The transfer window opens in two weeks’ time which means we’re in the eye of the storm when it comes to sizzling speculation, rambunctious rumours, glorious gossip and triumphant tittle-tattle.
Given Arsenal’s need for new recruits and the number of fringe players set to return from loan, it’s clear we’re in for a busy summer.
As a wise man, once said, “Ah sh*t, here we go again.”
Nicolas Pepe
🛫 Paris Saint Germain
Source: Foot Mercato
It’s pretty clear Arsenal are happy for Pepe to leave and with the player changing agent you imagine he’s readying himself for a new challenge. Clearly he’s on big bucks at Emirates Stadium following his £72 million transfer so it’s going to need a big club to take him off our hands. PSG have more money than sense, they’ve just said farewell to Angel di Big Ears and are set to appoint Luis Campos, the former director of football at Lille, where Nico previously played his football. It’s enough to make us believe this just a little.
Poo-o-meter: 💩💩💩💩💩
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Serge Gnabry
🛬 Bayern Munich
Source: Bild
Serge is out of contract at the Allianz Arena in 2023 and is stalling on a new deal because Bayern Munich won’t pay him what he wants. Given the circumstances, a cut-price sale is potentially on the cards. As romantic as a reunion would be, we’re struggling to believe we’ll commit to his huge wages even if the £25 million fee sounds doable. Maybe next year when he becomes a free agent.
Poo-o-meter: 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
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Oleksandr Zinchenko
🛬 Manchester City
Source: Various
Following another injury-hit season for Kieran Tierney and the erratic performances of Nuno Tavares, it appears Mikel Arteta continues to scout the market for further depth at left-back. Udinese’s Nahuel Molina, Inter’s Federico Dimarco and Bologna’s Aaron Hickey have been on the radar for a while and now there are links with Zinchenko. Arteta likes the Ukrainian’s versatility – he can also play in midfield – and according to the Telegraph, the Premier League champions won’t stand in his way if he wants to leave. A fee of £25 million has been suggested.
Poo-o-meter: 💩💩💩💩💩💩
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Youri Tielemans
🛬 Leicester City
Source: Various
Barring a last-minute hiccup (like us writing a draft confirmation story 👀), we’re fully expecting this deal to get done.
Poo-o-meter: 💩
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Alvaro Morata
🛬 Atletico Madrid
Source: Sport
We had to look up who actually owns Morata because the bloke has moved around a lot recently. In the last 12 years, he’s done a couple of stints with Real Madrid, a couple with Juventus, a couple with Atletico Madrid and one spell at Chelsea. Sport obviously haven’t been reading any Dan Brown novels…he’s definitely heading back to the Bridge.
Poo-o-meter: 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
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Cody Gakpo
🛬 PSV Eindhoven
Source: Various
Playing off the left wing for PSV, Gakpo’s 21 goals and 15 assists in 47 games have caught the eye of a host of big-name clubs. He’s bound to have suitors but seems wary of leaving comfortable surroundings with a World Cup on the horizon. Indeed, this week he said: “It would be a shame if I went somewhere where I wouldn’t get a game at all and I could miss the World Cup. I’ll keep that in mind.” Way to back yourself, Cody.
Poo-o-meter: 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
Tielemens and Hickey in early would be a great start. Please just do it.
I’m more excited by Hickey really. Just can’t get on board with Tielemens somehow. Let’s hope the striker makes up for everything else!
Im not sold on tielemens either tbh. But then i thought signing ramsdale was a weird one and look how that turned out!
Great for half a season, pretty poor for the second half, not an improvement on Leno and not worth £30 mill
Ramsdale is classes above Leno in every as aspect of goalkeeping. Error prone Leno cost us several matches. I cert scan it say they same about Ramsdale. Plus the fact he’s young and can only improve
Rammers instills confidence and leadership into his team, Leno adds to the scared, flappable, and weak mentality we’ve had in seasons past.
Rammers >>>>>>>>>> Leno.
I love Ramsdale as much as the next guy. But this narrative that Leno is weak and error prone is not really true in my opinion. Sure he makes a few mistakes and his distribution isn’t as good as Ramsdale, but he is a great goalkeeper and good enough to play for a top 4 side. Let’s not throw the old toy out just coz we got a shiny new one.
Sorry man he is NOT a “great” keeper. He is a pretty decent keeper. Thankfully we’re moving on from “pretty decent”.
What about Hickey?
What are Gnabry’s wages?
Apparently he’s on £115,000 a week, but Bayern have offered him almost double that and he declined. If that’s even close to accurate, he would be our highest earner.
Yeah, I just read c.£200K would be required. I think we pay Laca that, so it’s not crazy…..but, I guess it’s about timing.
If we did get him then other incoming senior players would want the same…
It’s so tempting..I know our big earners have flopped in the recent past…but, prodigal son kind of return would be kinda juicy..I would like us to gnab him.
Who are all the big earners who have flopped in the past? I agree Pepe hasn’t been the success we hoped but still had some great moments. However I can’t think of any big earner who can be called a flop.
Willian
Luiz
To name a few big earners who have flopped…
They didn’t flop, they were transition players who played in a poor team.
They were both short term experienced guys who were brought it before we got what we really wanted
William flopped – he was peak flop, supreme flop, floppo do milo. He was terrible!
One might even say he was flopadicio in a flopadocious kind of way. Or in the parlance of most regular football fans, shit.
He was treated to open hostility and the odds where stacked against him but given his age he was only ever brought in for the short term until the right player replaced him. Whilst we no nothing about his professionalism we do know that the two most highly paid, senior players at the club when he arrived, Auba and Ozil have both been moved on for “disciplinary” issues. I don’t believe either player was brought in solely for what they could do for our results on the pitch but also what they brought off the pitch and given the warmth… Read more »
We know at least one thing about Willian’s professionalism, because he took a prohibited trip to Dubai for a dinner with the steak douche at the height of the pandemic and posted about it on social media. Not very professional. Combined with his woeful performances, it’s shocking that he got as many opportunities as he did.
Especially when he came out in an interview this year & pretty much said he never wanted to be here in the first place & that he never actually wanted to leave Chelsea but that they wouldn’t give him the deal he wanted
Which makes him not just a shit footballer, it also makes him a cunt.
He didn’t say he never wanted to come here in the first place. I think I read where he said the arsenal style of play didn’t quite suit him especially just coming from Chelsea. Mind how we vilify these players for nothing.
Who was the manager?
In the end the best opportunity prevailed though, that he fucked off as far as was humanly possible from Arsenal. Good riddance!
There’s a very good reason he was treated to open hostility. We were haemorrhaging good money to pay his wages and he was shit.
Mate, he was shit.
I didn’t say he was good, i said the metrics for whether or not he was a success isn’t really for us to judge because we don’t know fully why he was brought to the club, same goes for David Luis.
Myhkitaryan, Lucas Peres to name but 2 where far worse signings for the club, especially financially.
In what way did Willian “help” the team?
The team was poor largely because when he played, we were a player short.
Possibly the worst season I have seen by an Arsenal player not named Mustafi, definitely the worst when you factor in his wages.
Luiz was often our best defender and the key to playing out from the back. Without him it was terrible horseshoe passing with no progression. He was a calamity at times but not a flop in my book.
I will give you Willian but certainly Luiz was far from a flop. However that was the odd exception.
Mykhitaryan was on a sizeable wage and pretty ineffective. Willian was terrible. Ozil post new contract was poor…
Mykhitaryan was much worse than Willian.
On similar wages and given we swapped him for a player we rejected a £60m bid for and paid half the amount to, the financial aspect is probably unprecedented.
Add to that that Mykhitaryan had proven to be unsuited to the premier league whilst Willian was a top player in a title winning team, Willian looked on paper at least to be a lower risk transfer
Jesus, I had completely forgot about Mykhi…..what a waste that was.
Lucas Peres cost the club more than Willian as well
He is a brilliant player. look at his stats and how Bayern managed him. He had some injury here but now he barely plays 90 minutes. Bayern has a big squad but at Arsenal we need him all season. That won’t work out well.
That’s the problem with players heading towards 30; they want huge wages. I’d be very wary of someone who already achieved a lot in the game and might lack motivation. We’ve read that script a few times already.
I’d take Gnabry without hesitation. World-class player, he can play anywhere in attack, low price for this kind of player, and great age profile – he’ll be 27 in July, which is exactly what we should aim for when it comes to first-team additions (plenty of top level experience + young enough to spend his prime years with us and keep some resale value should we part ways a few years down the road). Jesus (Gnabry, Nketiah) in attack, Saka (Gnabry) on the right, Martinelli (Gnabry, Smith-Rowe) on the left, Odegaard (Smith-Rowe) in attacking midfield. Gnabry of course is a… Read more »
But if he wants £300k a week and a five year deal it’s not a low price at all….it’s mega expensive. Think he’s great though.
If Gnabry gets 250k, then every starting player wants 250k
Love Serge when he‘s fit. Unfortunately he‘s more often not than he is. Considering that, the wages seem bananas.
Yeah, he does seem to be injured quite a bit, and Jesus’ wages would be £100k less, so I guess Jesus would be the sensible option who can play all three front positions.
Still think we’ll need a dominant number 9 as well as Jesus and Eddie though
Can you tell us more about his injury record? On Transfermarkt, it says he missed 1 game due to injury this season, and 1 due to covid quarantine. Last season, he missed 10 games, which is bad, but the season before he missed 3. That’s really very little over the last 3 seasons. But I don’t follow Bundesliga, are those numbers wrong?
He barely plays 90 minutes in Germany. Bayern has got a big squad.
So thats Tielemans done then?!
What about Gabriel Jesus?
We need answers ! 😂
I don’t know if he will be our saviour. I support the boss and trust the process fully but for a striker who struggled to play as a number 9 at a club in deep need of a proper 9, and I know about Pep and his rotation but you won’t see Haaland on the right. I am neither impressed by his limitations in the middle nor his ridiculously low goals tally for a “striker” in a ridiculously high scoring team. Between him and Eddie as a nine I know who’s phone call celebration I’d pick but happy are those… Read more »
Heard that Real Madrid are in for him now too and that he has a soft spot for Spain. Hope that‘s rubbish. Think a midfield 3 of him, Partey and Ødegaard would be quite sexy.
I don’t get the excitement about Gabriel Jesus. His number by minutes played are worse than Eddie and that is in an elite team creating high numbers of chances.
Sorry, I should have worded it as Eddie’s numbers are better. I think he is just going to improve with more playing time.
I just think the Jesus price is way too high for such low numbers.
Blogs having insider news about tielimans it seems.
Right?! I would love it to be true, but I haven’t heard any new reports on the deal being so advanced! :O
This is all far to sensible it can’t be right haha.
Tielemens and Zinchenko is good business. I can see Pepe doing well as PSG, shame it didn’t work out for us. I don’t fancy Morata though.
I guess it depends how his laid back personality fits in with that bat shot crazy club
Would have no problem with Zinchenko too but somehow liked what I’ve heard about Hickey as well.
Any chance we‘re looking to cash in on KT and maybe bring in both?
Morata, lol. That’s an agent plant if I ever saw one. I can’t understand how he fooled all those big clubs into taking him.
PSG’s basic idea seems to be to have giant attacking stars not tasked with any defensive responsibilities (even if, as Mbappe has always shown for France, they are both capable and willing to do that job) and make up for it with midfielders whose job is primarily to defend with no help from forwards. Pepe is actually a bit too willing to track back, though I’m sure he can be broken of this habit. But you have to think he is a bit of a downgrade from Mbappe, Neymar, and what’s-his-name.
Gnabry not going to happen, wages wanted are too high after we rightsized the wage bill.
Tielemans will be a good signing. Torreira? Any chance he’ll be given a chance? If so then we can move the Midfielder budget to a higher priced CF like Osimhen
An awesomely alliterative opening paragraph.
Transfer tittle-tattle tends to trigger text teeming with triumphant toots and tempting tones.
Why no mention of Gabriel Jesus?
His coming has been talked about for far too long now. Everyone knows he’s coming but nobody knows when, probably just Edu
Why do we want to sign a striker that doesn’t score goals?
Has 95 goals and 46 assists in 14.300 minutes for city. Means a goal every 150 mins and a goal involvement every 101 minutes. Terrible stats, yeah.
Do you know what you did there? I liked it
He is coming soon; but no man knows the day nor the hour.
Best comment of the post season
Well played
Gnabry, Jesus, Gakpo…
If we’d manage to get at least 2 of them, plus tie down Eddie – We would be great up front I think.
Gnabry aside, wouldn’t address the issue of improving physically as one aspect the boss specifically mentioned in the areas of improvement during the transfers.
Leicester fans seem quite conflicted about Tielemans leaving, apparently he’s been quite poor for the past year, has let a lot of games drift by him. But they know how good he can be, agile on the ball, aware, sharp into challenges, strong for his size and has a knack for through balls. Has a lot of miles on the clock but only just turned 25 and doesn’t seem to have any recurring injuries as of yet. He’d be much more suited to the more advanced position Xhaka was playing towards the end of this season I think, given his… Read more »
I’m much more excited about Tielemans after hearing Messr. Auclaire raving about him on the last Arsecast. He is a smart man and was 100% supporting this move. Get in! Of course Youri mileage may vary.
I’d prefer Neves from Wolves to Tielemans. Neves is a leader and
a warrior. We need that type of player.
Weren’t -all- of Leicester quite crap the past session..?
Married to a Leicester fan so I watch a lot of their games. He plays deep as part of a double pivot with Ndidi – Ndidi is the destroyer; Tielemans is the ball player. He receives the ball from central defenders and links to the attack, and he finds good positions in the final third. Here’s been poor this season compared to last season, but – much like Arsenal’s injury disruption – key figures missing has impacted his game. They’ve been without Ndidi for months, and their central defence has been decimated but injury. Fofana’s leg break in pre-season denied… Read more »
I think we just need 3 players. At CB we are fully stocked with Saliba coming back. Hickey can cover both backup RB and LB positions. All the hate Tavarez gets is overblown. I suspect he will be an excellent wingback. He is young and in his 1st year only. I suspect with our excellent options at CB we might see more 3 at the back teams. In MF, Tielemans alone is enough. At LW we have Martinelli and Smith Rowe. If we buy some1 there we will lose one of them next season. At RW Reiss Nelson can come… Read more »
By my *rough* count – that totals 20 or 21 outfield players (if you count Holding AMN and Cedric in there, because he’s definitely staying, not sure about AMN) – Mikel was pretty clear for Europe he wanted 22.
I would think bring in another forward player (maybe specific type of striker) to do a job in certain games would make sense. Now whether that means Balogun or another one – I think that works.
I have my doubts about Reiss and AMN coming back in though
Is Reiss actually good enough for Arsenal? I honestly don’t know. I’m glad he finished this last loan spell strongly.
Feyenoord & their fans seem to want Reiss full time so I’d be happy to let him go as long as we don’t get lowballed on the fee but with him entering the final year of his deal, kinda ties our hands as to what we can ask for him
As Wenger used to say, Reiss has it in the locker. He’s lost the padlock but if found and he has access to all the tools he is gifted with, he can turn into a top top player.
Probably no one will be very keen to play back up for B as he‘s the first name on the team sheet, so a guy like Reiss would be pretty ideal there I guess. Not the best but capable of doing a job here and there. Especially Euro League group stages.
Any updates on Jesus and the other young Brazilian forward coming over for 3M?
That Marquinhos move sounds a bit sticky. Wolves claim he signed a pre-contract with them in January(which has to be bollocks cause he ain’t Portuguese for a start!) apparently we see no issues with that holding anything up but they are considering getting lawyers involved
I think I’d be ok to see Pepe leave now. He can be an effective impact sub, but that’s not fair to him. He won’t get the minutes. It feels like Arteta has a certain vision in mind. He wants a team to dominate possession & be secure on the ball. Equally, I feel that Torreira, Guendouzi and Auba fell foul of the same thing. Torreira is a terrier – not a game controller. He wants both. Guendouzi wasn’t a game controller either, he tried to lift a game by running it himself – not the type of player Arteta… Read more »
I think this is a good analysis. Think of Arteta himself as a player (or Guardiola for that matter). Or why he wanted Ramsdale when he already had Leno. Tielemans in many ways is in the mold–I don’t want to exaggerate, there’s many differences and he’s not as good–as another Arteta favourite teammate, Santi Cazorla.
Oooh Santi Cazorla! What a player he was for us!
will we have 3 brazilians named gabriel at the club at the same time?
Big Gabi, Small Gabi and Medium Gabi
I think we’re desperate for a player in the mould of tielemans, he’d be my first pick off that list. Great value too.
Neymar, anybody?
Mate, only Keith Moon could wreck a dressing room more than Neymar.
Fuck that shit.
Given the choice, anybody please.
I see Spurs are now after Tielemens as well as Gabriel Jesus. Have they seriously got no agenda of their own, other than to destabilise ours? Cunts doesn’t even begin to describe that lot. Cannot wait to laugh at them going out of the Champions League next season and winning fuck all yet again and finishing beneath us.
“Who do Arsenal want” has always been Spurs’ “transfer plan”, just look at the way we tricked them into paying actual money for Emerson or Aurier by pretending we were interested in both
Am I dreaming or do the mirror absolutely hate arsenal?
They are always bleating about our best players being desperate to leave or claiming that shit player X is about to join us. Does my head in
They’ve always been a bunch of cunts. People are quick to moan about the Daily Mail – largely due to their political allegiances – but in my opinion, when it comes to hating Arsenal, the Daily Fucking Mirror can’t help themselves. For those too young to remember, it was the Daily Mirror who proclaimed on Friday 26th May 1989 ‘YOU HAVEN’T GOT A PRAYER ARSENAL’ – only to then come crawling out of the woodwork the following day with the arse-licking headline ‘MIRACLE MEN.’ This was the rag that put a pair of donkeys ears on Tony Adams, who almost… Read more »
Don’t read them. Their stories have no sense and direction. Pure trash.No, Even trash is more useful than Mirror
morata is the striker equivalent to harry maguire
Always liked Morata though he just plays for really defensive type teams – athletic, juve, chelsea
I’d be happy with Tielemans. He’s a progressive midfielder and, while he’s not a powerhouse, he’s shown he can be effective in the prem. I’d still like one more midfielder in on top of him as Partey and Xhaka are both close to 30 and we need a smooth transition from them eventually. Hickey would also make a lot of sense although Zinchenko is more proven at this stage and could be ready made competition for Tierney. I sincerely hope the Morata stories are just bullshit because he is no more effective than Lacazette and far more frustrating to watch.… Read more »
Isn’t Tielemans and Odegaard very similar?
Odegaard did an ok season but he has to do more earn his place in the side…he comes second for me …and to be honest i dont think he has further potentials..
This is simply as good as it gets.
A new manager and anyone but Edu please
Not sure that’s going to happen. Ancelotti must be having a good chuckle though. Snubbed so we could shop from the bargain bin.
Zinchenko?…really?
Probably better than Tavares (at least for now). Still only 25. If he is good enough for Pep I’d say he is half decent. Send Tavares out on loan.
Some additional context on Gakpo as PSV are the team of maternal family. It’s not quite as lacking ambition as the quote above frames it. Cody has been with PSV since age 6, he’s a local lad and captain. PSV missed the title by 2pts and are in the Champions League qualifiers – if they get through that you’d have to understand that he’d be tempted to sign off with the Dutch title and Champions League football. The crowd there worships him like we worship Saka.
*team of MY maternal family, sheesh I didn’t proofread
The crowd at the toilet bowl worship Satan the way we worship Saka. 😂