too. He’ll settle for them and he’ll easily be able to displace Maddison if he joined them, so if I’m taking my red-tinted spectacles off for a second, I can see why he’d be open to this move coming about if Arsenal can’t do the deal. If you’re player like Eze you can’t hang around all summer in the hope that Arsenal offload a bunch of players now so that you can join them. What happens if they don’t make enough money? What happens if they aren’t able to offload those players and then Palace reject the offer that is made? Eze still has two years left to run on his deal and if he decided to ‘do a Gyokeres’ and reject any other advance of any other club in the hope of Arsenal coming, he could end up missing a big chance for a big move this summer when he is ready to go.

I suspect he see’s the cautionary tale of Wilfred Zaha to Arsenal as a prime Exhibit A in that regard. We had Zaha at the training ground, Emery wanted him, Arsenal bid something in the region of £40million but Palace were asking for silly money at the time at around £100million, it put Arsenal off and we went for Pepe. Three years later and Zaha is leaving on a free transfer to Galatasaray, followed by a loan to Lyon and then a loan to Charlotte in the States. Eze will be very aware of this and that’s why I think if you’re in his shoes you need to have multiple options open and you need to be able to have a good relationship with Parish and hope he grants your wish if you get a bid in from a club playing in the Champions League. Perfect if it’s Arsenal, but Tottenham would also fulfil those wishes.

So I get it, but it’ll sting, because we want that final piece and with the likes of Reiss Nelson supposedly not wanting to leave permanently to Fulham, or the Zinchenko and Fabio Vieira moves seemingly not really progressing, this is a perfect ‘market opportunity for the Scum to take advantage of the fact we went in early for other targets.

One discussion that I do think will need to be had when the window closes and we see where the chips have fallen, however, is the timing of the deals. I have a WhatsApp group of lads I go to the football with and there was a few really interesting things that I think are worth pointing out. Firstly, we all know Chelsea needed to sell, right? So with that in mind, I’m a little confused as to why we decided to go for Madueke so early and basically pay almost what Chelsea were asking for. If we wanted Madueke and Eze, why not go for the player probably a little more in demand (Eze) than the one in which we probably could be chatting to Chelsea about right now? That’s the bit that doesn’t sound too clever to me. If we’d have gone for Eze first and then gone for Madueke, I think we’d have not only have had the fans a little more excited about the move (not that it matters too much on that from the clubs’ perspective), but I think we might have been able to even drive down the price from Chelsea a little bit.

It all feels a little strange.

Now, if you tell me the sales will facilitate an actual wide forward coming in, with the likes of Rodrygo back on the table if we sell one or two players, then I guess you could understand how the market is playing out. We’d all want an Eze, it will give us great rotation and different options for Odegaard, but if we’re getting in a top left winger to compete with, say, a Martinelli, then I’m starting to get excited. That’s because the balance of the team suddenly feels good. The challenge we’ve got, which Luke in our WhatsApp group pointed out, is that if you can get the Madueke deal done then do it early so you don’t hang around and miss out on both Eze and Madueke. Or a Rodrygo in this instance, because if Man City sell Savinho and get Rodrygo, then we’ll have been left with fewer options out there for that wide forward and maybe Chelsea go even further on their asking price.

It’s all “ifs” and “buts” at this stage. We’re not on the inside to understand the machinations of the Arsenal transfer team. But because of that, we have to just sit on and watch a player many of us coveted for a lot of the summer, go to our local ‘rivals’. That just leaves a bit of a sour taste in the mouth.

Know what I mean?

It’s why you can see leagues like the Spanish league desperately to find ways to make more money to keep up, with the Spanish league approving a motion to play Villareal’s home game against Barca in Miami in December. I just pray that our footballing values hold true in this country, because the thought of Arsenal playing one of their matches in the States, or in Asia, fills me with dread. Don’t get me wrong, I get it, the fans from those countries would have an official match with jeopardy on the line, but for me it creates a dangerous precedent that would open Pandora’s box for the global game. I can almost see it now…

Why stop at one game? Why don’t we sell the rights to six Arsenal home matches to the highest bidding country?

We’ve seen already what money does to taint the purity of our game. Just look at that abomination of a Club World Cup. The only way that competition was given any kind of priority was not because of the prestige of it, but because of the sheer volume cash that morally questionable entity FIFA put on the table with their Middle Eastern bedfellows. And the clubs chased that coin. This news of a possible La Liga game in the US is the precedent that nobody should want. What comes after that? Renaming of clubs? Why don’t we have Washington West Ham Clarets? Or Singapore Everton Blues? “Who have you got this weekend? We’re up against Manchester Hong Kongers”.

Not for me. No thanks. There’s already enough about this sport we love that has been eroded over time, but let’s not have yet another thing to slowly remove any kind of tradition that we can still hold on to with hundreds of years behind it.

Back in the Arsenal world and the now, there are noises that the Scum are also interested in Eze too. That doesn’t surprise me with the Maddison injury news and I’m pretty sure that they were also linked with him right at the beginning of the window. Given that we’re the second biggest spenders so far this summer, it stands to reason that we need to sell before we buy, with Arteta also talking about possible exits over the last week or so. I think for most of us we’ve though that would be multiple squad/out-of-favour players exiting the club like Sambi, Zinchenko, Fabio Vieira, Nelson, Karl Hein (funny how you always have to say his full name and not just his surname – or is that just me?), maybe Kiwior if a big offer comes in, with Trossard also touted as an exit. But I just have a feeling that Arsenal are holding off of any further interest in this and won’t also be pushed into bidding if the Scum suddenly come calling. That release clause he had as not been triggered, so Palace can now afford to negotiate and if the player has any sway it sounds as though he’d favour a move to us. But you have to actually place a bid in order for this to get going and so the only way I think the dominoes start falling is if Arsenal start movements too. So really what we have to see is Berta earning his coing by starting to shift some players.

It’s funny how none of us – well, certainly not people I talk to online or offline – talk about some of the above players as ‘deadwood’ any more. It’s probably because, actually, they aren’t. Each of the above players mentioned would, I think, be able to carve very good careers at other clubs. But we have raised our levels so that the concept of ‘deadwood’ just doesn’t apply any more. Zinchenko is a very good footballer; it’s why Mourinho apparently wants him at six. Sambi has shown flashes of brilliance, just not enough in an Arsenal shirt, whilst Fabio Vieira feels like a good player in the wrong league because of the lack of his physicality. I ‘like’ all of these players, they just aren’t what Arsenal need, so moving them on this summer needs to be priority now.

Back on the Eze thing, I think if the player doesn’t get the vibes that Arsenal are in for him, he probably accepts a move to the Scum. Take the tribalism away from it, they are a team who are in the Champions League this season (through the back door) and with Maddison out of the picture he could basically have a free run at the position he is most comfortable in. Arsenal might be a place he might prefer to go to given his ties at youth level, but his pathway to more regular game time would be more limited under us. It would be a bit of a kicker too given we’ve been linked all summer, but you can’t just magic up the cash from nowhere. Our net spend is apparently around £187million (again, according to TransferMarkt) whereas the Scum have theirs at £95million – so I suspect they have the ability to go big for a couple of £50million moves. We just have to hope that Arsenal do their bit first before they make their move. One things for certain, however, if it’s a straight fight between the two clubs, it’s no doubt which team is currently in the most attractive position to be competing towards the top of the league. That doesn’t mean we’ll get him, but if all things are equal and there are two bids on the table, then I suspect Eze to Arsenal happens.

But that feels a bit of a way away at the moment. More dominoes need to fall for us so we just have to play the patience game on this I think.

Back tomorrow with some more thoughts as we prep for the visit to United.

I like these kind of signings, because it has rivals going “who’s he? Arsenal have bought poorly again” and because they don’t know the player or haven’t become invested in him like us since the deals of a potential move surfaced, they sleep on him a bit. But when you start reading into him, his profile and also the bloody size of him – he’s six foot three at 20 years old! – you see that he feels like a very impressive acquisition. Although I  have to lay my cards on the table here; I don’t really know much about him and don’t really watch much Spanish football other than the odd game if it’s on in the background as I’m cooking. So I read up on this article from Phil Costa on Arseblog and I have to say, that ticks all the boxes for me. Comparisons to Rudiger, a player who has the kind of minutes under your belt that you’d expect from a 23-year-old, can play either side of the defence, good ball retention and I love it when I get the ‘Gandalf’ feeling from reading about a player. You know what I’m talking about – that “YOU SHALL NOT PASS” kind of vibe. Super stuff.

We of course need to let him get settled in, he needs time to adapt to the English game and its physicality, but he looks like he’s got all of the tools to be a very good signing for us and it’s the first one that I think most of us know is a true ‘Berta’ signing. Even in the video itself Mosquera references ‘the sporting director’ along with Mikel as the reasons he wanted so desperately to sign. And it’s another one that ‘desperately’ wanted to sign, which has become a feature of the signings this summer. Players moving heaven and earth to get to your club is a sure sign that when they put on that shirt, they are walking an inch or two taller, are going to try that little bit more, which is all we ever ask of as fans. But yes, this one is for sure a Berta one. There’s lots of talk about the great summer he’s had, but I do think that does a little bit of injustice to the groundwork that was already done. I think Zubimendi, for example, was already sorted. And I’m not sure (but happy to be told otherwise) whether he had too much impact on the Big Gabi signing, because that seemed to happen pretty quickly after he’d walked through the door, if my memory serves me right. The rumours of Gyokeres or Sesko have persisted for most of this season gone by and although Berta clearly had his preference and maybe that’s what has led us to the Swede, I wouldn’t think he’s ‘instrumental’ on the deal, but maybe just did his bit to push it over the line.

I dunno, perhaps I’m doing Andrea a disservice, but for this one I think it feels to me 100% like this is ‘his guy’. Apparently according to Phil’s article there were rumours that Berta wanted him at Atleti, so that shows you how much of an influence he’s clearly had here. It’s proper pissed Valencia off too by the looks of it. That statement is as cold as you’re gonna get from his selling club. Eek.

But he’ll move on, they’ll move on, hopefully it works well for him and we have a guy who will compete for a starting spot within a few seasons.

The other article I wanted to give you a heads up on was an Athletic article written by Gunnerblog that was released yesterday (behind a paywall here). What I loved about it was the way in which Rice spoke about Madueke, saying how driven he is to prove everyone wrong and be a success. Again, a response from one of our pseudo captains along the lines of “wait and see guys, you’re going to be excited” is the sort of thing you want to read as a fan. We’ve all had our say on the transfer, but now it’s time to see what he can actually do with a red and white shirt on and I hope Rice is right about him surprising people.

I also hope he’s right about his own ambitions. We all wondered about Rice last season at the start and he himself said that the Euro’s and basically having two week’s to ‘get over it’ before being pushed back out on the Premier League stage meant that he didn’t quite feel with it. We all saw that play out. But we saw the real Rice towards the final third of the season and if we think about how he’s had plenty of rest, a full pre season under his belt and now is ready and raring to go, it’s exciting. To me it feels exciting that we could get the Declan Rice that finished the season, starting this season, so when you couple that with the hope that Odegaard is over his struggles, Kai has beefed up, Ethan and Myles are a year older (and Ethan looks like he’s been taking his vitamins!), we’ve got an upgrade at six in Zubimendi and a lot of depth options have been solved – something else Rice mentioned.

It makes me really hope we get to make some rival fans chow down on some humble pie next season. I’ve seen plenty saying we’ve bought bang average players, we will finish between fourth to sixth, that there’s no chance we’re competing and I’m absolutely fine with that. I just hope we can kick on early on and show them that we mean business this season, because I think we really do, and I hope Rice is right with what he was saying.

Catch you tomorrow – maybe – I’m doing a cheeky weekend in Cologne to see family so may or may not get time for writing stuff.

Of course this supposed deadline is just a pin in pre season; deals won’t all get to be done before that date and Arsenal aren’t going to just slap extra money down just so that a shiny new signing can be unveiled whilst out in Asia. Now wouldn’t that be a crazy reveal, eh? Imagine if Eze is smuggled in to the cargo-hold, then whilst up 20,000 feet in the air, they pull him into his seat and he just bowls down the aircraft steps with fans screaming all around him. I’ll have me some of that, thank you very much.

I do think most of us are expecting movement now though. Over the weekend we got our Ornbomb’s about Gyokeres and the agreement in place, so I suspect the player will be doing a medical within the next day or two, which gives the club enough time to get the pictures snapped and then have him on the plane as the players make their way. The Madueke signing will come first though; we’ve all already heard that he’s completed his medical, which means pictures are probably taken today, then maybe an announcement tomorrow. We still need to work out where the heck we’re going to play him and who he is going to displace, but it’ll be ratified by the usual social media and then we can start to understand how Arteta might deploy him. For a little bit of bonus “what are we getting?” I’d recommend checking out James’ chat with a Chelsea podcaster on the Same Old Arsenal pod here.

I wouldn’t say that the pod has completely turned me 180 on Madueke, but there’s enough in there for an ageing Arsenal fan like me can start to get his head around in terms of what he might bring that is different to the current squad. I’d still probably take the Chelsea fan up on the fee though; I think football fans always over-inflate the value of the players they have and the guy on there said that £48.5million for Madueke was fair market value. When you hear that, I always think we’ve probably over paid for him – a bit like we did for Havertz to be honest. And that still doesn’t leave the best taste in the mouth, because we’ve once again bailed out a reprehensible club in Chelsea. But it’s done now. eventually I’ll move on.

And so will Reiss Nelson too, by the sounds of it, because there appears to be two or three clubs interested in his signature. And for a pretty decent fee too. You’ll note my comment about fans over-inflating their players’ values, but in this instance I thought we’d be lucky to get £10million for Reiss. He’s on a decent wage (I think the rumours were circa £100k), he’s had a load of injuries throughout his career, plus he’s not really in the Arsenal first team picture. But I guess when you get a player who is English, still young (he’s 25 and will be 26 in December), plus he was well liked at Fulham where he was on loan before his injury, there will be clubs interested in that and hoping that he can get over his injury challenges. Apparently Palace are having a sniff and I’m sure I also saw that Brentford were interested and as we all know, when there’s more than one club interested, you can always get a little more cash for what you are expecting. I doubt we’ll get too much of a bidding war, but if the negotiations are indeed with Palace, you could see where Arsenal might naturally take the conversation next.

Eze is apparently next on the list after the completion of negotiations for Gyokeres and whilst there’s no chance that deal gets done before the players depart for the pre season tour, I suspect if the do want Nelson in through the doors at Selhurst Park, these conversations will help to smooth the way. And if it’s £15million fee, that’s another good bit of cash generated by Hale End once more, added to the Smith Rowe and Nketiah money we got last summer. We can talk a little more about Nelson if those rumours become a little more concrete, but it does feel like now is the right time for a player like him to be find a permanent home where he can play more football.

And for Arsenal it will help to pay off for some of the outlay we’ve had this summer. I saw talk that there might need to be a significant outbound departure over the next 12 months to balance the books, but if Arsenal make a number of sales that are for around the £15 – £20million mark, then surely that would help to covera  lot of the costs from this summer? Nelson, Vieira, Zinchenko, Kiwior – all of those players could potentially fetch that £15million fee (more for Kiwior I’d hope) and if that happens we should be looking at a minimum of £60million there. And i haven’t even talked about the likes of Sambi Lokonga or if Tavares moves to Saudi. So let’s see how those exits go.

There’s also expected to be the movement of Christian Mosquera from Valencia, which sounds like a superb deal for Arsenal and maybe that too can get done this week, but I think i’d rather save my thoughts for another day on that one. Let’s see if he’s in through the door by Friday too.

Right – that’s it from me today. Maybe we have a shiny new signing to talk about come this time tomorrow.

Yesterday we got the official confirmation of Martin Zubimendi’s arrival from Real Sociedad, with the first pictures of him in next season’s kit, then later in the day there was talk of the striker situation finally nearing a conclusion. Thankfully.

Let’s start with the Zubimendi transfer. Yes, we all knew it was happening, yes, it didn’t come as a surprise to many, but until it’s on the dot com you still have that last 0.1% of doubt. So to see it all confirmed and ratified and to have him talking through his ambitions was still lovely to see. He came across as quite humble, down to earth and I suspect his character is as much of a draw for Arteta and Arsenal, as his ability on the pitch. And on the pitch we have a guy who is a Spanish international, who looks at home anchoring the midfield and who we hope will be an ever-present in an Arsenal side that needs to start picking up trophies. Zubimendi even referenced that need in his interview. He is a ‘win now’ player and at 26-year’s-old we’re getting somebody who – providing he acclimatises to the Premier League well enough – goes straight in to the starting XI.

That acclimatisation period is going to be aided by the fact he’s got some old teammates who are teammates once again in Merino and to a lesser extent Martin Odegaard, as well as the fact there are a few Spaniard’s and Arteta himself who will all be able to help him settle in. But by this deal being done earlyish in the window he’ll have time to do a bit of training at London Colney, before jetting off on tour to Singapore and then Hong Kong at the end of the month. He’ll also be given a taste of home over the next 10 days or so, because according to the Met Office it’s going to be a bit of a scorcher in London for just over a week after today! Martin, trust me, it isn’t always like this mate, so don’t get used to it!

This is a superb move any way you look at it. We have a duel winner, a guy who is a progressive passer, somebody who should be able to provide us with an even more stable base and not only that, but somebody coveted all over the top European leagues. But what also shows you how much work goes into these kinds of deals, is when you read articles like this on the BBC about how it unfolded, going all the way back to the summer. I  hadn’t realised that we had spent time talking to them as they were nearly about to seal the Liverpool deal. He’s a player that I think we’d been tentatively linked with before Liverpool, but nothing concrete and I remember last summer when that felt like it was about to happen, being a little apprehensive. “This guy is a winner and he’ll be really good for Liverpool” I thought. But I hadn’t realised that Zubimendi clearly looked at wanting to stay in La Real, as well as looking at the fact he might have something on the table from Arsenal for the following summer, had an impact on his decision making. These are the kinds of stories you love to hear – to think that last summer I was worried about losing a great player to a rival, when all the time he had his eyes on us, is pretty wild really.

Welcome to The Arsenal, Zubi!

And it appears he might soon be joined by a striker signing too, after Ornstein dropped his bomba yesterday about Arsenal being in advanced talks over Viktor Gyokeres, with the clubs nearing an agreement on the fee it appears.

I’ve been pretty clear in stating my case about Sesko as my preferred option, I just feel like it would be a better move for us overall, but with RB Leipzig supposedly wanting close to €100million for the player, Arsenal clearly had to act. I think Sesko was Arteta’s first choice and I think if Leipzig would have played ball a bit then a deal could be done, but I also think that Arteta wants his business done now so he can get everyone in and acclimatised to the style of play and how we set up before the pre season tour kicks off. If a deal can be done for a reported €65-€70million plus add-ons, as opposed to €100million, then you gotta do it. Arsenal can get it wrapped up this week, he can be training with his new teammates for a week, before heading off on tour and starting to get a feel of the ball at his feet as an Arsenal player.

It’s good to see the club making a decision. We’ve had a few transfer window’s now where it has felt like we’ve had a plan A and if that didn’t come off, there was no striker plan B. I think Gyokeres might be plan B, but if you’re going to have a guy who has bagged as many goals as he has, who is a style and an approach different to Havertz that means we can approach games differently between different types of matches and game states, then that’s a-ok with me.

I have a feeling that it might be a fair few days before this saga really reaches a conclusion, so I don’t think I want to have a deeper look at Gyokeres and give too many thoughts until it is done, but I think for most of us we’ll just be glad that this saga is reaching a conclusion. Go get the Swede, get him in, then let’s see if we have ourselves a goal machine like he was for Sporting. Even the talks about waving parts of his salary to get this deal done feel like there’s a player there who has a massive desire to join Arsenal, which will please Arteta too.

That’s about all I got got you today. I suspect we might even have the Norgaard announcement at some stage in the next day or so, which will be another positive bit of squad bolstering but for now, I’ll leave you be and hope you have a great Monday.

I picked a bad day to do it.

That’s because all the talk yesterday was on Arsenal reaching personal terms with Noni Madueke from Chelsea. My initial reaction?

“Really? Another Chelsea cast off?”

I just don’t see why we are looking at this as a deal. There are so many reason’s not to do it and the fact that things are advancing leaves me very ‘meh’ about the situation. Firstly, let’s talk about the fee. They bought him from PSV in 2023 for £28.5million. During that time he has played for them 91 times and had 29 goals and assists. That’s 3.1 games per goal. Gabriel Martinelli is a year older, has suffered a fair few more injury problems, but has 80 goals and assists in 225 games for The Arsenal. Do we’re buying a guy who is less prolific than the guy who we think isn’t prolific enough?

I can hear what you’re saying, which is “Ahh, but we’re buying him as a Saka back up, not on that left wing”, to which my response is:

What about Ethan Nwaneri?

We’ve already heard in the last week that negotiations are not going completely well, that it’s at a ‘delicate’ stage and that he wants a little more assurance on game time. To that I ask what game time can we offer one of the most exciting talents out of Hale End since Saka himself?

1. He’s not going to get time wide right as a Saka understudy if Madueke comes in
2. He’s not going to be given time wide left if we are looking to bring in somebody like Rodrygo
3. He’s not going to be given time left eight if Eze comes in.

So are we basically saying that Nwaneri plays if Odegaard doesn’t play? He’s the captain at the club, so I don’t see him being dropped much. I guess you could argue just as much as Saka, but if Ethan is covering two positions – Saka and Odegaard, then he’s absolutely more highly likely to be racking up minutes. Madueke blocks a path for a player who, actually, I already think is probably better than Madueke anyway. Last season Madueke got 11 goals and five assists in 45 games. Ethan bagged nine goals and two assists in 37. At 17/18 years old (turned 18 in March). Why on earth are we looking at Madueke with Ethan right in front of our eyes?

Then, worse still, Fabrizio Romano said Chelsea were looking at the situation. That would be the ultimate kicker, because they’d be offloading an erratic, inconcsistent right winger, getting in a guy who I think within 18 months would be a regular starter in their team. Forget Omari Hutchinson-style stuff, Ethan goes on to be a regular at that horrible football club and we would have to sit here and watch it all unfold.

Now, of course, I could just be getting a little too irrational for a Sunday morning. This could all be agent posturing to get the best deal for his client and if Arsenal sign Ethan up with a big fat contract soon, then I’m not fussed. But with all the rumblings talking about how this Madueke stuff is advancing, it’s just giving me the jitters.

There’s also the fact that we’re rummaging around in Chelsea’s bins again. That is more of an inconvenience than anything else, but I don’t like the fact that by getting anywhere near their farcical £50million valuation, we’d be giving them an option to flip a profit on a layer. That club buys attacker after attacker and yet they never seem to pay the price; if this deal is going through I really hope it’s one that we don’t pay over the odds for. And for me, over the odds is anything over about £35million. He looks like a £30million player to me, TransferMarkt has him as €40million (£34,5million) player and so unless Arsenal are getting close to that figure, I don’t think we should even be sniffing at him.

I’ve spoken to a Chelsea season ticket holder at work. He says he loves looking at himself on the big screen, you can tell within five minutes if he can be arsed to play and he thinks it’s normally 50/50 based on whether he’s up for it or not. There’s also rumours of attitude problems – as evidenced here when he was accused by Maresca of a lack of effort in training – and for me I am wondering why Arteta is thinking that he needs this guy when he really doesn’t sound like the sort of character that Arteta would want in his dressing room.

So we’ve got a guy over-priced, a guy with rumoured attitude problems, a potential blocker for Nwaneri’s path, plus somebody who would be a back up option for £45million+. Can anybody explain to me in what world this makes sense?

Why not just take that money and plough it in to a Rodrygo or Eze deal, because I don’t think if we sign Madueke, we’ll be getting both of those players. Maybe we go for Eze because he’s slightly different in terms of his position and potential role in the squad, but Rodrygo?

No. Thank. You.

Of course if this progresses, if he signs, he will get my support as all Arsenal players do. But if it happens, I don’t see a world in which this is a complete success of a transfer, for all of the reaason’s I’ve listed above. Incidentally, TransferMarkt has Nwaneri down as  €55million market value, the same as Martinelli as well. It’s always a little up and down, is TransferMarkt, but it’s a good gauge of overall player value. And I’m not seeing the value in this deal at all. Not when we have perfectly capable players who can play in wide positions already at the club.

Right, I’ll leave it there for today, as I’m going to do a spot of bowling I think. Take my mind off dodgy transfers for a bit.

Catch you all tomorrow.

*********************

From an Arsenal perspective the expectation was that the club would announce Zubimendi yesterday, but after that news, I think it was the right thing to do to postpone anything relating to transfers on a day in which the footballing world was mourning. Whether they go ahead today and announce the signing remains to be seen – but how long is it appropriate to show a mark of respect before news starts filtering back out? I have no idea. Even today might still feel too soon, so we might not get any further confirmation until the weekend is truly upon us.

David Ornstein did have a late night scoop for us thought; it appears Carlos Cuesta is being replaced by the more experienced Gabriel Heinze. Clearly Arteta feels that you can never have enough Gabriel’s in your team, so he’s bringing one more in, just for safe keeping. It feels like a good move to me because Heinze has already been a manager at a number of clubs. He’s been mainly at Argentinian clubs like Velez Sarsfield and Newell’s Old Boys, but he also had a stint in the MLS with Atlanta United and with over 200 games in management under his belt, Arteta is bringing in a coach who can provide him the benefit of his wisdom and experience, which must be of value.

The pair know each other from Arteta’s PSG days and so they have a connection, whilst Heinze will be able to speak English, having spent three year’s at Man United before moving on to Real Madrid, Marseille and Roma. This is a season’s professional who knows all the leagues of Europe and I suspect this is something that Arteta has wanted for some time. I don’t think he’s happy Carlos Cuesta has gone, I’m sure he didn’t want it to happen, but with a spot opening up, this feels like an obvious move.

Heinze has the gravitas and CV of a winner on the pitch too. He won the league in 2007 with United, he won the league with Real Madrid and played 72 times for Argentina. The Arsenal players will be well aware of his credentials and whilst there might be an acclimatisation period for him joining the team and getting settled in this summer, the fact that he comes with that background gives him a bit of a leg up. Can he replicate the relationship with the player’s that Cuesta had? That’s difficult to say. He was a guy who was basically the same age as a lot of the footballers on the pitch, so perhaps they could relate to him more than a 47-year-old, but perhaps the dynamics need to change and we do need a little more experience with a coach like Heinze.

That’s obviously not where our focus lies, which is still on the pitch and I had a good chat with Johnny and Pete on the Arsenal Opinion Podcast last night about incomings, which centred around the Eze chat and, as I said to the gents last night I’m really warming up to this one. That’s because I think this allows Arteta to take his tactical fluidity to the next level. I called it “Arteta 2.0” because in my mind, if we go for (and get) a guy who operates in that left eight attacking space like Eze, it unlocks a number of different approaches Arteta could try. Looking to break down a low block at home? Play both Odegaard and Eze in the same game. Want to mix it up against a team like Newcastle who overload their right hand side and double up on Saka? Switch from ‘right pod’ bias to a ‘left pod’ bias by having Eze and Martinelli on that side. That could also potentially leave the likes of Saka with more space if teams them naturally shift over to dealing with us on the left hand side. Thinking about rotating Odegaard because of signs of fatigue? Ebreche – you’re in mate. want to even try and mix things up and get a number ten on the pitch? He can do that.

In Eze you have a dribbler who will take plenty of shots – he has some of the highest shot-taking percentages in the league – and with 16 goals and assists in 34 Premier League games last season, you do have a guy who has end product. I do have questions over a few niggly injuries he picks up, plus there is the fact that he himself admitted pre-FA Cup that he’s a guy who needs games to get rhythm, which I’m not sure he’ll get at The Arsenal. But there’s a lot to like about this deal, if the price is right of course. You can’t pay £68million for a guy who is 27 and will not be guaranteed game time every week. if you can do the deal for £50million I think we have a superb footballer to add in to the squad.

A final piece of news that came in late last night from that HandofArsenal chap yesterday, which was that Arsenal were in talks with Tomiyasu to mutually part ways with him pending an agreement. I don’t know if that means a free transfer or not – I suspect so – but there are Saudi Arabian clubs who are supposed to be interested and I think sadly, that’s best for all parties. He has always come across as a lovely guy, whenever he’s played he’s been brilliant, but that body of his has just let him down time and time again and it’s clear that the rigours of the Premier League are just not right for him. It’s a real shame if/when it happens, because I remember that first season for us and he was bloody brilliant at right back. But his lack of availability has meant Arsenal have now stocked both of the positions he can play and, as a result, his game time would probably end up being negligible next season anyway.

Right, I’m done this week. As I said at the top of today’s blog – hug your loved ones. Life is fleeting and we should appreciate the gift we have all been given whilst we have it.

But today is another day and I suspect we will finally get that announcement. The chain of events will probably be an Arsenal and Sociedad jointly timed announcement, perhaps from the La Real side with the player saying some kind of goodbye message posted on some socials at some stage thereafter I suspect. I doubt it will be as amazing and heartfelt as the one that Jurrien Timber posted on the Ajax site when he left, but I’m sure it will be one that expresses gratitude and love for his boyhood club.

For us, we’re getting ourselves somebody who is an interceptor, a ball winner and who was in the 92nd percentage quartile of La Liga players last season for clearances. At five foot 11 he’s not the tallest guy in the world, but I was surprised to learn that he’s in the 85th percentage of players in the league who won aerial duels. He’s a man who loves a challenge, loves to be at the heart of the build up of moves and will look to play progressive passing football through lines from deep. I’m not sure whether I’ve seen enough of him to know if he’s a quarter back though; so I don’t know if we’re going to get somebody playing long diags to the likes of Martinelli or Saka from deep to spring quick traps on opponents, but we will get somebody who will look forward at every opportunity. This is no Denilson-style crab master; Zubimendi is somebody always looking forward and always looking to get the ball into that space in between the midfield and defence of opponents.

I think Martin Odegaard is going to love him.

Last season we saw Odegaard picking the ball up a little deeper at times and I think that takes him away from where he does the most damage. Odegaard in between the midfield and defence of whoever we are playing is where I think he can do real damage. Think about the goal towards the end of the season against Bournemouth; Odegaard popped up in between their lines, he reverse-passed it to a diagonally-running Rice, who ironically took it beyond Kepa and then slot it home. Now imagine what it might mean if Odegaard is given specific instructions to occupy those positions more, because Zubimendi is going to be looking for him. That’s what I think (and hope) we’re going to get from our incoming Spanish international. There’s also the small matter of them having played together whilst Odegaard was on loan.

Don’t get me wrong, the clearances, interceptions, duels won, etc are all important. If we know anything about Arteta he gets upset when he loses a duel! So we know that the defensive side of his game will be important. But I think this move is Arteta’s way of trying to speed us up through the park this coming season. Partey was a master at receiving the ball, quickly turning from his man and then shuffling out into space so he could release it, but I felt at times he spent a little too long getting the ball moving. Towards the end of the season especially, we saw one or two too many touches and I think that contributed to the general feeling amongst the fanbase that we were too slow in build up. It was all too methodical and sometimes we needed to go from back to front more quickly. My hope is that this signing will allow us to do that more from deep and if it means we aren’t seeing Odegaard pick the ball up and travelling with it from halfway inside our box (because he’s already on the halfway line when the ball turns over) then I think all of us will be a little happier.

There’s a lot of talk about the striker this summer and I get it, I want that guy in too and soon. But I suspect the reason this work on Zubimendi got done so early, the reason that they were courting him for the last year and even more so from this winter just gone, was because I think Arteta views getting the right player in this position was his most important move for the way we want to play next season. It probably helps that Arteta knows that position so well too; he will know exactly what he needs in that role and by getting his man, his first choice, he has an exact idea as to how he’s going to deploy him.

I do think Arteta wanted to keep Partey, but I think (and I suspect most Arsenal fans do too) that the idea was for Arsenal not to become reliant on the Ghanaian and to have him serve an additional year as the Jorginho guy. Partey not wanting to do that (which I suspect is why he asked for more money just in dcase that was the situation i.e. at least he gets a big wage whilst sitting on the bench) has resulted in the Norgaard signing, which will of course probably be announced tomorrow I suspect.

Which will conclude a heck of a week of activity for The Arsenal. Feast or famine, eh?

Catch you all tomorrow

I think a lot of fans, despite seeing some of our rivals do some initial deals, have been somewhat serene on the signings situation. But for me today is the point where my nerves start to kick in. I get that today is when contracts expire, it’ll be when Arsenal announce Zubimendi (or tomorrow if they’re really teasing us), so in essence the business will start to kick in. But what we’ve had in June is plenty of “make strides towards” stuff from the ITKs, with not a lot of actual ACTION happening.

My hope is that Arsenal have everything lined up to go on a number of fronts and those dominoes will fall one after the other. So Zubimendi, then Kepa, then Norgaard, all coming in relatively swiftly. These are all the easy deals to do and I even saw one of the head people over at Brentford admitting that it’s a great opportunity to join Arsenal that Norgaard has, so that one feels like it’s pretty much sewn up. So these ‘low hanging fruit’ signings need to happen asap really. Not because we are all transfer-starved fiends who demand shiny new things to look at, but because we have genuine need for these signings to replace departed players.

With Neto returning to Bournemouth, Kepa’s arrival is the replacement.

With Jorginho having been released early to join Flamengo we have Norgaard as the replacement.

With Partey’s contract expiring today we have Zubimendi announced as his replacement.

We also have Sterling returning to Chelsea to sit in the barren wasteland that is their reserves, stocked full of expensive talent on big contracts that they aren’t using because they chase EVERY shiny new thing, so there is a replacement there that needs to be filled.

We all know about the need for a striker, needed because we had to do it last summer and in January, but also because Gabriel Jesus is probably cooked as a top flight footballer when he returns towards the end of the year.

So action is the name of the game, because as it stands, as I write this, technically speaking we are weaker with the current team than the one that ended the season. We all expect that to change, but every day that deals aren’t official, are days in which players can’t be getting more embedded with their new teammates. And as we’ve seen with the disruption of the World Cup and Euro’s years, not having a proper pre season under your belt can make a big difference to the start of the season and building up that momentum.

Of course the longer term deals – like this current striker hunt – might not be done too quickly, but I suspect Arteta will be pretty peeved if he hasn’t got the bulk of his team in for when they go on pre season tour towards the latter part of this month. That, again, is a great opportunity for embedding players and so having this situation where we still don’t know who might be leading the line next season (wink wink, we all know it’ll be Havertz to start off with, at least) will not be the kind of preparation Arteta will want. We all know that this is a man of intense and precise detail; having a striker rocking up on 1st August is not going to be something he will be happy about.

It’s a little different with the wide forward, with Eze the current name linked in the press over the last 48 hours or so, as we already have Martinelli and Trossard who occupy those positions. Both are well-versed in our style of play, I’d be happy with seeing either start the season, but Eze isn’t always a left winger as it is. So I’m not 100% sure how somebody like that fits in. Don’t get me wrong, I think it would be a good addition and certainly adds something, but are you spending £65million for somebody to be a rotation and ‘x-factor’ player who can come off the bench? Doesn’t feel like it to me. Let’s also not discount Nwaneri either. He played in Saka’s role on the right when he was injured, but this kid is good enough to play wide left, as well as centrally, so I do think we need to be mindful of that when thinking about players like Eze. Nwaneri will be even better than he was last season and if that means he goes north of ten goals next season, then we’ve got a perfectly good understudy who will get game time and give us more of the end product we’ve been craving.

Perhaps it’s just Arsenal and Berta exploring as many options and different ways of playing as possible. Either way, I don’t see it as an immediate priority, because first we replace the players who have exited, then we address most pressing concerns (striker), then we look for that wide forward.

That’s all from me today. Hopefully tomorrow we’re talking about at least one confirmation of an arrival at the club.

I wrote it on social media and that’s a commitment to print in this day and age, but on Friday last week I said that every time I go to Portugal over the summer, we sign somebody. I was here when we signed Rice, I was sat at my folks’ gaff when we announced Fabio Vieira, I was Algarve-stationed when the Tomiyasu deal happened. I could even go far back enough to tell you that we got Mertesacker when I was in Tavira that August all those years back. So I’ve been confident that we’ll get something over the line.

If I’m honest, however, I thought it would be Kepa. That deal is basically done and unlike Zubimendi’s deal being delayed at the request of Sociedad, Chelsea have no real issues about us announcing it. So I thought that would be the ‘low-hanging fruit’ transfer that would go through. So to see that it’ll be another player and one from completely left-field, I’m kind of glad that my powers remain in tact.

The player himself is a smart move for the club; they clearly wanted to tie Partey down for at least one more year, but the Ghanaian wants more money and a longer-term deal by the sounds of it. Arsenal are right to walk away. His injury record is such that you know that no sooner would the ink be dry on that contract, that he’d be treatment table bound, so finding somebody else to plug the whole in the squad is a sensible move.

And this move feels very Jorginho-like to me. experienced, good pro, has picked up a few knocks this season and last season but his overall injury record is much better than Partey’s has been over the last five years. He will know his place as the back up to Zubimendi and that won’t rock the boat. At 31-years-of-age he brings a wealth of experience and he is ‘prem ready’, but not only that, he’s the captain of Brentford at the moment. So on the pitch we have somebody who is a leader and will bring that experience to the table. We’ve just lost two 30-somethings from our squad and Norgaard brings that maturity and experience to what is still a relatively young squad overall. We may not have liked the deal, but Sterling was apparently fantastic for the younger players. Jorginho was too, so we have been missing some of that older head wisdom that this signing fills.

He’s also not going to break the bank on wages. The rumours are that he’s on roughly £40k-per-week. Arsenal will clearly give him a bump and so let’s just say we offer him a deal like Jorginho’s; that’s going to be two years long and let’s just call it something like £60k. That is £3.1million a year. So if Brentford get £11million they have a fair bit of cash for a 31-year-old that they can re-invest. The player gets a bump up in salary, the chance to get minutes in a team towards the top of the league who are also in the Champions League that he will inevitably play in. And Arsenal pay £17.2million over a two year deal, with probably the option to activate and additional ‘plus one’ on the contract length. If you think that Partey probably wanted a bump on his £200k-per-week to, say, £250k-per-week, then you can see why this is a better deal for all involved. £250k-per-week is £13million a year. If Arsenal caved and gave him a two year deal, you’re sinking in £26million into a player whose off-the-field stuff leaves an unpalatable taste in the metaphorical mouth, but who on the pitch is not going to suddenly become indestructible. It would have been a bad deal for everyone except Partey. The Norgaard deal represents the total opposite.

From a player perspective, this will obviously not be the same as a Partey or a Jorginho-type signing. Norgaard is your more traditional defensive midfielder; he’ll be the one to anchor the base of midfield and break up play. He won’t be seen as a progressive passer, but maybe that’s just because he wasn’t asked to do that under Frank? I for one didn’t think Jorginho would be as progressive a passer as he turned out to be and my Chelsea workmate told me he’s a bit of a crab-sideways passer. That’s not what we saw and maybe Norgaard – when given more licence to be forward-thinking in a side who dominates the ball for most of their games – maybe we might see him be more progressive?

We don’t know, but we do know that this deal is progressing rapidly and that appears to be the clubs first move into the market. Maybe that’s the one that starts the ball rolling on our business this summer. I think we all have to hope so.

Still, at least it gives me the opportunity to be hysterical about tomorrow, so there is that.

Of course there is the ‘leaks’ that you get access to and I’ve seen some of those. By the time you read this you’ll already know, but it sounds like another tough start for us. I’ll elaborate with thoughts tomorrow, but United away on the opening day won’t be easy – they won’t be bogged down by the poor season last season, we have a terrible record there historically (one win in the league going back about 15 years I think – will double check for tomorrow), so it’s not one to be taking for granted. Liverpool away a couple of games later and as Charlie who I follow on Twitter said – if you think these fixtures are random then you’re a silly Billy (or word to that effect).

So in lieu of me being able to talk about fixtures, shall we delve back into the murky waters of transfer tittle-tattle?

Thomas Partey

The noises are that he has rejected a contract offer from The Arsenal because he wants a pay rise. Interesting. I saw a couple of week’s back an offer from Barca might be incoming, but they aren’t in the habit of increasing wage offers to players; they love nothing more than getting players to drop their wages to play for them, so I can’t see that happening. My only thought on this one is that he must be getting some sizeable numbers passed his way from Saudi Arabia. He has said previously he’s happy at The Arsenal, Arteta has said he wants to keep him, but I guess at 31 if somebody comes in and offers you a two-year deal that doubles your money, you take it.

Partey is a contentious player for a number of reasons. I am not going to go into the rumoured off the field stuff, which needs to be a consideration in itself for whether to renew his contract, but on the field too he has never really delivered consistently. That’s because his body constantly let him down and having spent five years at The Arsenal now, the fact that just two of those five have felt like he has been fit an able to contribute, should be cause enough for concern. We can’t have him signed up for another year in the hope he would stay fit, because invariably he’d end up injured for most of it. The club are clearly moving on from him anyway with the expected and impending deal for Zubimendi, but this decision of Partey’s – if it turns out to be true – does mean that we will have to think twice about our options. Sure, Rice can play in the six as well as Zubimendi, but we saw last season that he’s best in that left eight role and whilst Merino can play the left eight, as well as Kai at a push, I think we will still need another body in there for cover. Maybe that’s MLS, but he’s got left back locked down right now, so do we really want to be making our squad smaller by not finding a replacement if Partey leaves at the end of his contract in just over a week’s time? 

I don’t like the sound of the Jorginho may not have been used much last season, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need a body. Is there an experienced centre midfielder who would be happy to play the rotation option, who has Premier League experience, that we could have a look at? I see Doucourre has left Everton, although he’s not as much of a ‘anchor the defence’ player – I also think I heard he might be off to Saudi for big cash too. So maybe a bit more work will be needed to be done by the Arsenal transfer team than they first thought.

Benjamin Sesko

I saw an interesting article on Sky Sports yesterday, talking about how Sesko won’t force a move from Leipzig and that Leipzig want between €80 – €100million for his signature. If it’s getting close to the €100million mark, you can see why Arsenal haven’t pulled the trigger, despite him seemingly being their first choice. If there was a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ in place to let him leave, it does make me wonder why these agents and players do these things. Apparent Gyokeres is pretty pissed off with the Sporting Lisbon president for the same reason. I mean, come on now guys, have you learned nothing from all of football transfer history? Forget the ‘gentleman’s agreement’ and focus on release clauses. And make sure they aren’t astronomical like in Spain. 

If Sesko is desperate for the move, however, then I think he’ll be putting pressure on Leipzig to get it done. And done at a fair market price. According to TranfsferMarkt that value is €70million, which is around £60million. I think if Arsenal go to them with a solid £65million (€76million) then that is more than acceptable. If Leipzig are messing around, then you can understand why Arsenal are still in dialogue with not just Gyokeres, but also Watkins too. And if both clubs keep messing around, it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that the Watkins deal is back on the table this time next week.

But what this does at least give us an insight in to, is that Arsenal aren’t just ‘dallying’. They might be getting messed around by these clubs who keep changing their stance. We just don’t know. All we know is that it’s mid-June and there appears to be little movement and that causes – rightly, because I feel it too – angst amongst the Arsenal fanbase. But perversely, I did find that Sky Sports article giving a crumb of comfort, when I read it. We’ve praised Arsenal for being able to quickly pivot in the past (Mudryk/Trossard, Caicedo/Jorginho) and how they stick to their guns. If they’re doing it now, we can’t criticise too much I don’t think. 

Having said that, come back to me on 1st July and let’s see how I’m feeling.

Right, better get this out the door before the fixtures do come out and make me look like a wally for believing somebody on the internet.

Catch you all tomorrow.

We’ve received some money for Tavares already – around £6million if the rumours are true – which doesn’t quite recoup what we paid, but if he does go to Saudi Arabia for £30million then it’ll have turned into a profitable exercise, because we get around a third of it at circa £10million. So that sets us off for this summer. Marquinhos was a couple of million quid with a sell-on clause. If Zinchenko does have an official bid launched for him for AC Milan, I think that deal gets done pretty easily, to be honest with you. He’s fallen down the pecking order at Arsenal, he barely got any game time and we have tanked his value by Arteta not using him. The arrival of MLS was a welcome one for us, for sure, but Arteta’s refusal to give him minutes in midfield until right at the end of last season means that clubs can now come to us and say that a player who has barely played isn’t worth top dollar.

If the noises are circa £12million (I’ve seen €15million quoted as our price) then I think everyone just has to get on with it. Zinchenko would thrive in a slower league like Milan, we get a bit of a bump to our coffers, MIlan get a player who can still add tons of value to their side. If that gets done for that value, then we’re looking at coming close to around £30million in the pot.

I suspect that we’ll try to find a home for Sambi Lokonga, but we won’t get much cash for him. He had some injury problems last season with Sevilla and as a result they’re not exercising his loan option. IF they’re not willing to do that, then I think we’ll be lucky to get £10million for him. If we say it’ll be circa £5million as a conservative estimate, then we’re looking at bumping our cash to around the £35million mark. That’s a Fabio Vieira-sized signing and that’s about it. I think we’re already starting to see that there isn’t going to be a Hale End exit windfall that we’ll not be able to take advantage of like last summer I suspect. We might get some offers for Vieira himself, but it won’t be near the £35million we paid. If we got half of that I suspect Arsenal might take it. For the purposes of this game let’s go conservative again and say £15million. Now we’re up to £50million.

The other name doing the rounds is Jakub Kiwior, who is also rumoured to be interesting Italian clubs and, specifically, Milan. Now this one might be the one that brings in proper cash. He’s just come off the back of an impressive end to the season, he’ll have been seen by a lot of clubs in that Champions League run and, frankly, we shouldn’t be looking to be forced to sell. That strengthens your hand and with that in mind, Arsenal need to be telling any potential suitors that Kiwior can be theirs, but only for a princely sum. We paid around £20million for his services and I definitely think his value has gone up based on last season, so if Italian clubs want him, we need to be asking for north of £30million. If he asks Arteta to go so he can play regular game time, I think we let that happen at around £35million and we’re up to £85million in sales.

It’s not a bad haul for a collective of players – Kiwior aside – that we’re not really using any more, but it’s hardly amazing, especially given all the talk of what we’re looking to invest this summer. Zubimendi is arriving for £51million, Leipzig want £59.5million (ish – when you do the Euro conversion) for Sesko, then if Partey goes we’re gonna need a new central midfielder. If MLS is earmarked for that spot maybe he gets moved forward and you can see why we’re in for Hato, but that feels like a lot of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’. Hato has also been quoted at £40million and so if that were to happen as well as Sesko at that price, suddenly Arsenal have spent £150million whilst recouping £85million back, giving you a net spend £65million. That’s not too bad and certainly if you factor in contract renewals it feels do-able, but when you start to do that ‘back-of-a-fag-packet’ type maths, you see why Arsenal are a little more concerned with not being ripped off on their striker choice. I’m not saying we do this, but you can see why they’re keeping their options open for Watkins, because if you can get him for £30million instead of £60million for Sesko or Gyokeres, suddenly you’re looking at a net spend of around the £35million, having been pretty neutral last summer and not having spent in the January window just gone.

There’s still lots to do, the window officially opens again today, so let’s see how this week plays out.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Arsenal fans getting pulled from pillar-to-post over certain players and situations?

And of course it’s related to the The Great Striker Hunt of 2025. Which is an evolution of The Great Striker Hunt of 2024. It’s a bit like Home Alone 2; they’ve essentially taken the first iteration and gone again but in a different setting. The only difference is that this time the first one surely can’t be better than the second time around, right? I mean, last summer was essentially a fail for the attacker we needed, ending up with a duffer wide-forward who was past his prime. Can it get any worse than that??

Can it?

Can you tell that the first signs of fear are creeping in to my psyche? The first moments in which you think “ok, this feels like it’s starting to drag a bit guys”. I think some of that is predicated on the fact that because of the pointless FIFA club competition about to kick off, teams have been scrabbling around trying to get deals done super early. Man City have properly gone for it, Chelsea have done what they do under Boehly and spend already, then Liverpool look to be sorting out Wirtz and apparently Barcola is next on their radar. Yet for us there’s not a peep. Which adds to a heightened sense of panic. But I will acknowledge the wise words of a certain Mr Tim Stillman today, as I read on his BlueSky account yesterday:

Probably happens less #here than #theotherplace but transfer head loss is so often powered by envy at what other teams are doing (or look like they’re doing) but so much of that is shaped by the fact that we don’t live transfer updates for other teams from day to day, which warps our perception.

— Tim Stillman (@tim-stillman.bsky.social) 11 June 2025 at 16:28

It’s a good point to note that because we are all so invested in what Arsenal are doing, we’re not really paying attention to what other corners of the internet are doing in terms of rival fans. City fans will be bouncing all over the place because transfers are a shot of adrenaline and they’ve been given repeated rounds both in January and June, but most other fans are probably in the same sense of apprehension over their situation as we are. Impatience is a burden we football fans all have to live with unfortunately.

And so to where we are at right now, which is apparently back in for Viktor Gyokeres, with certain ITKs now saying that his agent is currently talking to Arsenal. I’ve made my preference clear that I’d prefer Sesko, but if Gyokeres gets in through the doors of Colney, I certainly won’t be complaining. I therefore think what Arsenal doing is smart, providing we do at least get one of these guys, that is. Clubs often try to stir up interest to get the best deal for their players, often trying to incite a bidding war like West Ham did to us with City a couple of summers back. What Arsenal appear to be doing here by keeping their options open, is to show both Sporting and RB that we won’t be had over a barrel here; if you play silly buggers with us we’ll explore other options. It’s why I can understand the fact that the Watkins situation hasn’t gone away – if both RB and Sporting get silly, we’ll just walk away. Now, I don’t think any of us think that should be the preferred option this summer and I think you might be in agreement with me that it would be an underwhelming signing, but it shows – to me at least – that we are not a team to be messed around.

I would like us to make a move though, just to see what happens, rather than this constant noise of “having talks”. Whether it’s with player representatives or clubs, we need to just pull the trigger now I think, because that way we know whether either the German or Portuguese club are going to deal seriously with us. What does make me laugh, however, is the fact that you hear about Arsenal in talks with both clubs and talking through payment structures, then the next thing we know, we’ll have news on Sky Sports telling us a bid has been rejected!

What’s the bloody point in spending all that time talking payment structures and fees if you can’t just accept the first offer if you’ve basically already agreed it?!?

I guess that’s all part of the dance; everyone knows it. In one of my previous roles I used to get asked to give my Marketing budget requirements for the year. I realised pretty early on that at the halfway point in the year the Finance Director would come to me and say “we need you to lose 25% of your budget from this year please”, so I’d deliberately inflate my Marketing budget each year. It was this weird and silly dance that I think even the FD knew he had to do. But it didn’t stop it happening. Maybe it’s the same with transfers. Arsenal know the price, they bid under the price, because they know that the first bid will be rejected. Or they bid the asking price quoted, knowing that they might have to pay a lot more for the player than was originally asked. It’s the silly dance designed to make all parties feel like they got a better deal out of the situation.

Sesko, Gyokeres or Watkins though, it does feel like we need to move because time stands still for no man and we are already starting to hear noises from the likes of United, Saudi Arabia, etc. Make your decision, make your bid, begin the ‘end game’ on the transfer saga now, so we can have whoever it is ready for summer pre season.

Laters kids.

I’ve already talked about the fact that Madrid have a few guys in the position that Zubimendi plays already as a potential reason as to why this might not materialise, but there are plenty of other things we can all point to that make this story today merely a click-bait exercise from Marca to stir up a story where there potentially isn’t one.

The player himself has apparently already given his word, the two clubs (Arsenal and Real Sociedad) have been talking for ages, La Real would probably ideally not like to see Zubimendi in their domestic league, plus we have to take anything that Marca say with a pinch of salt.

What I’ve enjoyed about this morning is that Arsenal clearly have their own countermeasures they are willing to deploy, in the shape of a certain Mr Ornstein, who already this morning has released a message basically saying that Real Madrid’s interest was never fully confirmed and concrete, that Arsenal are expecting him to report to training when the team gets back together. Hey, Ornstein doesn’t speak unless he’s triple-checked his workings, but when you couple that with the fact that a few other people qwho seem to be reasonably well-informed have also given us all a pre-emptive strike based on the Marca story last night, I think we can all be pretty chilled on the situation at the moment.

It doesn’t mean something random couldn’t happen, it doesn’t mean that Madrid don’t do a dirty on us, but from all of the noise that surrounds this, it feels like this is one of those “one in a million” situations, so we just need to chill. That doesn’t mean that everyone will and there will be people losing their sh*t today with this news, but I’ve listened to the odd football podcast recently and the noises about how the club are very happy with how the summer is panning out is comforting for me personally. We all know City and Chelsea are making their moves, Liverpool are edging along too, but with Ornstein also saying that this week is expected to be busy for The Arsenal in terms of potential incomings, I think we can be perfectly happy with how things are unfolding.

If by 1st July we haven’t made a single deal, then I think there’s some cause for consternation, but not at this early stage in the window.

In the meantime, we still have these tedious international matches to worry about, of which England are playing tonight and Saka is due to start. Just let the boy stay fit and go on his holidays please, Tommy T. None of us really want to see him break down at any stage. Let’s have all of our lads given a clean bill of health and then over the next week let’s seem them on yachts and beaches across the globe as they rest themselves up for what is going to be a huge season for The Arsenal.

And if you think about it, it WILL be massive, because the weight of expectation now on the shoulders of those Arsenal players are big. I was having a drink with a work mate who is Leeds fan the other day. I was recounting to him the gloriousness of that first season we finished runner sup to City. Every time we conceded at home there was a sense of “come on lads, we believe in you” and the atmosphere at The Emirates was amazing. The second season we had that run at the end of the season which really hit home just how good we were and whilst the atmosphere wasn’t quite as good as the season before, it was still buoyant. Last season it was less so too, probably because we were out of a title race early on and it felt like the world (and especially PGMOL) were against us. Last season felt like it was our season but the fates had decided against that for whatever reason. So for me, in my head, I’m already looking at this season coming up and thinking “surely, it’s ours this time around, right?

I know it doesn’t work like that. We all do. We could have another injury-hit season again. We are pretty much nailed on to get shafted on refereeing decisions because we’re not a North West-based club. But I am starting to get a feeling in my belly that we are ‘destined’ for some kind of success next season and that is a dangerous way to think. But I can’t help it. We’ve had the best defence two-years running. City are still in a rebuild. Liverpool surely can’t have as much fortune as they had this season, so surely the football gods need to align to send us towards the trophy-laiden promised land, right?

Wrong. You have to get everything right and that includes doing the required things in the summer that puts your team in the perfect position to be that best side. The players we have are all now coming into prime age, whereas a few season’s back we were still a little on the young side. But they have to get it over the line. Nothing comes to you just by you wishing it into being, you have to go out and prove it. With others around us strengthening right now it feels a little like we’re standing still, but I have faith that we’re going to start to see some movement in the next week or so and when that happens, I suspect there will be plenty of Arsenal fans that will breathe a sigh of relief and look towards getting a good pre season under our belts.

But for now, as I’ve said before, let’s stay ‘calma’.

I get it to a point though. Until something concrete happens with your own team, you are just projecting what is happening based on what is real, so when other clubs confirm signings or are close to it and your team hasn’t done anything as yet, it can feel a little nervy.

“We are already behind Team X in terms of squad improvements. We need to be smarter than them and we need to buy better to play catch up, yet they are already ahead”

I have these thoughts too, by the way, but I quickly dismiss them and move on. What I don’t do is go on social media and get a bit ranty. But it’s natural to have the human reaction of concern when you see little concrete evidence of movement. Transfers are like a hit of adrenaline; they are a short, sharp, shot of a drug. And so are the rumours of those transfers. Think about what we were all doing a week or so ago when the noises of the Zubimendi ‘medical’ were emerging. Or when Fabrizio Romano said that Arsenal were ‘on the case’ or something similar like that with regards to Sesko. So when you see other fans getting their hit of adrenaline, you naturally feel envy and over the last 24-48 hours I’ve seen a few people talk about Cunha going to Man United, then last night the chatter online was about how Mbuemo was off from Brentford to Man United.

That’s probably a good move for both him and them. United are a massive club, despite the dumpster fire they have been this season, so for Mbuemo it’s obvious that this would appeal. There’s also talk of Thomas Frank going off to The Scum if/when Big Ange is relieved of his duties. Mbuemo also has one year left on his deal, but Brentford can trigger an additional one year option on that deal, which means that United shouldn’t be able to get him on the cheap. At 25 years old and having just bagged 20 goals and eight assists in a season, I think Brentford will certainly be holding out for a big amount of cash and so anything north of £50million must be in their minds as the kind of cash they should be demanding (TransferMarkt has him at €55million).

This has led a few people to question why we aren’t going in for him. He’s proven he can do the business in the Premier League, he is a guy who has shown he has an eye for goal this season and perhaps this was the season that he goes supernova in the Premier League and will continue to be a goal machine. He’s rapid, he works his socks off on the press and I think he would be a good player for Man United.

He’s not Bukayo Saka though.

In Saka we have one of the best elite attackers in world football. Mbuemo had 28 goals and assists last season, but Saka had 17 having not played about a third of the season. Mbuemo does his damage on the right hand side, there’s no way that he’s displacing Saka and so whilst Ornstein has said there was some interest from Arsenal in Mbuemo, there’s no chance we’re pulling the trigger on a big fee for a guy who plays right wing. We want versatility, Mbuemo has played central and on the left, but look at where he spends most of his time. He was never a viable option for us and whilst some might argue that signing him would allow us to rotate Saka, but also give him an opportunity to also play centrally and left wing, when you look at the fact we’re in for Sesko or Gyokeres, why would signing Mbuemo work? He’d probably really only get a sniff at left wing and last season he didn’t play there once. In fact, in his career, he’s played there six times. We’re all talking about either of the aforementioned striker options as being gambles, but they’ve played in the position we’re signing them for. Six appearances in eight years doth not a good sample size make. The last time he played there was in 2020/21 as well, by the way. So you can see why we’re linked with the likes of Williams (plays left wing) and Rodrygo (plays right wing but wants to play left wing).

There are other things happening too, like Wirtz to Liverpool, which I think has people a little concerned, but it’s easy to look at other people’s gardens and feel apprehensive because they’ve been to the garden centre before you have and bought all their potting plants. But just because Arsenal haven’t metaphorically jumped in the car and made their way to the colourful flower aisle just yet, doesn’t mean our garden won’t look the best come the end of the summer.

It’s going to be a long summer, it always is when it comes to the transfer window, but we just need to focus on ourselves and what the team needs to do. As long as Arsenal go out and address the clear areas of the pitch that we all know we need signings – back-up ‘keeper, back-up left back, number six, versatile wide-forward and centre forward, then we can worry about what is going on in our garden come mid-August.

At this stage and with the noises we’re all hearing about what Arsenal want to do and are already looking at, I think it’s positive and I have faith that the ‘big deals’ we will aim to get done sooner rather than later. Don’t worry about what others are doing – let’s just focus on ourselves.

Catch you all tomorrow.

I mean, honestly, what is the point in having it closed for just six days? Why not just have it open the whole time? I’ve looked at the rules on Sky Sports and the Premier League and apparently it’s due to the fact that a transfer window is only supposed to be open for 12 weeks at a time. But honestly, these days, does that really even matter? Clubs still do deals and make announcements before and after that time, they just state in their press releases that “x player will join on 30th June as part of the regulated process” or something similar. It’s all a bit silly really because it’s just paperwork related. It means only that clubs can’t officially trigger release clauses like we are hoping to hear about soon re: Zubimendi, but all we’re really talking about these days is Arsenal having scheduled sends on their emails. The hard work, the negotiations, the contracts, the agents, the discussions between the clubs, have all been done before the window ‘officially’ opens anyway. So we’re basically talking about red tape here and it all feels a little pointless to me.

Anyway, Arsenal have another eight days to do a deal if they want to on that one, or the Sesko one, but I suspect that one will be a little longer in the process. The Zubi one feels like everyone knows the parameters of the sale and it’s just a case of working through that process, although the stupid and pointless Nations League match they play in on Thursday won’t help. It means he’ll be focused on that, but I guess the agents and two clubs can agree all they need to without him, so it shouldn’t be too much that he needs to do. I saw a comment from somebody from Real Sociedad suggesting that they have told him to go away with his national team, have a think, then come back with a ‘clear head’. After what happened last summer with him U-turning on Liverpool, we can’t completely rule out the possibility that the same happens again, but you’d think that if he did that again it would have quite an impact on him as an individual. He’d look like damaged goods a bit and whilst they have also said they don’t need to sell, the player himself must be thinking about moving on to advance his career. I’m not even looking at that through Arsenal-tinted lenses. They finished 11th, there will be no European football for them, Zubimendi has cemented his status with the fans by giving it one more season and I think most Sociedad fans would appreciate that. I think that’s what happened when Thierry left us. The speculation after the Champions League final was massive and I think he was probably ready to go, but Wenger told him to sign a new deal, give us one more season, which he did and then we sold him to Barcelona after that final season of his. I think most Arsenal fans acknowledged what Thierry had done and that’s why his exit was sad but it was something we accepted. My hope is that we see the same for Zubimendi, only this time we’re the beneficiaries.

There’s one more bit of gossip that I saw yesterday that I thought might be worth a word or two on, which is that Thomas Partey is apparently wanted by Barcelona. There are some comments about how we are on the verge of having him sign an extension, which is interesting given that it has been looking like the opposite for quite some time until recently, but given what’s happened (allegedly) in his private life, given his injury record, his age, the wages he has, etc – I’m kind of thinking we need to close this chapter. It would mean we’d have to go and get another central midfield number six I think, because Zubi and Rice as the only option puts a bit of pressure on them both to stay fit the whole season, especially given both will probably play a lot of games together with Rice as the eight. So it does feel like we might need a more experienced squad rotation player to come in and play as an acknowledged back up. A Jorginho-esque signing that doesn’t break the bank but is a clear back up for domestic cup games would have to be done if Partey leaves I think. But we’ll have to see how that one plays out. I have a sneaky suspicion that the club and player might end up doing another one or two year deal here.

And that’s about it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more musings based on whatever rumours start to circulate over the next 24 hours. You have yourself a good one.

I should start talking about left backs. Maybe that’ll be enough reverse-jinx for us to do a striker deal in the next 48 hours…

The reality is that it sounds like this Zubimendi deal has been a while in the making and the Fabrizio Romano and Sami Mokbel ‘scoops’ that emerged yesterday (heck, even Sky Sports started reporting it and they’re the last to usually know!) were merely just confirmation of a pretty open secret that has been around for a few months now, certainly from January, for sure.

And I’m reminded of how the Declan Rice situation played out before we signed him. We were in for Caicedo in the January transfer window, Brighton held firm on what feels like a little too much of an over price given that they paid basically what we paid for Declan Rice, then in that January I think it was Ornstein who was reporting that we were interested in signing Rice and had already been speaking to the representatives of the player. The noises we were hearing at the time were that the player was keen to join the club and whilst at the time I remember thinking “yeah right,  there’s no way we get Declan Rice” here we are a couple of year’s down the line, with him as one of our most valuable players.

The Zubimendi stuff does have one clear distinction though; Arsenal are doing this job early. For the Rice transfer we were against a West Ham team determined to hold out for an extremely high price, but also for a player who had – crucially for this story at the moment – no release clause. West Ham set the price and they could hold out for it. Even if there was a release clause, the club might have tried to negotiate it down anyway and that’s the reason we spent a good six week’s of that summer getting a little worried as we went toe-to-toe with City for West Ham’s captain.

Of course as we know it now, Arsenal had been working this deal hard, speaking to the player and making it very clear just how he would fit into the system, how he would evolve as a player and probably most importantly how he would be a regular starter. At City he had Rodri in his way or other players in the advanced positions which we now know is where we think Declan operates the best in.

That release clause is the reason Arsenal can – and are – moving quickly. We know the price, it’s not extortionate for a guy who has been described as one of the best midfielders in the Spanish national team, the deal is with a club we have done business with before (They had KT off us on loan last season, so relations are sure to be good, I would have thought) and I’m sure it’ll be announced as soon as that June window opens.

I do think back to last summer though. Real Sociedad had accepted a bid from Liverpool for him and I’ll be honest, I was very worried to see how he would line up for them in the number six position. It’s an area that they needed to solve and he would be what looked like a perfect fit. I had just assumed that the deal would be done, because why would Liverpool bid for a player, if he hadn’t already green-lighted the transfer? Whatever the reason, he decided to reject and stay at Sociedad and I’m not in the kind of mood to be trying to banter off Liverpool by saying that Arsenal is a better place to play your football, but I do wonder what made the difference between last summer and now.

Is it just good timing on our part? The player may have felt that he needed to do one more season at the club, to show his loyalty, which he’s now done and is ready for a ‘big move’.

Is it the San Sebastian connection with Arteta? Maybe. Arteta will know all about the culture of the club, he will have spoken to him as a fellow Basque from the region who has travelled abroad to ply his trade, plus he’ll have been meticulous in his explanation of just how he see’s Zubi fitting in to the team. If we know anything about Mikel, it’s that he’ll know EXACTLY how he wants to deploy Martin.

Is it the Sociedad former player connection? I suppose it can’t hurt. He’s recently played with Merino and KT in the Sociedad team, plus if you go back a few more years, he’ll have been coming through as Odegaard was on loan there for a season. Those players will be able to speak to him about the transition from Sociedad to The Arsenal, the Premier League, plus it will be familiar faces to help him bed in as he adjusts to a new life and a new league.

Regardless of the reason’s and motives, this is a great deal for Arsenal and we have to be happy that the club are moving quickly, which bodes well for the rest of the business we need to do this summer. If this deal can be concluded as soon as possible, Zubimendi goes on holiday as an Arsenal player (if he’s not on holiday already), he comes back to start pre season with his teammates, gets a full pre season to learn the style and approach of Arteta, is in the best possible position to start making an impact for next season.

He also ticks a lot of boxes for us. We should probably wait until the official announcement is concerned, but with question marks over what’s happening with Partey, with Jorginho on his way out, there’s a clear gap there that Arsenal need to fill and I can say anything more positively than the fact that the club has gone out, found the solution (we hope) and has acted swiftly.

Let’s hope this is a positive sign for the summer.

Catch you all tomorrow.

And if you think about it, it has also been difficult for the women too; they didn’t start great, lost their manager, had to go through a bit of a process to find the new one, pick up form from the pieces of Eidvall’s time in charge, then go again under Renee Slegers. They’ve had their turmoil this season and have come out the other side – fair play to all of the players.

From the men’s perspective, it’s just good that we close the book on this season, which hasn’t been the best. But as I reflected yesterday on the season on the Same Old Arsenal podcast with Amanda and James, I can’t exactly say it’s been terrible. I have been talking about this season being ‘cursed’ for a while now, but in reality we’ve still finished second and got to the semi final of the Champions League, all whilst doing it with the biggest injury list by far of any team in any of the competitions we’ve played in. This Arsenal team has often metaphorically played with one hand tied behind its back; some of it through the misfortune of injuries, some of it through horrendous refereeing decisions, some of it through our own errors and mistakes. But there can be no doubt that Arteta’s men have gone over and above what many rivals could have done with the adversity that has been overcome.

So I when I tell myself that this season is ‘cursed’, perhaps I need to soften the language a little, because we’ve had many worse season’s than this one in recent history. That’s for sure. The final few years of apathy under Wenger were not fun. The ‘Part Two’ of the Unai Emery reign was woeful at times. Even Arteta’s first full season was looking like it was going to tank hard before we brought it back from the brink and finished eighth. So yeah, this season has been one with high expectations and one in which we can all be a little disappointed with not coming out the other side with trophies, but it by far and away hasn’t been as bad as I think some are making it out to be.

We do need to build on it though. Next season is now massive for Arteta. He and his team will be desperate to get over the line, because it’s in danger of becoming a bit Pochettino-y if something isn’t delivered next season. We can all be pleased that we are competitive, I still have so much faith in Arteta, but that last step needs to be taken now. We can’t have another season of ‘what if?’

To me that also means he needs to get those deals done. Go get him a centre forward, get him that number six, get the winger in and find him another left back (we need more!). Do the work, do it early, get yourself set up for a good pre season and be ready to go – all engines fired up – come August.

Arteta’s words have felt like that too. In the aftermath of the meaningless 2-1 win over Southampton he was talking up how he is excited for the new season already. He spoke about how plans are already in place for what they want to do over the summer and he is clearly already making the noises to KSE and Andrea Berta: “Get me these deals done ASAP” – this is good. This is what we need. This is how we need to act – quickly and decisively – so let’s make sure all of this work comes to fruition in these early parts of summer. I think I speak for most Arsenal fans when I say that we don’t want any more Deadline Day Sterling’s. We need to take the enhanced reputation from competing at the top of the league, from being in the semi final of the Champions League, and act on it by getting going. Now.

I think Arteta is going to be an impatient man this summer and I therefore think he’ll be pushing for early moves too. I remember the Podolski deal way-back-when getting done basically when the season was finished. That’s be cause there was a release clause there that Arsenal activated. Do the same with Zubimendi now. Get that done, then we move on to the next one. Whoever that striker is, just get moving and do it quickly. You get two or three of those big positions filled and I think most Arsenal fans would be fine to wait for the additional players to augment an already talented squad. But the longer we go this summer with seemingly little movement, the more I think there will be murmurings of discontent and nerves that we once again aren’t setting ourselves up for the best possible season ahead.

Time to be proactive, Arsenal.

And those few million extra might well go towards the Rodrygo chap from Real Madrid, it seems. Or, as I think most of us realise, probably not. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s a fabulous footballer, but Real Madrid will want pretty decent cash I’d wager. If it’s the reported £67.5million that the Metro are talking about, then I think it’s certainly worth considering because he’s 24, he can play across the front three and it gives Arteta the kind of rotation option that we didn’t have this season.

Gabriel Martinelli slightly out of form or injured? Rodrygo played 12 games and got six goals from the left.

Saka needs a rest? Rodrygo played 29 games and most of the season on the right.

Everyone is injured all at once and we need a centre forward? Rodrygo played eight times this season as a centre forward.

I get that he’s mainly been deployed as a right winger, but people said Tomiyasu was a centre half and they didn’t know where he would play for Arsenal, then he came straight in at right back and was a revelation. When we signed Aubameyang he came as a centre forward, but we played him on the left of a three and he bagged goal-after-goal. We’ve seen Martinelli do a fine job at right wing for us at times this season. So having a player of Rodrygo’s quality to play across the front three sounds like a very sensible move for me.

His injury record reads as six games missed this season, but no major worry signs when I look at TransferMarkt. What’s also interesting about him is that on the left he scored six goals in 12 games. On the right he bagged seven in 29. He very much plays second fiddle to Vini Jr and Mbappe and perhaps coming in for a decent price tag and a club like Arsenal, he’ll fancy his chances of establishing himself as perhaps that left-sided attacker. Apparently it’s also what he would prefer to play at, if this ESPN article is anything to go by. So imagine if he’s looking at Arsenal as an opportunity to displace the likes of Gabriel Martinelli. Or alternatively, imagine if that competition is enough to see our boy from Sao Paolo step up and go super nova? Either scenraio would be a win-win for us, because it’d mean goals, it’d mean rotation options, it’d mean a reduction in risk in case of an injury-hit season like this one and it’d give us another option – an explosive one at that. He’s rapid, his dribbling is excellent, he’s a hard presser when he’s instructed and he’s good at beating his man one-on-one.

His wages might be a little bit of a sticking point, but he’s apparently on around €240k-per-week (£202k), so Arsenal could give him a little bump there to bring it up to around the £225k mark and not explode our wage structure, whilst also giving him a cash incentive bump. There is apparently interest from Liverpool too, but we have the draw of London, there’s a fair few Spaniards – or those who have played in that league – in our team and if we get Zubimendi too, it’s another plus point in our camp. You also have the London factor, which is a small element, but an element nonetheless. Finally, he’s also just seen us live and in the flesh over two legs better the Real Madrid team and get to the semi final, so he will know he’s joining a team on the up.

So if you’re telling me there’s a deal to be done at £67.5million and those sort of wages, it’s probably one that Arsenal need to have a nibble at.

We can’t be messed around by Madrid though. If Arsenal are serious, if Madrid are serious, you get the deal done and you do it quickly. None of this Higuain PTSD drag out all summer please. Make a decision, make the move, or go for somebody else.

But I’m looking at this kind of deal and getting excited. If that’s the kind of player we go out and buy, as well as another central striker and Zubimendi, then we’ll be looking at a very good summer and ones that we, as fans, will be very happy with and very excited about when it comes to August.

I think I’ll leave it there for today. You enjoy your Thursday, remember that absolutely no football has happened since last weekend, then let’s bring the curtain down on this cursed season and look forward to the summer.

Laters people.

The press is full of talk of strikers and if Arsenal value anything of the health of its supporters, I would urge them to get one in asap, because if we’re still waiting for one to arrive come July, I think we’ll have all driven ourselves into insanity with all of the different ‘takes’ and spin on what is essentially the same story.

• “Gyokeres has given the green light to a move”
• “Arsenal weighing up Gyokeres move”
• “Gyokeres has spoken to Arteta”
• Arsenal and Sporting locked in discussions over payment structure of deal”
• “Gyokeres deal hits stumbling block”
• “Gyokeres deal in danger of hijacking by Club X”
• “Arsenal weigh up Gyokeres alternatives”
• “Arsenal poised to confirm bid for Gyokeres”
• “Gyokeres flight booked”
• “Gyokeres refuses to board plane as Arsenal will only offer him a Premier Inn to stay in”
• “Gyokeres has named his cat “Declan”
• “Gyokeres spotted on holiday in Greece wearing red swimming shorts”
• “Gyokeres likes fan AI image of him in an Arsenal shirt”

Even typing out all of those headlines is wearing me down. I guess the upside is that for the Swedish international it is a release clause. The downside is that it’s rumoured to be £84million. Although Romano has suggested Sporting would let him leave for €65million (£55million). At that price I suspect the deal could be done relatively swiftly, but it does mean that there could still be a bit of haggling over the fee and knowing our luck, if they go in and offer that, Sporting will go “nah, fee’s gone up, we want £65million”. When you start to get messed around you have to walk away. But you also have to act swiftly to get the lay of the land and putting that first bid in at least gives you some idea.

Then there’s Sesko as an option. This is the one I like because:

1. He’s younger and so there’s more up side
2. He’s playing in a harder league
3. There IS a release clause with this one that I think is more doable.

Supposedly that’s a deal that gets done at €70million (according to TransferMarkt) and for £59million and an extra £4million over the rumoured Gyokeres fee, I say just pay that release clause and move on to your next target. Sesko has bagged 21 goals in 45 games including four in eight Champions League games and this is a kid that I would have my cash invested in to. If Arsenal want a relatively serene summer, paying Zubimendi’s release clause and then going and dropping £59million to pay Sesko’s one, would be a good way of going about it.

I also think Arsenal quite like paying release clauses. We’ve been doing it on the more regular ever since we prized Partey out of Atletico Madrid and in these two players you can do the deals, get them embedded in the team and have yourselves a better pre season without having to go around chasing for players that would eventually not even sign for you because the selling club has mesed you around. Like Newcastle blatantly would. Imagine if we started talking to them about Isak. Eddie Howe has already done a semi-cryptic “I can’t guarantee any player’s future” post match press conference from last weekend and whilst plenty of fans got excited about that, I’m not having it.

For the record I think he’s a fabulous footballer. He’s caused us a fair few problems this season and he would definitely thrive in an Arsenal shirt. But Newcastle will want north of £120million for him for sure. If Arsenal just said “screw it, here’s your £120million” Newcastle would drag this out all summer and lead us a merry dance before probably rejecting and telling us it’s now £140million. I’ve already said on here that he’s my least favourite option because of his price tag, but also his injury record, whilst this season as a ‘good’ season for him stands at nine games missed in all competitions. Last season it was 12, the season before it was 18, the season before that it was five games (TransferMarkt details here if you’re interested). So since his early 20s he’s always picked up knocks. What makes anyone think that signing him next season wouldn’t have the same results?

I’d like to say those persistent niggles every season are something that Arsenal will look at, particularly when you start to look at our volume of injuries this season, but we signed Calafiori knowing of his injury record, so you never know what they are thinking at the club. If you look at Sesko’s record, you have to go back to 2021/22 to see his last set of injuries and whilst Gyokeres missed five games this season through knocks, it doesn’t look like in record history he’s had many injuries either.

So to me this should be a straight shoot out between the two overseas options. Focus on that, get whichever one you can get that you think works best from those, then let’s go on to augmenting other parts of the squad.

What I’d like to also see is Arsenal acting during this weird first transfer window, which is open from 1st June until 10th June, because of the Club World Cup joke of a competition. Imagine if Arseal can tie up a Zubimendi deal in that time frame, then focus on getting on of those strikers when it re-opens later in June. Let’s have some of that action early, eh boys and girls?

The reality is that no club is likely to be rushed in to it unless they are in that stupid competition and wanting to register players for free like we expect Jorginho to do. Clubs who have to go in to haggling mode are surely more likely to just say “we can wait” because the second window only opens six days later, so what difference does a week make? Still, would be nice to see us strike mega early with our plans this summer. We don’t normally go hard and fast with our summer signings, so it would be nice for a change.

Right, I’m going to stop there, as it’s time to go do some exercise and then get cracking with another working day. Enjoy your Wednesday, folks.

Fair play, I say, because they’ve acted swiftly to find TAA’s replacement and by all accounts, it’s a good player.

Then, I’m seeing some rumours about another excellent talent in the Bundesliga – Florian Wirtz – apparently in a two-way duel with Liverpool and City for his signature. It’s all conjecture and hearsay at the moment, but if the season closes and those two teams move quickly to go after him, then it’s swift business and it’s clever business for a very good attacking midfielder. Apparently Liverpool are edging ahead and City are backing down from a possible move, which you could understand if the player is favouring the Scousers, but it shows that Liverpool are intending to get their business done early. A savvy move indeed.

Why have I taken just over two paragraph’s to talk about other transfers? I guess the title of today’s ramblings give it away; other teams get to do transfers too. Liverpool, Man City, United, Chelsea, Villa, even The Scum will all be augmenting their teams and so whilst for us we see our deficiencies clear as day and expect the club to take action to build a more complete squad than this season’s one, we have to acknowledge that these clubs will also find players that will inevitably – at least some of them anyway – be a hit at their respective clubs.

Transfers, eh? It’s a bloody hard game to play. You have to get the right value for a player, pay them the right wages that aren’t too extortionate, hope that they will gel with their new teammates, hope that they settle in with their new environment (which for many will also be a new country and a new language), then, above all that, you have to hope they take their own game to the next level on the pitch. I’ve not even mentioned the luck of having them remain fit the whole time, either. The variables involved are numerous and pulling the trigger on a multi-million-pound deal is not for the faint-hearted.

But it has to be done. You can never  stay still in football. Arsenal have to find players that will take us on further than any other signing for any other side. They have to hope that Zubimendi – if he arrives – is not only better than what we had this season in our team, but he’s better than the signings that other teams have made too.

In some instances it’s slightly different. For example, if somebody like Gyokeres comes in to play for us, he’s basically taking Gabriel Jesus’ spot, who has spent the vast bulk of this season injured. So the bar for improvement is pretty low. But when you then apply the logic of how many goals behind Liverpool we were this season, how we need another Havertz who will get 20 goals, as well as Havertz staying fit to also get 20 goals, you start to realise that when you get to the top of elite sport and especially football, the margins are razor-fine.

We’re not just fighting to improve ourselves, we’re fighting to improve on everyone else’s improvements.

Perhaps the upside we have is that for some teams the challenge is a little less stark. The whole world knows we need a striker. The whole world knows that if you get somebody who can bag 20-goals in the Premier League, then if we are the same as this season and next season (we have one of the best defences), we’re probably going to be within touching distance of the top or the team at the top. The downside of everyone knowing is that there could be some clubs who play silly-buggers with us on price, but if by the sounds of it Arsenal are looking at release clause folk, then that is less of an issue. Go do the business, pay the release clause, then prep yourselves for a good pre-season.

I do wonder if that’s one of the criteria for the club this season as well, you know, the release clause I mean. As I’ve already mentioned there are so many variables in football transfers, that if you can remove at least one in the shape of the negotiation over the transfer fee, then it probably solves a fair few headaches in The Arsenal Transfer Team. If that’s out of the equation then you can indeed get a deal done quickly.

And, as already mentioned, that’s what we need this summer. The power of a settled and organised pre season cannot be underestimated. If you get business done early, if you can get those players playing together and gelling well, then it can have a massive impact on the success of your upcoming season.

Let’s hope that it is what we see over the next month or so.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Naturally he said that they would be lead by the medical team on whether he could play, but I don’t think you put a player like Kai in front of an open training session if you haven’t done more than enough tests, so I would be surprised if he isn’t in the squad at least for Sunday. He might only be good for 15 minutes, but that’s at least something, a boost for the squad and us as fans. There’s a little part of me that is kinda like “a bit late now, innit?” but I find myself having to check that line of questioning. This guy had a quite serious injury, it’s kept him out for three months and you never know how players’ bodies are going to react to any kind of injury. We’ve heard enough times in our lives that frustrating word ‘setback’ and so to see Havertz take part in training means that he’s almost there and that’s a good ting.

It also means that providing he can get a few minutes, perhaps a few minutes more against Southampton on the final day of the season, he’ll be able to go into the summer in decent shape and ready to kick off pre season when it comes around. Until you see or hear that players are back to full training, at this stage you have to assume that they might miss the beginning of next season, so seeing Havertz over that injury this season, is a bost for the next one.

Rice, Martinelli, Trossard and Timber have apparently all done partial sessions and so Arteta said he wasn’t sure, but I’d be surprised if all four are absent. If they are then we really are in trouble. This feels little like “once more unto the breach” type stuff on Sunday. If we get over the line and even manage to actually win a game of football in the league, then not only is Champions League secured, but second spot is 99% wrapped up too, as only Man City could get to 71 points and we have a nine goal swing in our favour compared to them. So A win on Sunday has a tiny bit of impact, or at least that’s what Arteta will be saying to his lads, I’m sure.

As you’d expect he was very complementary of Newcastle, of Eddie Howe and how he has different approaches in their game (attacking a low block, defending with a low block, transitional football) and I think Arteta will know from a tactical point of view what has to be done on Sunday. But as the man himself said, it’s about being clinical and it feels like with Newcastle over any other team this season (maybe PSG?) we have been guilty of not being clinical on multiple occasions, whilst they have been super clinical. As I mentioned yesterday we’ve pretty much dominated every aspect of the matches we’ve played against them, but they have been lethal in front of goal and we have been profligate. Arteta has on a couple of occasions referenced that in relation to Isaak and if we are on the wrong side of a result on Sunday, you can bet your bottom dollar that it will probably be a similar story he’ll be telling at full time.

That is a natural segue into the prevailing narrative we’ve had this season – that we haven’t got enough up top – which inevitably was referenced of sorts with the discussion around Andrea Berta and how aligned Arteta is with him. He’s hardly going to say “we’re already not speaking to each other” if that was the case, but there was enough in Arteta’s words to suggest this will be a very healthy environment for which the club’s officials are going to challenge themselves to do the best they possibly can this summer. I’ve already spoken about the cashola that the club got from the Champions League run, they’ll get more from the Premier League, those shirts are sexy enough to fly off the shelves and we’ve also got numerous sponsorship deals, so to my mind the money is there, it is just about using it wisely. That happens when you get Sporting Director, Manager, contracts people, intermediaries and agents all lined up. The Zubimendi noises are positive and it sounds like that is happening, unless something comes left of field, but more than anything else it shows the club are willing to act swiftly this summer (assuming it does get over the line quickly). The fact there’s a release clause of around £50million probably makes that a little easier than some deals that might require a little negotiation, but the signs are positive and Arteta seemed to be happy to talk about how everyone is aligned on the ambition, even if everything can’t be done. He said it, but I don’t think there’s a club in the world that get every bit of work done that they want, even the financially doped ones. Take Declan Rice, for example, who was the subject of a City bid but came to us. I remember Rio Ferdinand saying Rice had to go to City, but he came to us – we are super happy about that – and it shows that every club can have its plans derailed by another club. The most important factor is acting swiftly on other options. We didn’t do that in an attacking sense last summer and we ended up with the busted flush that is Raheem Sterling. We cannot make that mistake this summer.

I don’t think we will. I think the club know what they need to do, they do a lot of groundwork on these deals and I think Berta will be working super hard to deliver some early quick wins in his role. So I am optimistic. We just need to get over the line tomorrow with something against Newcastle.

Catch you then.

Not only does he have to sit in front of the press and talk about the fallout from the PSG defeat and exit in the Champions League, but he’ll also have to talk about the Liverpool game, Liverpool’s season, Arne Slot and other such nonsense that I bet he feels he could really do without.

I really feel for him. I’ve titled today’s blog ‘Meh Part I’ because that’s how I feel and I am seriously contemplating just not bothering watching the Liverpool game on Sunday. What’s the point? Seeing a Guard of honour? Listening over-and-over to Neville and Carragher talk up Liverpool and talk down Arsenal as not having enough and how their season has petered out? It’ll be unbearable. It’s very rare – almost impossible – that I miss an Arsenal match if I am not forced in to it by work, family commitments or other things like being on holiday, flying, etc. But for this weekend I’m 90% sure I’ll give this game a massive swerve.

But Mikel can’t. He has to sit there today and try to put a brave face on the situation. He has to deal with every repetitive and annoying question about Liverpool’s greatness and our fallibility. If he dares mention the fact that Liverpool have had 14 separate injuries this season and we’ve had almost double that (27) he’ll be shot down as an excuse maker. Against PSG I saw somebody say something about how PSG needed to find answers in an attacking sense and went out and spent £100million on Doue and Kvaratskhelia in the summer and January, whereas Mikel got given Sterling and then nobody. It made me realise that yes, there certainly was a difference in both boxes and yes, that absolutely needs to be addressed.

And you can call me an Arteta-sympathiser if you want. I’m going to own that, because I think what this Arsenal team has had to deal with via decisions, injuries and sometimes just rotten luck (why does everyone seem to score against us with mega-low xG shots and also with their first effort??). Yet they have still managed to get us in to a position where we should qualify for the Champions League and we have made the last four of the biggest competition in football. You get no praise for second and reaching that far in the competition, but there should be some going his way, as well as his team’s.

And my hope is that Arteta uses this current position as a strong hand to get the club to go out and do the required business this summer. That’s all I’m thinking about now. Not Liverpool away, not Newcastle at home, not Southampton away. All of those games have such a whiff of ‘meh’ about them that if I could just fast-forward the next couple of week’s I absolutely would. No, what I want to look at now for the future is that he’s backed again and Arsenal go and do what is required in the market. The pitch is already there; “come to The Arsenal – we’ve competed for the title (or would have done were it not for unfortunate circumstances this season)  and been towards the top for the last three seasons, we’re the top four in terms of teams in Europe, you get to be coached by one of the top coaches in world football”. That’s the sell and I think it should be an easier one for Arsenal than it’s ever been before.

And there’s money on the table too here folks. By reaching the Champions League semi final Arsenal will be getting at least £12.5million (€15million). For finishing third Arsenal get 34 ‘shares’ of the prize money (the team in last place (36th) get one ‘share’ of the pot which is worth €275k, the second from last – in 35th – get two shares, etc) which equates to around £8million (€9.35million). There’s also a pot for an equal distribution which works out at around £15.8million (€18.62million). That makes a total of around 63% of the pot and the rest is a complex amount called a ‘value pillar’ which is based on coefficients and broadcasting rights. This is a complex one that I struggle to fully understand, but the total prize pot is £723.6milliono (€853million) and even if that was split evenly it’s £20million for Arsenal. I don’t have the knowledge on how the coefficients work (it includes things like performance in last 10 years, the broadcasting contribution of the country the team plays in – so that will be high for us), but I bet you can probably double that at least. Here’s the article I took that from if you want a long read to understand.

That gives Arsenal at least £76.5million, but I’ve seen people suggest it’ll be closer to £100million, which I can absolutely believe. Then you factor in Premier League prize money of £175.5million if Arsenal manage to hold on to second place, which brings a prize money pot for Arsenal of over £275million. I’m not going to dig into matchday revenue, sponsorship, etc, but to me this shows the winfall the club are in and this summer simply must be the one that Arsenal have to get right in an attacking sense.

No more Raheem Sterling’s.

No more “let’s keep out powder dry”.

We have to go for it. Arteta needs to be given a wealth of attacking tools and Andrea Berta has to deliver on the enthusiasm that Arsenal fans have with his arrival. I know it’s not just him, I know there’s Richard Garlick and a whole team behind them, but the decision to do nothing in January was supposedly with the summer in mind. Now the club must act.

Heck, they can start the ball rolling now, because the season is done, Arsenal fans don’t care and more about it. Stick it in the bin and start making your moves, Arsenal.

Might be back tomorrow for some views, might not.

Laters kids.

As it’s Good Friday, I wondered whether we’d have a Mikel Arteta press conference today, but I guess after the effort he and his coaching staff, as well as the players put in, perhaps they’re having an extra day off? After all, they’d have got back yesterday at some stage, maybe a day off and then training tomorrow would be just what the players need.

There’s also the game itself we have one Sunday, which will be as low-key an affair as I think we might get all season. Sky will inevitably try to big it up, but let’s be clear on this: you can’t put lipstick on this particular pig.

As I briefly said to Amanda and James on today’s Same Old Arsenal podcast, this game is basically nothing to either side. Arsenal probably need to win three, maximum four, of their last six, to probably get second spot. If West Ham win tomorrow at home to already relegated Southampton, then Ipswich need to win all six of their remaining games and ‘hope’ that West Ham don’t pick up a single point from their remaining six. I think it’s probably unlikely and so in all likelihood what we’ll get on Sunday is an Ipswich side who know they are down in all but maths and name. Hopefully it might mean they come at us a bit, because I watched the game against them at The Emirates over the Christmas period whilst in Africa and, if I’m hoenst, it was the low-blockiest of blocks that we got that day. I can’t believe a side who have nothing to lose but already know they are down are going to try and play in front of their home ground and home for a 0-0 draw.

What it might do is bring them out a bit more and that might make it a little more like a Champions League game than the defensive displays we’ve had to endure from every team that comes and plays us over the last three or four months. So there might be space and hopefully Arsenal can feast.

But in all reality, I’m still very ‘meh’ about it. I’m still thinking about the positive repercussions of the game against Real Madrid. The players will be back at London Colney and the place will be buzzing I’m sure. The vibes will be positive, the mood lifted and whilst in the league we’ve had to endure two pretty turgid draws over the last couple of week’s, rather than lamenting a domestic season that fell away a long time ago, there will be life in NOrth London. Not least as well because the Women are also in the Semi Final having also dispatched Real Madrid too. Funny how life creates symmetries sometimes, eh?

That Arsenal Women’s game kicks off tomorrow and because we’re playing on Sunday it’s a great opportunity to get a sell out crowd tomorrow lunchtime. Let’s hope that we can have some more symmetry going our way with the women beating a French team, so we can start claiming planetary alignment by having the men doing the same against PSG in a couple of weeks.

The other repercussion from the men’s result, I hope, is that the plans the club have for the summer are also positively impacted. If you’re watching an Arsenal team dismantle the current Champions League holders 5-1 on aggregate and you’re a player who has been linked with us, maybe your agent has even had some informal chats, then a result like Wednesday night is going to have you more convinced that it’s a place to be. Players watch games. That’s a fact. And if players are watching this game – as I’m sure half the world was – then they are looking at how well that Arsenal played and how excellently coached the performance was and you are thinking “I wonder what Mikel Arteta could do for me?”

It’s an exciting thought that we could be in the driving seat on many of our targets this summer. We have to act on the good vibes around the club though. There will, of course, come a time in which we will talk about transfers a lot more and right now it is merely footnote with there still being stuff to play for, but for new arrival Andrea Berta I’m sure things like Wednesday don’t hurt when you’re ringing around agents at all.

We will need to make sure we make the right choices though. We can’t have any more ‘Don Raul’-style ‘favours’ from super agents. The process still needs to be trusted, the right players still need to be found, the due diligence needs to be done. Making hay whilst the sun is shining – aka making use of your current standing in the game as one of the top clubs in Europe by results like Real Madrid on Wednesday – will only last so long if you make bad moves in the market. Look how about five years of bad moves has put Man United in the position they are in? Look at the position we were in when Mikel arrived – so we know all too well what you have can quickly be taken away. You have to cement your place at the top table and that happens on the pitch, but it also happens off the pitch too, so there is a careful bit of planning and work that needs to go in to this summer to make it a successful one.

We’ve got ourselves into a great position though by being in the semi final of the Champions League. Sure, the Premier League has turned out to be a busted flush, but there are mitigating circumstances to that which we all know and can compartmentalise. But the summer will be the time to take that next step so that we can be this competitive across both domestic and European competition.

Back tomorrow with some more thoughts.

If you’re looking at the way the competition is shaking up at the half time stage, you’re saying that it feels like it might be PSG on our side of the draw and Barca/Inter on the other side of the draw. That’s a tasty collective and if we were to progress it would be three teams with which we all have some form of history with, be it recent or past. PSG we beat 2-0 earlier in the season, Inter we were robbed of anything with a dodgy penalty and some profligate finishing earlier in the season, Barca we seemed to play every year in the 2000s, so we all know about that. But I’m not going to be thinking much more about them at all at this stage, because as Bellingham said post game after Tuesday night’s defeat for Real:

“One place where crazy things happen is our house”.

Yeah mate – because you get 75% of all decisions, that’s why.

And that is a very real fear I have. Whoever the referee is next week, they are giving Real absolutely everything. Freekicks, throw ins, corners and woe betide any Arsenal player making a challenge in the box, because that’s probably ending up in two penalties. It’s the same with Barca and as you can probably tell by the fact I’m bringing up the most ridiculous second yellow for Robin van Persie in 2011 against Barca. That night, that decision, was the first time I realised that the two big Spanish clubs essentially get 75% of decisions in all matches. There was stuff on Tuesday night, even, that led me to that continued hypothesis. Camavinga may have eventually have been sent off, but before that I watched two times within five minutes in the first half where he bundled over a player, for the referee to do nothing, then penalise Timber for making a very similar tackle.

That’s what we’re going to be wary of next week and that’s why Bellingham and his teammates can make statements like that above.

Anyway, back on to more pressing matters, which appear to be locking down some of our players for new contracts. The arrival of Andrea Berta may have signalled a flurry of rumours of incomings in the shape of gossip around Gyokyres and Williams, but a big and important part of his job along with Richard Garlick and the contracts team at The Arsenal is making sure we protect our valuable assets. Bukayo Saka was asked about it in his pre match press conference and you have to say that he seemed very relaxed. As a result I feel relaxed. But Arsenal can’t, because for his last contract we left it far too long before getting it signed. This time around it would be good to have it done with plenty of time to spare. The key thing for the likes of Saka, Saliba, Gabriel, Havertz, Odegaard, etc, is that they see progression and the hope that their footballing ambitions can be realised. Games like Tuesday night will give hope, but we also need to finish the job and find ourselves in a semi final first. If we are able to overcome what was one of the favourites for this competition, then if you’re in Saka’s shoes you’re probably telling your agent “this shows me we’ve still got another level to go. I want to be here for that. Get the contract sorted mate”. If you’re Saliba too, who has already said he wants to win things at The Arsenal, at 24 year’s old you can probably do another four year contract and if in three year’s time you want to move on to Real Madrid (as has been some of the rumours), then you’re still in the prime of your career and able to do it. But Arsenal need to make sure they move now for these things so deals can be done in the summer, because if we’re talking about those two players and their contracts in particular this time next season, then the worry will be a lot more heightened for sure.

It appears the club are also looking at improved terms for MLS and Nwaneri too, which makes total sense, given their impact this season. Domestically it’s felt like such a slog but those two have been the glorious surprise packages and I’ve heard multiple people on match days and on podcasts saying that if you were to buy two players like that today, you’re talking north of £100million. That’s not an exaggeration I don’t think. MLS is an England international at 18. That sort of call up bumps the value of a player up and the fact he’s also bagged his first goal and is an English player so will come with that English premium, makes me think you’d have to spend something like £50 – £60million. Man United bid for Jarrad Branthwaite last summer for a deal that would tot up to £50million. This is a guy who had made one appearance for England by the time last summer rolled around. Now, Myles has only made two, but by the way Tuchel was talking about him and how effusive he was with his praise, it feels to me like he’ll be making plenty more.

Then you think about Nwaneri, who has only just turned 18 and has been fast-tracked to the England under-21s too, with a goal scored as well in the most recent set of matches. He’s lighting up Premier League stadiums, bagging goals for the under-21s and is considered an important asset too. TransferMarkt has his value at €55million (£47million) and it kind of does feel like that’s the kind of premium you would pay for an 18-year-old who has eight goals for the first team this season.

So it stands to reason that these players – who will absolutely be a big part of the team next season – get improved terms and are recognised for their position with nice long contracts. It needs to be done alongside Saka, Saliba and others and if Berta can get some of those sorted this summer, that’s some ‘quick wins’ that will have us fans ‘on side’ relatively early in his tenure.

Right, I better leave it there, so will be back tomorrow to see what Brentford fans are saying and how they are playing ahead of the game on Saturday evening.

Catch you then.

The parallels between the men and women situation are striking in that regard. Domestically it’s a lot more difficult for the ladies because essentially if you lose anything more than a match or two in that league then you’re probably not winning the title, such is the dominance of the top teams. But they find themselves a bit adrift of Chelsea as do the men’s team adrift of Liverpool. Therefore those hopes of the season not petering out for the ladies have stayed in place and I think we will all hope that the men’s team can take inspiration from that.

Obviously the men’s task is probably a little bit more difficult on paper, as Real Madrid are one of the top two or three sides in Europe, whereas I’m not sure the same can be said in women’s football, but I hope all of those Arsenal players coming together at London Colney over the coming days will be able to be buoyed by that excellent display on our patch of North London last night.

For the men there’s a bit more time to prepare before our next game, which is on Tuesday next week against Fulham, for which it kind of feels like we need to just keep cracking on and winning our home games to make sure we remain the ‘best of the rest’ in the league. There will be more of that to come in the coming days as we lead up to that game, but because it’s so far away, I find myself being drawn into far too much introspection, hand-wringing and general concern over things that haven’t happened or may never happened. Yesterday it was worrying about how we’ll all feel if Saka left us like Trent is supposedly doing. The day before it was the conspiracy theory that MLS’ arrival as first-choice left back could spell the end of Gabriel’s time at the club if a big money move comes in and we shift Calafiori to left centre back. Today I’ve been paying far too much attention to these noises about Zubimendi being ‘hijacked’ by Real Madrid.

For what has felt like months all we’ve heard is that Arsenal were in control of the situation, that they would be his destination and even the respected journalists were saying things that made you suggest it was all but done. I think I heard about one of the top sports writers at an AST meeting say that expectations are that it’s just a matter of time. And it all felt very Declan Rice to me. What I mean by that is if you think about the January window before we signed him, we bid for Caicedo which was rejected, but Ornstein had reported that plenty of really positive talks with Rice had taken place and Arsenal were really confident in signing him in the summer. I remember thinking at the time that was a pipe dream, mainly because all the noises I’d heard were that Chelsea were going to just throw a load of cash at him and West Ham and because of his historical ties, that’s more than likely where he would end up. But after a season in which we competed for the league, suddenly we were a side who could be in the conversation. We were serious contenders and we all know that Arsenal pushed the boat out to get their man that summer.

But do you also remember about how City came in and were bidding hard with us. The noises from the likes of Ferdinand were “go to City” and I remember being in Portugal on holiday watching the saga unfold as it finally swung in our favour and we learned that City backed away as Arsenal pushed the boat out to meet the West Ham asking price of £100million (everyone always says £105million, but it was £100million with £5million in add-ons – we don’t know if any of those have ever been met).

Why am I recounting this saga? Well, because it feels like all of the similar boxes have been checked:

• Arsenal have been tracking him a long time
• Arsenal have done a lot of ground work to court him and make sure he’s keen
• There’s an expectation that this summer he will make a move, having stayed at his boyhood club and served his time
• There will be a bit of a bidding war that will go on as he’s a talented player

The vibes I get are very Declan. The only element of this that perhaps is something we don’t have control over, or at least less control, is the cultural change the player would have to go through. Declan is from London, he preferred to stay in London. Arsenal were a clear preference. Zubimendi is Spanish. Uprooting and moving to England would be a lot bigger deal for him than it was for Declan to move from East London to North London. So in that regard, you’d say Real have the upper hand. Then, it’s also Real Madrid and if we’re all honest with ourselves, when they want someone, they tend to get them. If Real are going for Zubimendi and they pay what Sociedad want, then I think our chances are slim.

And so the neurosis kicks in for me again, which is to start thinking that I hope Arsenal have a very good Plan B in place. I really hope we don’t – like we did last summer – have a ‘Sesko or bust’ mindset on Zubimendi, because we will 100% be losing Partey and probably Jorginho, which means there is a necessity to find a suitable replacement.

These are, of course, all worries for another day. The season is still ongoing. But that’s what happens when you have too much time on your hands to think and not enough football matches to be watched.

Catch you all tomorrow.