According to various reports, Arsenal want to sign Bologna defender Riccardo Calafiori.
The Italy international, 22, has been heavily tipped to move to Juventus in recent months while Liverpool and Chelsea have also been linked.
It’s claimed that Bologna wants €40 million for a defender who earned his stripes last season helping them to a fifth-place finish in Serie A.
Do Arsenal need a left-sided centre-half who can operate as a left-back? Not particularly.
For that to make sense, we’d have to sell Jakub Kiwior. While the Pole is constantly linked with a return to Serie A, it seems an unnecessary piece of business to do when there are more pressing matters to deal with.
This just feels like our name is being used to drive some urgency elsewhere.
🚨🇮🇹 Arsenal and Chelsea remain both interested in Riccardo Calafiori, as revealed last week.
Both clubs have explored conditions of the deal, expensive as Basel will get almost 50% of the fee.
↪️ Calafiori gave green light to Juventus but Bologna preference is to sell abroad. pic.twitter.com/D2MAJvaxoo
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 2, 2024
Elsewhere, Spanish publication ElDesmarque claims Sevilla have stepped up their interest in Sambi Lokonga.
The midfielder has already revealed that Arsenal have given him permission to look for a new club and it appears the Spaniards are the ones most impressed by his CV.
Signed from Anderlecht, who he captained, Lokonga made a bright start to life at the Emirates before falling out of favour. He spent last season with Luton Town and earned plaudits for his performances despite a couple of lengthy spells on the sidelines.
It’s said that Sambi will initially depart on another season-long loan but Sevilla will have an obligation to buy him next summer.
Having paid €17.5 million to sign the player in 2021, it looks like Arsenal will make a loss on the player, the question is how much.
Sevilla apparently want to pay €8 million while we’re asking for €12 million. As a reminder, he’s under contract at the Emirates until 2026.
I just wanna understand something when it comes to throwing around ‘profit’ and ‘loss’ when selling a player: having had Sambi on the books for a couple years and having made payments on the initial fee, the team isn’t technically trying to make 8m euros *against* 17m, correct? Arsenal have paid off much of the initial fee; so if they owe, let’s say 6m still, then anything over that is a profit, isn’t it? It was confusing to me when there was all this talk earlier in the summer of selling Tierney “at a loss,” when, come on, haven’t we… Read more »
Really using words like “loss” and “profit” is reductive. If you want to know whether the Sambi deal was a good deal or not it makes much more sense to look at it in the perspective of our wider goals, and then see how he helps us contribute to that. We spent £17m on him, he played a couple of games, got loaned out, now we’re looking to sell him for £12m. Did he contribute much to helping us perform on the pitch in that time? No. Have we gained any overall financial advantage from the deal that will help… Read more »
Yes to all of that, but actually imo it comes down to the more simple question of how much money do we have at our disposal to strengthen the squad. The original commenter talks about profit and loss as they relate to doing the club’s yearly accounts but this isn’t about that. We’re talking purely about the money allocated to making football transactions, most of which goes to transfers and wages. That money is limited and that limit is dictated by match day and commercial income, debt etc, all things no one here wants to think about too much. The… Read more »
I see the point you’re trying to make here but using a subjective word like “good” isn’t helping your case.
Basically, we lost £5m net on a guy that our scouting team felt might have been the long-term Partey successor (and who looked like he could be for a while). That’s absolutely fine and it’s important to keep making signings like this because eventually one will land. I’d much prefer it to be in the Lokonga price range to the Vieira one.
Very similar to Marquinhos – yes it was a waste of money in the end, but his incoming scouting report was probably similar to Martinelli, so you have to risk the Marquinhos to find the Martinellis.
Based on a transfer fee of £17.2m and an initial contract of 4 years, his book value right now is £4.3m, so anything in excess of that would be classed as an accounting profit. Assuming we trigger his one year extension (which we’ll have to if he’s going on loan) then next summer his book value will be £2.15m.
Obviously we are likely to have captured some level of loan fees from Palace, Luton and hopefully Sevilla.
Ahh football
Where talk of false 9 and gengenpressing is replaced by debates about sunk cost fallacy and PSR. The nerds have taken over.
I think what you may be referring to is as GooneRon says, the book value. And that’s really only relevant when talking about PSR as our accounts for this year show Lakonga’s monetary worth as £4.3m.
The Arsevision podcast with the money guy was well worth a listen if like me, you feel like you’re excluded from the latest hipster football banter.
I’d guess that the Calafiori in & Kiwior out deal would be the better PSR move. The Italian’s fee could be spread over 5 years and Kiwior money would be on this year’s profit?
FFP needs looking at, or we’ll see all sorts of needless horse-trading that will ruin players’ careers.
I still don’t get why no one offers us any money for premier League tested talent…see the sums being paid for mediocre talent to championship sides! Amazing that no one is making offers for reiss nelson and ESR
.. incompressible….we can’t shake or our bad reputation for selling cheaply…
Well the deals you are referencing do not represent real market value. These are creative accounting ways to get in line with the financial rules. Gab Marcotti has a nice article over on ESPN that explains this. The deals allow clubs to post a profit now while extending the cost out several years, kicking the can down the road. That Arsenal are not involved in such shenanigans is a good thing. The selling dominoes will fall in due course.
Our name is going to be used everywhere now. Earlier today I saw us being linked to Kounde, who is a good player for sure, but not exactly the position we need (RB/CB).
Lokonga is rated at 15m euros on transfermarkt. I would very much like us to stand our ground and get value for our players. If Chelsea can do it, so can we. 12m plus a percentage of the next sale would be acceptable, nothing lower than that.
I actually think the interest is real, even if it doesn’t come to pass. If you can get Joules Kounde for a reasonable sum, you do it, even more so if you need another defender. Ben White has an amazing fitness record at RB, but if he got injured it wouldn’t have been pretty. He was also the #1 option to replace Saliba. We can’t rely on both of them playing every minute of every game, and if you’re going to bolster a defence, you do it with blue chip players like Calafiori or Kounde. The other piece of this… Read more »
I think the interest is defo real. But I just don’t understand why we are so obsessed with getting a left back. I mean, we have four. Zinchenko is a fantastic option for games against teams outside the top six. Kiwior played LB magnificently at times this season, most notably against Liverpool at home. Tomi is just professionalism personified (and probably our first choice) and then Timber could well be world class if what we’ve seen so far is how he consistently operates. Find me another team in the prem with those sort of LB options. I get why we… Read more »
I’ve wondered about this too. We also have Tierney, though for how much longer no one really knows. Aren’t there more pressing issues? Cover/competition for Saka has been a pressing issue for at least two summers.
I suppose maybe we do need a LCB if Kiwior leaves. But I feel like this could be a last week or two sort of deal. I don’t want to tempt fate but Gabriel and Saliba are machines. I don’t think either was injured last season. And then we have Ben White and Tomi who are fantastic CB options. Plus, with Timber fit and able to play RB and LB, it wouldn’t take too much organisation to move players around to accommodate a Gabriel or Saliba absence. And people also forget that Timber played CB a lot at Ajax. In… Read more »
I suppose with Kiwior, he seems like a very good player. But is he an Arsenal player?
I can’t think of any historic Arsenal player I would compare him to, apart from maybe Thomas Vermaelen.
He’s clearly a great defender but maybe just not the right fit for a fast flowing, technically potent side like Arsenal.
But the fact he has so many suitors shows that he’s clearly a top, top defender.
But maybe we could turn him into a DM???
Lol.
A few points to support the need for further reinforcements in the back line. Most crucial is the need for players who can support the way we want to play which is to keep it on the floor in 90% of games, play through midfield and carve out attacks from back to front. To do that you need players in your back line who are really cultured and accomplished at ball progression: Saliba, Timber, White in that order. After that, there’s a drop in quality from an in possession perspective. That drop in quality has to be addressed because it’s… Read more »
Fair enough, you make some great points, Doctor.
I just look at the games we lost (with my pretty uneducated brain) and feel that it wasn’t building up from defence or backline ball progression that cost us the points.
It was the ability to break down a low block and be ruthless with vital chances.
But I do realise that a football team is a living, symbiotic organism. So perhaps a classy LB will be able to affect our attacking game too.
P. S. I don’t like Akanji. I think he’s shit.
Come on, no need for such humility. I appreciate your witty, often insightful posts.
The idea is to have as much control as possible and ball retention under pressure is key to that. Control is what tilts the balance of chances so far in your direction that the odds of winning become overwhelming. That’s what players like this help you do. Sometime you still get unlucky.
Elite ball progressing defenders can create holes in a low block by pulling opponents towards them before splitting the lines (either through carrying the ball or a pass, and often a combo of both)
I don’t wiggle my wife’s earlobe when I’m trying to make her cum.
I think Zinchenko and Kiwior have been carried by a spectacularly well drilled team around then. Kiwior in particular has also had some truly awful games, but the lads around him are so good we’ve still won so it’s not paid too much attention to. Personally I think a left sided version of Ben White is in our top couple of priorities this summer. Having no consistency (and a lack of true quality) has really hurt the left side of attack this past season. Maybe Timber is that guy, but I don’t think it’s 100% clear what the long term… Read more »
If this guy is the left sided Ben White then it make total sense and the quicker we sign him the better.
The fact we have 4 potential left backs in the squad tells you there’s an opening there as none of them has made the position their own.
To my eyes the left back and left 8 positions are this summers priority.
Totally agree John. Wouldn’t mind some back-up to Rice either- not sure we’ve anyone else who can play DM right now! And cover for Saka is pretty vital..
Good luck Edu.
Maybe Timber can act as cover for Rice?
“If Chelsea can do it so can we” actually I really don’t want us to do what Chelsea do, I’m sure s lot of those deals involve some of the sketchiest backroom dealings, and also we keep noticing the good sales they make how about the rest? They sold Jorgi and Kai to us at very significant losses. Will they get even 10% back of the 98mil they paid for Lukaku? Imagine trying to sell Mudric now…
*Mudryk
I was talking about selling their youth products, and non-star material players. I definitely don’t want to buy like them, but they do get good monies for players not so established (even discounting the shady deals designed to circumvent FFP).
I get you, but like I said I do think them doing well on that front is tied in with their overall dirty, corrupt, overspending modus operandi. Powerful agents are more likely to help them sell their young prospects for more money when they know that’ll increase their chances of a massive payday on the next 100mil player they buy (plus who the hell knows what kind of gifts those agents get under the table so to speak, I shudder to think)
This might sound crazy to some people but I really do think there’s something dodgy going on with them behind the scenes, whether it’s simply a very large brown envelope to agents/ Directors of other clubs, or something more sinister.
There’s just no reason that their youth products (or ours in the case of Omari) should keep going for £20m+, particularly given how poorly the club has performed last few years.
It’s akin to market manipulation in stocks in my mind- a company has had poor yearly performance but share price remains constant.
I can see the sense in replacing Kiwior with Calafiori. The latter I believe has Saliba potential.
Outrageous talent. I just worry about young Italians leaving Italy. It never seems to go well.
They miss their mum too much. Or the pasta.
More likely their ‘mamma mia’ since of all people Italians are definitely the ones who least have to worry about finding their food outside abroad, it is literally everywhere.
But everwhere does it differently, which makes them go “mama mia”.. actually more likely curse and do the gesture. But hey, we got Jorginho here to welcome him and take care of him! Like how Arteta did with Bellerin
Everywhere doesn’t do it that differently because Italians are everywhere. Your average Italian could traverse the far corners of the earth and still find a nice Italian restaurant run by some dude from his exact same region cooking up the exact same regional variations of dishes they grew up with. They might moan about the quality of the local tomatoes but that’s about it…
both…
Not enough vespas and white jeans in England to keep the Italians happy for very long.
I wonder if a swap deal could be in the offering.
Calafiori and Donnammura were the only bright lights in a pretty awful Italy side. Loved Calafiori’s run in the build-up to the goal against Croatia. Talk about grabbing the game by the scruff of it’s neck!
I really like the look of the Turkey LB we’ve been linked to as well and I’d imagine he’ll be cheaper, given the 50% sell on clause meaning we’d essentially have to pay double whatever Bologna would require to sell.
Don’t replace kiwior with calafiori, replace Gabriel. Gabriel is awesome but it’s smart to sell players at their maximum value, he isn’t the best on the ball, and it’s hard to know how long a player can maintain that level of physical ability
Might as well sell Saliba and Odegaard as well, as we can get maximum value for them after last season and they might get injured now
I see where you’re coming from, and I think Mikel would have agreed before last season, but then Gabriel took “the leap.” Some of the bozo stuff came back toward the end of the year but he was still 1/2 of the best CB pairing in the league and a perfect stylistic complement to Saliba. Replacing that with anyone is a gamble we don’t need to take.
Totally agree with you, Saliba needs the caliber of Gabriel next to him.
It’s only smart to sell players at their maximum value if they’re not so fucking good that you’d be lucky to find someone as good to replace them, and even then you’d probably have to pay just as much or more. I was saying stuff like you about Gabby start of last season but what he showed after that, I don’t know how the hell you sell half of possibly the best centre back pairing on the planet (or if not it’s by a small margin) as a club who wants to compete for the top trophies in Europe
Yours was always going to be a controversial comment, but I kind of get it. To legitimately develop the funds to build quality through a squad you sometimes have to sell a player before fans are ready to let them go, and even if they are a big part of the squad. Sometimes it takes a ridiculous offer for an important but not critical player that means you can’t say no (e.g, Countinho going to Barca from Liverpool). Sometimes it takes the club to be brave and back the manager in a difficult decision (e.g. had we sold ESR for… Read more »
Don’t disagree, but CB partnerships are so hard to get right. Would be bonkers to sell him IMO.
I think we should sell more goalkeepers. We have one, that’s enough!
Hey, how about some one who can play in the middle of the garden?
On Lokonga, the reports in Spain said it would be a loan with an obligation to buy (maybe once certain conditions are met like making x number of starts next season). It mentioned the thing of us wanting €12m and Seville only wanting to pay €8m like this article says. But it also said a loan fee of €3m had already been agreed. So could actually be seen as usual getting €15m back, nearly what we paid.
Sambi has had a pretty disappointing time with us, and a fair amount of that has to be put down to the players sense of entitlement and lack of work in training.
Cool. I know this doesn’t necessarily fit the midfield profile we are after, but I’d love us to go for Arda Guler or Baumgartner. It still terrifies me that Odegaard could get injured.
Fabrizio tweeting Calafiori interest is forming up…
https://x.com/fabrizioromano/status/1808500516936167440?s=46
#Timber is our left 8. I would love this signing.
Timber is a right back…or used to be anyway.