Grab a cuppa and check out our latest roundup of rumours that aren’t worth a post all of their own…
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N’Golo Kante
🛬 Chelsea
Source: The Daily Star (yeah, we didn’t know they were still going either)
I think we got excited about this rumour in 2016 but we just rolled our eyes this time around. Despite an injury-hit 21/22 campaign, the 31-year-old France international remains a fantastic player but we can’t see us making a move for him this summer, or indeed, Chelsea selling him to us. Italian Ornstein has already poo-pooed it and so shall we.
Poo-o-meter: 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
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Alex Grimaldo
🛬 Benfica
Source: A Bola
The Portuguese press seem pretty certain that Arsenal have lodged a €7 million bid for the Spain left-back which, if true, would suggest we’re giving up on Lisandro Martinez and saving ourselves €40 million in the process. At 26, he’d bring more experience to the role than Nuno Tavares but it’s unclear how much of an upgrade he’d be. Still, if we’d rather redirect funds elsewhere, it’s one you could see happening.
Poo-o-meter: 💩💩💩💩💩
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Lucas Paqueta
🛬 Lyon
Source: Various
Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas has confirmed that he’s received bids for the 24-year-old midfielder but it’s unclear who leads the race. There are suggestions that Sp*rs, Newcastle and Arsenal (of course, he’s Brazilian!) are all keeping tabs on the player. Given he plays predominantly as an attacking midfielder (and we’ve just signed Fabio Vieira) it seems hard to believe.
Poo-o-meter: 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
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Edon Zhegrova
🛬 Lille
Source:
The 23-year-old Kosovan only joined Lille in January so it’s pretty surprising to see him being linked with an exit. We’re assuming somebody somewhere scoured a list of right-wingers and, in the aftermath of the failed Raphinha approach, decided this guy might fit the bill. We don’t believe it for a second but that won’t stop this logic from being applied to a myriad of others with similar profiles.
Poo-o-meter: 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
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Lucas Torreira
🛬 AS Roma
Source: The player
Asked about his future, Lucas revealed that he’s fielded a call from sociopath Jose Mourinho about a move to the Stadio Olimpico. It seems Torreira, like mama’s home cooking, is very popular in Italy. Juventus, Lazio and Napoli have all been linked after a permanent deal with Fiorentina collapsed. “I spoke to Mourinho a while ago,” said Lucas. “I admire him as a coach. It’s an opportunity that tempts me a lot, but it’s not easy.” Yeah, probably because Roma’s preferred payment option is magic beans.
Poo-o-meter: 💩💩💩💩💩
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A reminder, Arsenal have a lot of players to offload this summer and very few have been the subject of tangible transfer rumours.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Reiss Nelson and Alex Runarsson are amongst those who could well leave. Hector Bellerin and Pablo Mari have suitors but no bidders and at some point, we need to find a home for mysterious January signing Auston Trusty.
It’s no secret that we’ve struggle to get good value on our sales in years, but I’m hoping after this round of players – Reiss, Mari, AMN, Bellerin, Pepe(?), Torreira, Leno – all players that didn’t quite work out for us and should be moved on, we’ll begin selling our fringe and squad players (particularly our academy graduates who don’t quite make it) for better fees. I think part of the reason for our struggles is these are all once important players whose wages reflect that, who were all caught in the limbo of our rebuild. They are players who… Read more »
Fully agree. We’re still in this transition phase from the old to the new. We have invested in players who WILL have a higher value (bar maybe White).
Judgement on our selling ability comes then. Until then its just about getting these others “out of the way”.
N’Golo Kante…? WTAF…?
FFS Arsenal, for the love of God, no more Chelsea Pensioners. 🙄
Or Man Utd ones.
You wouldn’t take a 31 year old N’Golo Kante?! He’s arguably the best player in the world in his role, which is arguably the one we most need!
Alex grimaldo came through La Masia as Hector Bellerin’s full-back partner. He’s most definitely a left back not a quasi left half like L. Martinez (or even tierney to an extent). I think Arteta wants 3 in the build-up phase + 1 holding midfielder and he was going to use Martinez/Tierney + Gabriel/Saliba + White/Tomiyasu with cedric (+new RB/maitland-niles?) overlapping Saka. Then we could loan Tavares and overload our right-hand side (where our best players play) leaving the last minute switch on to Martinelli/Smith-Rowe to score hatfuls of goals. City bascially do this the opposite way round by attacking down… Read more »
He’s more similar to Tierney than Nuno and was highly rated as a youngster. I’d take him or Zinchenko at this point but 6 million sounds like a steal for a regular starter in Portugal who was very productive last season. Similar price to Nuno with more experience and better technique. These kinds of deals are fun, low risk, get to look at an interesting player and hope it works out. That we’ll probably make money on Nuno if he’s sold is thanks to MA. Playing him down the stretch when he didn’t need to. Letting teams at least see… Read more »
All shite then 😉
Auston Who?
Mikel: I need a CB I can rely on, have faith in, someone who will do what I tell them, someone it’s impossible to doubt.
Edu: let me enter a few words into the Sanllehimatron 3000…
*both gasp*
BINGO!
I literally had to Google it
So we’ve all given up and thrown the towel in on Rafinha have we? Even though he’s been left out of the Leeds squad, Barcelona don’t have any money and we’re the only club who’ve officially lodged a bid (which assumes he’s happy to join us). Does anyone have any actual credible information to add to this or do we always assume now that every quality player we ever want won’t join us if there if is competition from a champions league team? I just don’t understand why the narrative has completely changed on this. Other than a number of… Read more »
Here you go…
https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1546389325000036352
Barcelona have found the cash.
Thanks, didn’t see this before. So a broke club who can’t afford to pay their own players somehow finds 72 million under the sofa? What an odious bunch of corrupt cheats.
It gets fairly complicated, but the short version is they’re selling off non-player assets (mainly future TV rights) to fund investment today. By my understanding they still won’t be able to actually register some of these new players until they sell current players – so if/when they sell de Jong, they’d be allowed to officially add Raphinha, for example. I hope the rest of the footballing world recognizes this and holds them over a barrel when buying their players. You know, like they all try to do with Arsenal for some reason.
So murky. Wouldn’t it be more prudent for them to accept a couple years of rebuilding, promote hungry players from within their famous academy, get rid of some of their underperforming players on high wages and pay off debt?
The first step is admitting you have a problem.
Barca are still partying on credit.
They’ve been an odious bunch of corrupt cheats for years.
Stronger language is required for the new depths being plumbed in the Nou Cesspool.
Barcelona was always his first choice. And i like raphinha a lot, he’s properly good, but fees of 70m euros+ is where the lines between Prem proven skillful winger and just 13 npg in 65 Prem appearances start to become blurred. I would’ve taken raphinha in a heartbeat for any fee under 40-50m, but 75m + wages is big money for a position that, while we need to add depth, isn’t as crucial as a left 8 or left back competition right now.
Hey don’t get over excited with yourself 🙂
Has Austin Trusty lost the trust of Arteta that soon?
No the club have already confirmed he’ll be loaned out this season.
It’s frustrating we didn’t even attempt to go for Richarlison instead of Raphinha, as we probably could have landed him.
The Brazilian factor would have swing the pendulum our way, especially with the lure of playing with Jesus.
He would have slotted in to the first 11 perfectly on that left hand side.
And we could have offered Everton Maitland-Niles to save some cash.
Now that he has signed for sp*rs It’s impossible to think of him as anything other than a useless rat faced ballbag.
Sp*rs are exactly the place for him.
It’s Everton so AMN plus LT for 50m and they could’ve kept Richarlison as he’s dodgy as fuck anyway
Would you have been happy to spend £60m on Richarlison?
Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a useful player but £60m?! That’s fucking insanity.
That dirty diver is a perfect match for Sp*rs. A cheat on the same level as Kane and any option for us was probably as an alternative to Jesus if we didn’t get him. I didn’t want Richarlison at Arsenal. I don’t like his face nor his behaviour.
Richarlison is not Arsenal quality
1) After the debacles that were Gallas, Willian and Cech, you’d think we’d have learned our lesson of signing has been Chelsea players, but obviously those Russians have some serious kompromat on the club it seems 2) I wouldn’t want Raphinha, not because he isn’t talented, but more because he doesn’t want us, he wants Barca! we’d be nothing but a stepping stone who’d agitate after a year, we don’t need that for our project 3) As other’s have mentioned, Barca are so rotten. I hope someone is working on a brutal documentary about how the world’s biggest club (tm… Read more »
Zhegrova excites me alot. Top class dribbler. I just love the show But I don’t think we will get him.
We will most likely end the window with Grimaldo, tieleman And paqueta.
Paqueta is so versatile which makes the deal more realistic.
Paqueta will be a top signing tho.
The kind of player that can drive a team to success.
I will take him everyday over raphinha.. given our priorities
I did watch Paqueta at Milan and with Brazil at the Copa. Looks like a more adventurous Tielemans. The latter might be more technically secure for CM.
The squad is slowly starting to look good, would like to five or six players depart shortly. A right winger, defensive midfielder and someone like Lisandro Martinez should come in. Would like to see Patrick Viera come in after 2 or 3 seasons and take over as manager. However, I see the league turning into a two horse race between Newcastle and Man City. Other owners cannot compete with such financial firepower. Ronaldo to AC Milan, that transfer would make sense, not sure the Zlatan would be happy.