Not every transfer rumour deserves a story, but at Arseblog News we’re keen to keep you up to date throughout what promises to be a busy summer.
As such, we’ll be doing our transfer round-up posts again to put a number of stories together in one place.
Let’s start, with Poo-o-Meter ratings where applicable.
Reiss Nelson
The winger has been linked with a move to Greek champions, Olympiacos. The draw of Sokratis is clearly strong.
The 21 year old had a disappointing season, playing just 45 Premier League minutes, and barely featuring in match-day squads. He reportedly turned down loan moves to stay and fight for his place, but in doing so he lost a year of development.
Next season he has to play, and whether it’s a loan or a permanent switch, it looks clear that he’s going to have to go somewhere else to get the time on the pitch he needs.
Poo-o-Meter says:
Sead Kolasinac
The Bosnia and Herzegovina international rejoined his old club Schalke on loan in January, but for some reason his defensive efforts, coupled with ex-Gunner Shkodran Mustafi, weren’t enough to save them from relegation.
Now, it’s being reported that his good friend Mesut Ozil is selling him hard on a move to Turkey. The former playmaker is at Fenerbahce, and Kolasinac is being linked with a move to another Istanbul side, Galatasaray.
The Turkish silly-season is genuinely next level stuff. They take transfer rumours to a new level, so we’re always cautious about stories involving Super Lig clubs, but there’s no question Arsenal want rid of Kolasinac and this seems as reasonable a move as any we’ve seen so far.
Poo-o-Meter says:
Raheem Sterling
He is reportedly unhappy at Man City and because of his association with Mikel Arteta, Arsenal is being talked about as a possible destination for the England international.
Poo-o-Meter says:
Martin Odegaard
The Norwegian is 100% an Arsenal target, and various sources suggest he is Mikel Arteta’s priority this summer.
Much depends on Real Madrid though, and over the weekend it was reported that the Spanish giants are keen to keep him next season.
🚨🌖| Ødegaard is coming back to Real Madrid. He will be in next season's squad. @JorgeCalabres #rmalive
— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) May 31, 2021
Could he be sold to help fund a move for the kind of mega-star signing they like to make? It’s feasible, but until they appoint a new manager and we find out what his plans for the 22 year old are, this is a story that remains in a kind of transfer limbo.
Noussair Mazraoui
The Gunners are seeking a right-back this summer, but as yet few names have been mentioned.
One of the few to crop up so far is Noussair Mazraoui, a Moroccan international who plays for Ajax. He made 19 league appearances for the Eredivisie champions in what was an injury hit campaign for the 23 year old.
He has made 102 appearances in total for Ajax, and interestingly (or not) has just 12 months left on his current contract which may well be something Arsenal, if genuinely interested, could exploit.
Poo-o-Meter says: “I’m all poo-ed out for this post.”
Mazraoui is the new Trabelsi
Username checks out
Summary of poo-meter reading for all the above:
💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
I’m so confused as to why Reiss seems to have zero interest in him. When was he outed as a terrible footballer and a crap professional?
I thought he did pretty well when he was given the opportunity this season and last.
Bizarre.
Perhaps Mikel just doesn’t fancy him in his team.
That’s very probable. But a good championship side of poor prem side could definitely use him. It was only a few seasons ago that we hadn’t heard of Saka and Nelson was the hope of the academy.
Absolutely. I still retain a sliver of hope that it’ll work out for Nelson. He is a talent. But looking at it with head over heart, I’m edging closer to accepting that his future lies away from Arsenal. Which has been hard because, like you, I think that if it was on talent alone, he’d have a place.
Saka is one of the first name in Arteta’s starting XI and lately ESR but I am still not convinced with his ability to develop young players. You achieve nothing in terms of development by giving 45 minutes a season to a player. Wenger was able to get a great season in midfield out of a guy who had no blatant qualities like Alex Song before the boy wasted all that going to Barcelona.
RBL, a super successful club wanted ESR and got him on loan. We haven’t heard of any even bottom half pl sides wanting Nelson. I like the player, but he hasn’t shown enough I’m sure he can have a long career in the top leagues. Big year for him, hope he makes the right choice.
The next Serge Gnabry!
I know. Nowhere near the worst player we have.
Bizarre one for sure, given his output would’ve been absolutely no worse than Willians disaster class of a season. We’ve basically needlessly destroyed an opportunity for a fairly well touted Arsenal youngster to get plenty of first team football this season. Which as a bare minimum would have given him exposure to the market place for a potential sale this window if we decided not to keep him. To somehow end up doing nothing with him as a player for the last 12 months is an absolute failing in my book. To not even secure him a loan is a… Read more »
According to all reports (including the one above) he refused to go out on loan.
The official word, but not sure I subscribe to that fully
Dunno about the others, but the young, fragile, injury prone, right back who I’ve never even heard of before sounds exactly like our sort of business.
Well unless you’re a football scout I’m OK with you not hearing about him. Young, experienced, hopefully well scouted and shouldn’t be an overpay. This is exactly the type of deal we SHOULD be looking at during a rebuild. Stop relying on other team’s talent identification and do it ourselves.
Scouts, yes scouts help edu. How did we get on with our recruiting agency?
Expanding on Daveo’s point, as far as I’m aware, the most significant thing which kept him out this season was an eye injury (got hit in the eye with the ball).
For me that’s a freak injury and I don’t think you can label someone as fragile/injury prone based solely on that
Better than an arrow to the knee I guess.
We were close to a deal with the recruiting agency, but the paperwork wasn’t filed in time.
Excellent.
Consequently, Kia has been placed directly on retainer.
That’s so 2011.
Our business now is players who you first heard of a decade ago, are clients of You-Know-Who, come on a free, and we can sign to long-term contracts worth 100,000 a week at least.
Oh, and they’re shit.
Exactly, our new style is something like an injured Clyne on a 3 year, 250k a week deal
I really hope we don’t sign Sterling
We want young and hungry players on the way up, not players who’ve already got a trophy cabinet full, a bank account full, and little left to prove
Established stars just cost big transfer fees, extortionate wages, and bring big ego
Unfortunately we sacked our scouts, and we’re not very good at identifying up and coming talent
If we sign Sterling, Edu and Arteta should be sacked. We have far more pressing needs than a minor upgrade on a wide forward position. Surely they cannot be that stupid. I’ll take this as pure gossip.
Not sure he’s an upgrade even.
He had 17 league goal contributions in 31 apps in a ‘poor season’ last season.
Counting back he had 21 (20 goals) then 27 then 29.
Of course he’s an upgrade.
It’s different when you play for “that” team however.
I doubt he’d have anywhere near these numbers playing for us this season past.
Sterling is better than willian tho.
Couldn’t agree more. Sterling isn’t needed and in two more years Saka will be the far better player.
We’re not getting Sterling, whether it’s a good idea or not. We are also not getting Mbappe, who I heard was friends with the son of the guy who sold Lacazette his car. That’s good, because it might hurt the development of Martinelli. Or bad, because Auba needs the competition. Or . .
So Raheen Sterling it is… or am I not reading this right?
And if there’s one position we’re stacked in it’s wide forward. So you can bet it’s a done deal
Sterling’s problem is not being an over the hill Chelsea player looking for a retirement home. He’ll never make it at Arsenal.
Any more news on the Guendouzi – Marseille deal? This Swedish Arsenal blog claimed yesterday that it’s already a done deal but I believe it when I hear it from Arseblog first.
According to the MIRROR, Guendouzi has now agreed on a permanent move to Marseille. There had been interest from Barca, but perhaps they are not in the mood for bidding right now. This is a great example of why Arteta needs to go and get some real coaching experience at a lower level before he acts the “big shot” at a club like Arsenal. One disagreement with the great Arteta and a VERY promising young talent like Guendouzi is dumped without much explanation. His offense against Brighton (for which no ticket was given) was almost exactly the same as Pepe.… Read more »
Not even Barcelona are stupid enough to buy Guendouzi
I understood the major difference between the two is that Pepe took his red card, admitted his error and apologised like a grown up while Guendouzi went all out petulent. Plus nonsense like picking fights with Sokratis during training and other disruptive idiotic behaviour. Even his Herta Berlin coach said he needs to grow up.
Not sure which coach worth his salt would put up with that. More power to Arteta for putting his foot down.
Every football club has the occasional fight in training. It happens.
You say that Guendouzi should have acted like a “grown up”. But that is exactly what is being forgotten here!
He was a 19-year old, fresh from the 2nd tier of French football, with a background on the periphery of Europe/North Africa. So no, he was not yet “grown up”, and Arteta would have been far wiser to consider that before executing a “one mistake and you’re gone” policy.
Although I am also skeptical about what actually happened with Ozil, it’s not true that it was “one disagreement” with Guendouzi. His recent problems in Germany make it three managers in three countries who have had big issues with him.
Will agree to disagree on describing Guen as a VERY promising young talent. He is bang average on a good day and will be lucky to play in a top 10 side anywhere with his attitude.
Guendouzi is absolutely fkn shite and it’s hilarious to read of the supppsed top clubs sniffing around him waiting to swoop on this brilliant young French talent. Lol. His agent is clearly getting desperate with the rumors. Then there’s His tweet out to Emery last week practically begging for villareal to take him. He’s mid-tier championship level at best.
Just because you found such reports “hilarious” does not mean they were all untrue. Less than a year ago, there were multiple football sources claiming that Barcelona were discussing a swap deal with Arsenal where Guendouzi would go to Barca and Philippe Coutinho to Arsenal.
Like Ozil, Guendouzi had shown the offensive creativity that was so badly lacking at Arsenal last season.
Its so predictable well sell four or five players and get maybe if were lucky 20 million but still end up paying a fortune each week for the duck egg Willian.
the purchasing of players by the management has been truly shocking its clear that people have been treating supporters money as Monopoly money by the way do we have one Englshman involved in the selection process?
Willian assists > Your grammar
Surprised to not see Willian mentioned in the article. Some high-profile journalists are indicating that he might be leaving. This is supposedly the guy that demoted Nelson to a fringe player. Either way I’m struggling to think which Arsenal transfer was the most nonsensical in the last decade. Denis Suarez, Kim Kallström or Willian Borges? On a more positive note. The Ajax right-back is a good prospect even if this is the first time I’m seeing links with him. I’d like to see the club targeting more of these low-cost, decent potential players. Not expecting much from this summer. Just… Read more »
Kim Kallstrom was a legend, worked his butt off to be fit, scored a good penalty, got an FA Cup medal and loved the club. Nothing like feeble Suarez or rubbish Willian.
Exactly! Källström was a fine player in his day and renowned for his excellent freekicks. Like this one for example:
https://youtu.be/_BDP4-_DfYo
His only transgression was arriving injured which was no fault of his as it was discovered after he turned up. Yet somehow there are still Arsenal fans who thinks that makes him one of the all time flops. Far from it. He did well when he played for us and my criticism is levelled at Wenger for not using him more.
Signing someone like Sterling could actually make a lot of sense. It looks likely that Willian and Nelson are off, so if Saka also moved to centre mid as has been suggested on here, it leaves only Martinelli and Pepe as out and out wide options.
I think the sight of Sterling in an Arsenal shirt would make me vomit. I hope that Josh didn’t mean spending a fortune on Sterling when he said “be excited”. Just because we’ve seemingly learned not to buy Chelsea rejects doesn’t mean we need a horrible divey City reject. I’m REALLY hoping this is just nonsense.
I wouldnt be adverse to signing Sterling to be honest. On the surface it seems a strange one, but we’ve struggled to score goals this season and relied too heavily on Saka. I love the kid, but he can’t play every match without getting burnt out
Weirdly enough, what I’m actually really looking forward to this window is for the outgoings not the incomings. Lets start with Willian shall we
We really need a solid left back to cover KT. Ryan is a great GK, we should try to keep him. Nelson and Nketia have to go with no Europa games.
What will likely happen this summer. Xhaka -> Roma £15-20m Bellerin -> Spain £10-15m Nketiah -> Watford/Brighton £10m Guendouzi -> Marseille £10m Maitland-Niles -> PL team £5m Mavropanos -> Stuttgart Loan + £10 option/obligation Kolasinac -> Germany Free Willian -> MLS Free Nelson, Torreira and Runarsson on loan Gives us ~£50m, and I’m sure we can find an extra £50m somewhere to fund transfers. Onana – Ajax £2m (ban likely to be upheld, can’t play till February) Ryan – Brighton Free LB Backup – £5-10m RB – £20m CM £25-35m Berge or Bissouma, hopefully the former due to AFCON AM… Read more »
We should give our old mate at ajax a call to snap up some talents. Aside from the RB, we might also get the keeper?
I am happy for Odegaard to be at Madrid. Let’s get a proper creative midfielder in the squad
I like the look of Noussair Mazraoui. He looks like the real deal. My problem is Afcon.
What are we going to do when Pepe, Partey, Auba, bosumma if he comes, and this guy all leave for Afcon in the middle of the season?
is anyone else kind of uninspired at the thought of signing odegaard for 40m?