The transfer window opens in exactly one month and things are relatively quiet on the rumour front at first team level.
Having been linked with a whole host of strikers at the turn of the year, the speculation has died down considerably, in part, you imagine, because Mikel Arteta’s squad have just posted a record goal tally in a Premier League campaign.
Away from the seniors and there are already signs of movement. In fact, Arseblog’s resident youth expert, Jeorge Bird, is expecting a busy summer of exits at the academy.
There are always quite a lot of departures at youth level each summer but it feels as if this year there could be more than normal. A lot of players have reached the stage where they need to play senior football and there are some very good U16s and younger players coming…
— Jeorge Bird (@jeorgebird) May 14, 2024
Yesterday, The Athletic reported that defender Reuell Walters, a regular for the under-21s, has rejected the offer of a new contract and will move soon.
The 19-year-old was part of the senior squad that toured the USA in 2022 and featured in a pre-season friendly against Nurnberg but never had the opportunity to make his competitive senior debut despite several inclusions on the bench.
Art De Roché claims that clubs in England, Germany, Holland, Italy and Belgium have been tracking his progress and that Arsenal will be eligible for compensation although the final amount will depend on where he ends up.
Understand Reuell Walters is set to leave Arsenal at the expiry of his contract this summer
Was offered a new deal but declined. 1st team exposure now needed. Being monitored by clubs in PL, Championship Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy & Belgiumhttps://t.co/zU3PIAB2uh
— Art de Roché (@ArtdeRoche) May 13, 2024
Ryan Taylor of The Mirror says Arthur Okonkwo will leave on a free transfer. The goalkeeper is technically part of Arteta’s first team but hasn’t been at the club for two years having undertaken successful loan spells with Crewe Alexandra, Sturm Graz and Wrexham.
Given his fine form helping the latter earn promotion, it feels like we’re leaving money on the table here but nevermind.
Elsewhere, Kido Taylor-Hart has taken to Instagram to confirm he’ll be moving on. The attacking midfielder appeared to have the world at his feet a couple of years ago but an injury has hampered his development. He’s just ended a season-long loan with Bromley with nine appearances.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on all the ins and outs at the academy in the coming months. Per Mertesacker oversaw the departure of 11 players last summer, let’s see if Jeorge’s prediction proves correct.
I will very, very rarely criticise Arteta. But I think it’s strange that Walters could have been so close to getting a first team appearance that he was on the bench countless times and travelled with the first team on the US tour but never played a competitive game. Just one or two sub appearances and, at the very least, we are keeping him happy and selling him for £5m. I really hope that Arteta is able to find games for Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri and ACD. If for no other reason than we don’t put years and years into their development… Read more »
I tend to agree, only caveat is that we never quite know what happens behind the scenes, perhaps he had disciplinary or attitude issues that made Arteta rethink whether he was ready for the 1st team, or even just a drop of performance in practices or at under 21 matches. Also the fact our two starting CB’s haven’t missed a game this season so even our 3rd CB (Kiwior) hasn’t played a single game in his real position this season. But the fact he wasn’t on the bench almost all this season I think (?) after being there so often… Read more »
Do Spurs practise through balls at all? They’re so poor in doing it.
you don’t make the bench as often as he did at 19 with disciplinary issues. this is on arteta not playing him full stop.
I think the dead rubber vs PSV is the example of an opportunity for a couple u21s to have been given some game time. Yes, there is value in giving (at that point) fringe first teamers like Kiwior and Elneny a start, but there was no real need to bring on White or Odegaard (or even having a look at Rice as a CB) given these young players had with the first team all season at that point, so clearly they were in the management team’s thought.
Also, just in case it’s not completely obvious, fuck Manc115ter City
And Sp*rs fans literally starting to cheer on their team when going down 2-0 at the 91st minute. What a fucking pathetic bunch of losers, that goodbye speech by Conte rings so fucking true now
As pathetic as they are, this isn’t on spurs. At least they tried. They are just a bang average football team going nowhere fast. What’s more concerning is a club owned by a morally corrupt nation state with 115 unanswered charges to their name is about to win their 4th title in a row in supposedly the most competitive league in the world…and nobody cares. Clubs are breaking their own records to compete (Liverpool 97 points, Arsenal most wins in a season), and it’s still not enough to stop this financially doped, nauseating, dull, sterile brand of football hoovering up… Read more »
What’s also nauseating is the press, sky, motd, tnt, all praising this shity team, how incredible they are rather than how doped they are
I mean they are all probably on the gravy train aren’t they? Probably on the invitation list to Abu Dhabi along with the referees. Toe the line and we’ll scratch your back. The worst thing is, because City have no fans (at least I’ve never met one), fans of other clubs are happy for them to keep winning it as long as their rivals don’t. Just yuk.
You only have to ask yourself who pays the media’s bills…
The BBC has at least put this in an article today: “And 16 months after City were charged with more than a hundred rule breaches, a hearing in their case is not thought to be scheduled until the autumn, contributing to the mounting scrutiny of the league’s governance and processes. While City deny wrongdoing, a sixth league triumph in seven years – potentially by just one point for the third time in five seasons after pipping Liverpool in 2019 and 2022 – would only intensify questions over the fairness of how they assembled their squad over several years. A fourth… Read more »
Sacrosanct
No this isn’t on the Sp*rs players, they really did try! But their fans literally not being bothered the whole game when their CL qualification was still on the line, that’s… pathetic doesn’t quite do it justice. Execrable? Yep, execrable.
It’s a horrible scenario for them. Maybe qualify for Europe (very important if Ange is to get the clear out he wants. No chance Levy will dig into his pockets now) OR hand the title to your most hated rivals. In fairness, I know a couple of spurs fans who banter aside, were quite ashamed of this child like mentality. They wanted to beat City, qualify for Europe and support Everton on the final day. Kudos to them I say.
I had the displeasure of watching the game and I don’t think they tried at all. I watched a really mediocre, turgid team who lacked any ambition or spark. That was the saddest take away for me, that that Sp*rs team basically had no chance of beating a City team that was arguably having an off night.
At least the Sp*rs players did put in a shit; they’re just shit. But as a fan, I have to admit that I was prepared to sacrifice just about anything for the scum NOT to win THAT Champions League final. I would have chosen NOT making 4th if that’s what it would take. Just saying …
and Ange’s comments yesterday were saying pretty much the exact same thing! Just in a more diplomatic and hopeful way than Conte
We have to count on West Ham now. Yes, they can.
Moyes on his last EPL game for West Ham hands the title to his former captains that served him well wherever he’s been successful, Mikel and Rice.
You read it here first. 😎
Well we no longer need to worry about man city overhauling our goal difference because if they draw against Westham we win the title if we beat Everton – focus on winning our game and hope for Westham to put in a shift 👍
Well its hard to believe they can do anything…
Well played Sp*rs. What a polite way to throw the game. I’m absolutely sure Son and Pedro will be forever feted in Totteringham’s folklore!
And after Son decides to play into the keeper in a one on one situation they gift a pen on the other end to boost City’s goal difference. Just in case West Ham forces a draw i guess.
Son has missed plenty like this before. I’m not saying he’s a Darwen Nunez, but he’s no Leandro Trossard either.
this marks the day when they become once and for always a small London club, like palace, Brentford and Fulham
… West Ham 😓
Saying Son deliberately missed is as childish as the Spurs fans. If he did not want to score he would not have run so hard to get onto the pass in the first place, rather than “risk” scoring. Nor would he have placed the ball to the side of the goalkeeper.
It is annoying, but there is no way he would even risk scoring with those two actions if he did not want to.
At least this result simplifies the scenario. Here’s to a West Ham draw, and us winning ours. Straight forward; no uncertainty about how many goals we need to score to preserve the goal difference.
It’s quite demoralising that we only tasted defeat to Villa (the only game we lost in 2024) and essentially put the title in City’s hands. One slip was all it took. Even though we’ve been top for most of the time since then, there has been an air of inevitability they would win all of their games and rein us in. I do wish they’d fuck off, preferably to the moon.
Jail would be better, or hard labor smashing rocks, really hard rocks… Granite…with a wooden mallet.
Throw those rocks against the wall? Like a….
Granite Chuckah?
Hopefully, when the 115 counts are finally properly examined and punished, they’ll disappear into the Championship and we’ll retrospectively be awarded the two titles that we won fair and square.
Happened to Lance Armstrong….stripped of 7 Tour de France titles…. everyone behind him moved up 🤞🤞
And what City do is so much worse. Armstrong was doping while everyone else was doping too. You could argue that if everyone stopped doping, he’d still have won. If City stopped doping, they’d be in League 1.
Something tells me it’ll be a mere slap on the wrist for them. Wouldn’t want to upset the brand of the money roided “champions”, would we?
I hope Spurs get relegated next season
Then next season there is not much material to laugh at.
There’s Chelsea.
Is anyone surprised that we lost another quality academy player? But so good that we gave Cedric minutes in the CL!