By Tony Attwood
Each week we record the players who are tipped by the all knowing all seeing superbeings who write in our national newspapers, and their lesser relatives who run the bloggettas, to join Arsenal between 1 July and 30 August this year.
Seven new players have been found this week – although one is an absolute denial. Indeed I think this is a first – a player who denies he is coming before he’s even appeared on the index.
So that takes us up to 68 new players – of whom one has actually signed. That is a successful prediction rate of 1.47%. Which is actually below the success rate of most fortune tellers, clairvoyants and professional economic forecasters. Quite something really.
This is the last Index created with England firmly in the EU. Today of course we are in the EU but on the way out, which will undoubtedly affect the attitudes of everyone from international broadcasters through to players and their agents – not to mention their hangers on.
I’m not sure the people who invent these mythological transfers actually know anything about geopolitics so they might just go on inventing as below; we shall see.
As always the players said to be heading our way and mentioned here for the first time are in Bold.
Part One: Players coming in.
Player | Position | From | Current status | Also interested | |
1 | Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | Forward | B. Dortmund | Being urged to leave | Man U |
2 | Carlos Bacca | Forward | Juventus | 49 goal striker | Real Mad buy back clause |
3 | Michy Batshuayi | Striker | Marseille | £22m asking price | Chelsea |
4 | Riechedly Bazoer | Cen mid. | Ajax | Barcelona, Chelsea, Man U, Tottenham | |
5 | Medhi Benatia | Centre back | Bayern | 29 years old prone to injury | |
6 | Christian Benteke | Striker | Liverpool? | Only done one year at Liverpool? | |
7 | Rodrigo Bentancur | Midfield | Boca Juniors | Real Mad, Juve | |
8 | Karim Benzema | Striker | Real Mad | Involved in court case | |
9 | Daley Blind | Full back centre back midfield | Man U | ||
10 | Sofiane Boufal | Forward | Lille | £25m after one year in France | Barcelona, Chelsea and Atletico Madrid |
11 | William Carvalho | Def mid | Sporting Lisbon | ||
12 | Edinson Cavani | Striker | PSG | He’d like to come | |
13 | Ben Chilwell | Left-back | Leicester | “Arsenal monitoring” | |
14 | Troy Deeney | Striker | Watford | WFC captain | |
15 | Mario Götze | Attack midfield | Bayern Munich | Flopped after Dortmund | Liverpool |
16 | Goncalo Guedas | Wing | Benfica | Next C Ronaldo | Chelsea |
17 | Raphaël Guerreiro | Left-backmidfield | Lorient | ||
18 | Alen Halilovic. | Attack midfield | Barcelona | Last season loan to Sporting Gijon, | |
19 | Rico Henry | Full back | Walsall | Next Ashley Cole | |
20 | Gonzalo Higuain | Striker | Napoli | Man U, Liverpool? | |
21 | Rob Holding | Winger | Bolton | £1.5m already signed | Still suggested as a future signing in June |
22 | Elseid Hysaj | Right back | Napoli | Staying at Napoli | |
23 | Zlatan Ibrahimovic | Striker | PSG | Self proclaimed God | Man U |
24 | Mauro Icardi | Striker | Inter | Man C Man U | |
25 | Odion Ighalo | Striker | Watford | ||
26 | Chiori Johnson | Defender | Aged 18, | Signed pro forms | |
27 | Stevan Jovetic | 2nd striker | Inter | 1st mooted two years ago | |
28 | N’Golo Kante | Midfield | Leicester | Won the most tackles | |
29 | Naby Keita | Central mid | Red Bull Salzburg | ||
30 | Toni Kroos | No 10 | Real Madrid | £45m | |
31 | Grzegorz Krychowiak | Midfield destroyer | Sevilla | ||
32 | Kalidou Koulibaly | Napoli | Signed and Sealed (Metro) but… | Dependent on Chambers going (Metro) | |
33 | Alexandre Lacazette | Forward | Lyon | French League top scorer 2014.15 | Supposedly going to WHU |
34 | Robert Lewandowski | Striker | Bayern | About to break the bank | |
35 | Romelu Lukaku | Striker | Everton | Broke Everton’s PL scoring record | |
36 | Marquinhos | Defen | PSG | Man U Man C Chelsea and Bayern Munich | |
37 | Riyad Mahrez | Wing | Leicester | £25m Considered him while at Le Havre | |
38 | Kostas Mitroglou | Striker | Benfica | “Happy in Portugal” | |
39 | Arkadiusz Milik | Striker | Ajax | ||
40 | Henrikh Mkhitaryan | Midfield | B Dortmund | Liverpool! Chelsea, Tottenham | |
41 | Alvaro Morata | Striker | Juventus (loan) Real Mad | Said to be the next one to happen | AFC talking to Real Mad direct |
42 | Murillo | Central defender | Inter | Columbian | Bayern Munich and Zenit St Petersburg |
43 | Ruben Neves | Defend midfield | Porto | ||
44 | Nolito | Striker | Celta Vigo | £13.8m buy out clause | |
45 | Kelechi Nwakali | Midfield | Diamond Academy | Already joined for £3m | WHU, Bayern, Chelsea, Man U Liverpool? |
46 | Quincy Promes | Winger | Spartak Moscow | ||
47 | Domingos Quina | Midfield | Chelsea | ||
48 | Adrien Rabiot | Midfield | PSG | Asked for a move, not liked by fans | Chelsea, Man U |
49 | Rafinha | RB | Bayern Munich | Metro utterly certain | |
50 | Jese Rodriguez | Forward | Real Mad | Surplus to requirements | |
51 | Maxi Romero | Forward | All Boys, Argentina | The new Messi | We were going to sign him last year but he got injured |
52 | Daniele Rugani | Centre back | Juventus | Can’t get a game. | Man U |
53 | Riccardo Saponara | Attack midfield | Empoli | Liverpool? | |
54 | Ryan Sessegnon | Winger | Fulham | Liverpool? | |
55 | Islam Slimani | £23.25m Sporting Lisbon | £23.25m | Tottenham, Leicester | |
56 | Dominic Solanke | Chelsea | Chelsea want to keep him | ||
57 | John Stones | CB | Everton | ||
58 | Daniel Sturridge | Striker | Liverpool? | “Will reportedly…” | “Tried last year” |
59 | Jon Toral | Attack midf. | Arsenal (loaned to Brum) | ||
60 | Yaya Toure | C Mid | Man City | ||
61 | Arda Turan | Attack midfield | Barcelona | Struggled at Barca | |
62 | Jamie Vardy | Forward | Leicester | £20m | Signed but kept it a secret or he’s off to Liverpool |
64 | Victor Wanyama | Def. midf. | Southampton | ||
64 | Julian Weigl | Midf. | Borussia Dortmund | £20 million | |
65 | Granit Xhaka | Defend/ midfield | Monchengladbach | “Deal done” He signed. | Chelsea. Sources |
66 | Andriy Yarmolenko | Winger | Dynamo Kiev | Tottenham Liverpool | |
67 | Simone Zaza | Forward | Juventus | ||
68 | Karl Zouma | Keeper | Chelsea | ||
Part Two Departures | |||||
1 | Alexis | Forward | Asking for transfer | ||
2 | Arteta | End of career | |||
3 | Bellerin | Full back | Barcelona | “Looks certain to go” | But also denied |
4 | Chambers | Centre back | Southampton or Watford? | 1 year loan | |
5 | Debuchy | Been on loan | |||
6 | Mat Flamini | midfield | End of contract | The last Highbury player to leave AFC | |
7 | Kieran Gibbs | Defend | Unhappy | ||
8 | Per Mertesacker | Defend | Considering his future | ||
9 | David Ospina | Goal | Besiktas | ||
10 | Rosicky | End of contract | |||
11 | Santi Cazorla | Mid/For | Back to Villareal | ||
12 | Mesut Ozil | Midfield | Delayed talks | ||
13 | W. Szczesny | Goal | Roma | Happy in Rome | Perhaps returning to AFC |
14 | Walcott | Wing | State Aid Utd or Liverpool? | £20m | On the verge; or maybe not going |
15 | Jack Wilshere | Midfield | Man U | They will build the team around him | |
Part Three: Coaching | |||||
Thierry Henry | Under 18 | Accepted post | |||
Part Four: Up from the youth | |||||
1 | Jon Toral | Attack midf. | Arsenal | Loaned to Birmingham | |
2 | Gedion Zelalem | Attack mid | Arsenal | Loaned to Rangers | |
3 | Chris Willock | Attack midf. | Arsenal | Played in U21s. | |
4 | Jeff Reine-Adélaïde | Wing | Arsenal | Kept at Arsenal and not loaned | |
Part 5: Players going on loan | |||||
Dan Crowley | Midfield | Arsenal | Coventry | ||
Part 6: Players leaving | |||||
Ilias Chatzitheodoridis | U-18 no new contract | ||||
Part 7: Players signing pro forms | |||||
Donyell Malen | |||||
Joshua DaSilva |
- Free Arsenal videos available
- Yes the season has already started over here and exclusive fixture announcement on Untold Arsenal
- The price of players has just gone up and the chances of signing them has just gone down.
Untold Arsenal has published five books on Arsenal – all are available as paperback and three are now available on Kindle. The books are
- The Arsenal Yankee by Danny Karbassiyoon with a foreword by Arsene Wenger.
- Arsenal: the long sleep 1953 – 1970; a view from the terrace. By John Sowman with an introduction by Bob Wilson.
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football. By Tony Attwood, Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews.
- Making the Arsenal: a novel by Tony Attwood.
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal by Mark Andrews.
You can find details of all five on our new Arsenal Books page
Really difficult to keep up with them all. How do you find the time in your busy day? Oh wait, you’re the boss, you can do what you like.
Kante is the flavour of the day due to Arsene bigging him up. But unlikely as we have too many mids anyway.
Hmm, has the “Leave” Briexit referendum vote now dampened the interest of any non UK citizen football player may have to sign a transfer contract deal for Arsenal?
Knowing fully well that they the now EU players will have to have to first secure official residents and work permits before they can be allowed to trade their football skills for Arsenal, that could become a cumbersome task to pass by both Arsenal FC and the EU players who will now be regarded as foreigners in the UK.
How about the Boss, the Arsenal boss – Mr Arsene Wenger? Is he now going to be treated as a none indigene of the UK who will be needing both the work and resident permits before he can continue to be the Arsenal Football Club manager when the Briexit referendum “Leave” vote becomes active? Of course any none UK Arsenal’s old and incoming player including their manager will eventually obey any new UK immigration law before they can work at Arsenal.
Of course, is not only none UK Arsenal players and their manager that will be affected by the new incoming UK immigration law, other none UK football clubs players and their managers will equally be affected too.
Although the FA Chair – Mr Greg Dyke has advised we shouldn’t rush at arriving into making conclusions, therefore, let’s all wait to see how the case will unfold when Mr David Cameron – the British Prime Minister step down from office this coming October as he said he’ll do. It’s rather unfortunate that a young, tall, handsome, active and eloquent man of the caliber of Mr David Cameron has become the 1st casualty of this Briexit saga.
Didn’t Arsene Wenger got some kind of medal from the Queen? Surely that will guarantee him some “special treatment”?
Metro has a blurb (can’t call it a story, not long enough).
Alexis has been fouled more than any other player at the Copa; 16 times. Second place goes to Messi, at 10.
And PGMO don’t even have any representatives at Copa.
Arsenal Ladies news.
The stupid BBC has a report up, that Arsenal Ladies defeated Sunderland 4-0, Arsenal.com doesn’t yet have anything up (other than the preview). Arsenal.com does report that Rachel Yankey has returned from her loan spell at Notts.
Arsenal Ladies news.
Stupid Gord 🙂
> The stupid BBC has a report up, that Arsenal Ladies defeated Sunderland 4-0,
Another news report, that the score is 5-1 to Arsenal. Game must still be on. And I obviously never read the BBC article, otherwise I would have known that. The BBC has hoist too many changes and too much javascript for me to visit any more.
@ Gord June 25, 2016 at 4:34 pm – You probably had a senior ‘brain fart ‘ moment !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv1tMioGgXI
Euro
Imagine that, Atkinson giving an Arsenal player (Ramsey) a yellow card in the 90th minute.
Real card, or was Atkinson just trying to buy favours with 😈 Mike Riley?
Gord
I think it was given because Ramsey kicked the ball away after committing a foul.
Thanks Mick.