It had to happen: after 21 days we’ve almost run out of players to buy and sell

By Tony Attwood

Almost run out but not quite.  For we have one new player who is joining us and one more leaving to give the grand total of

  • 81 players due to arrive at Arsenal this summer
  • 21 players due to leave Arsenal this summer
  • 3 coaching changes this summer
  • 4 players who look to be moving up from the youth

So it really is looking as if here we are, just one third of the way through the transfer window, and its all over.  There simply are no more players for Arsenal to buy or sell!

Unless… unless… this is 2013 all over again.   2013 when we were buying Higuain, he was spotted at the airport, the deal was done but suddenly it turned out Arsenal, far from having been given permission to talk to the player in London, Arsenal had never even made a bid.

Do you remember the shock horror?  The utter hatred of Mr Wenger.  The vitriol?  The bile.  And then of course the Bale.   Could it just be that not only are Arsenal doing it all again, but actually, to rub it into the noses of the journalists and bloggettas who Arsenal made to look such fools they are doing it again with the same player?

If that is the case we shall have to wait and see.  Meanwhile all the changes since the last index are in bold – and there are a few despite the lack of new names.

 

Part One: Players coming in.  New entries and significant changes are in bold.

 

Player Position From Current status Also interested
1 Takuma Asano (浅野拓磨) Forward Sanfrecce Hiroshima is 21 and has played 50 times Signed
2 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Forward B. Dortmund Being urged to leave Man U
3 Carlos Bacca 49 goal striker Juventus We’re hijacking the deal! Real Mad buy back clause
4 Michy Batshuayi Striker Marseille £22m asking price Chelsea
5 Riechedly Bazoer Cen mid. Ajax Barcelona, Chelsea, Man U, Tottenham
6 Medhi Benatia Centre back Bayern 29 years old prone to injury
7 Christian Benteke Striker Liverpool? Only done one year at Liverpool?
8 Gabriel Barbosa Santos 54 goals in 148 appearances
9 Rodrigo Bentancur Midfield Boca Juniors Real Mad, Juve
10 Karim Benzema Striker Real Mad Involved in court case
11 Daley Blind Defence Man U
12 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 Julian Draxler Left wing Wolfburg who say he’s going nowhere £43m offer made. No, £54m Liverpool sniffing but that’s what they do
16 Mario Götze Attack midfield Bayern Munich Flopped after Dortmund Liverpool
17 Goncalo Guedas   Wing Benfica Next C Ronaldo Chelsea
18 Raphaël Guerreiro Left-backmidfield Lorient
19 Alen Halilovic. Attack midfield Barcelona Last season loan to Sporting Gijon,
20 Marek Hamsik‘ Attack midfield Napoli His father is demanding more money
21 Rico Henry Full back Walsall Next Ashley Cole
22 Gonzalo Higuain Striker Napoli £79m but no offer made Man U, Liverpool?
23 Rob Holding Winger Bolton £1.5m already signed Has is signed or not???
24 Elseid Hysaj Right back Napoli Staying at Napoli
25 Zlatan Ibrahimovic Striker PSG Self proclaimed God Went to Man U
26 Mauro Icardi Striker Inter £32m bid made deal very close Wife says they need the money
27 Odion Ighalo Striker Watford
28 Chiori Johnson Defender Aged 18, Signed pro forms
29 Jorginho “Strongest midfielder” Napoli Neil Banfield likes him
30 Stevan Jovetic 2nd striker Inter 1st mooted two years ago
31 N’Golo Kante Midfield Leicester Won the most tackles
32 Naby Keita Central mid Red Bull Salzburg
33 Toni Kroos No 10 Real Madrid £45m
34 Grzegorz Krychowiak Midfield destroyer Sevilla
35 Kalidou Koulibaly centre back Napoli Signed and Sealed but… Dependent on Chambers going
36 Alexandre Lacazette Forward Lyon French League top scorer 2014.15 To WHU or Arsenal for €50m
37 Robert Lewandowski Striker Bayern About to break the bank
38 Jordon Lukaku Left back Oostende Told Mr Wenger how to manage!
39 Romelu Lukaku Striker Everton Broke Everton’s PL scoring record Offer of £38m made
40 Sadio Mane Winger Southampton BBC say he’s gone to Liverpool
41 Kostas Manolas Centre back Roma for £38m deal agreed? Maybe to Chelsea
42 Maycon Midfield Corinthians new Ronaldo or Neymar or both.  Or neither.
43 Marquinhos Defender PSG His brother says AFC want him Man U Man C  Chelsea and Bayern Munich
44 Riyad Mahrez Wing Leicester £25m Considered him while at Le Havre AFC fans demand action for him on Twatter
45 Kostas Mitroglou Striker Benfica “Happy in Portugal”
46 Arkadiusz Milik Striker Ajax
47 Henrikh Mkhitaryan Midfield B Dortmund Went to Man U Liverpool! Chelsea, Tottenham
48 Alvaro Morata Striker Juventus (loan) Real Mad “About to happen” Snubbing Chelsea for Arsenal
49 Jeison Murillo Central defender Inter Columbian Talks have started Bayern Munich and Zenit
50 Ruben Neves Defend midfield Porto
51 Nolito Striker Celta Vigo £13.8m buy out clause
52 Kelechi Nwakali Midfield Diamond  Academy Already joined for £3m WHU, Bayern, Chelsea, Man U Liverpool?
53 Philipp Ochs Midfield Hoffenheim 19 year old
54 Quincy Promes Winger Spartak Moscow
55 Domingos Quina Midfield Chelsea
56 Adrien Rabiot Midfield PSG Asked for a move, not liked by fans Chelsea, Man U
57 Rafinha RB Bayern Munich Metro utterly certain
58 Jese Rodriguez Forward Real Mad Surplus to requirements
59 Ricardo Rodriguez Left back Wolfsburg £20m
60 Maxi Romero Forward All Boys, Argentina The new Messi We were going to sign him last year but he got injured
61 Daniele Rugani   Centre back Juventus Can’t get a game. Man U, Everton, Napoli
62 Riccardo Saponara Attack midfield Empoli Liverpool?
63 Ryan Sessegnon Winger Fulham Liverpool?
64 Djibril Sidibé Full back & midfield Lille Cover at full back “Now gone to Monaco, Arsenal too slow”
65 Moussa Sissoko midfield Newcastle £35m
66 Islam Slimani Striker £23.25m Sporting Lisbon   £23.25m Tottenham, Leicester
67 Dominic Solanke striker Chelsea Chelsea want to keep him Arsenal preparing to steal him
68 John Stones CB Everton
69 Daniel Sturridge Striker Liverpool? “Will reportedly…” “Tried last year”
70 Neven Subotic Defender Borussia Dortmund Has left training to talk to Arsenal
71 Yaya Toure C Mid Man City
72 Arda Turan Attack midfield Barcelona 29, and wants to stay Struggled at Barca
73 Robin van Persie Forward Fenerbahce “We’re waiting for buyers”
74 Jamie Vardy Forward Leicester £20m Signed but kept it a secret or he’s off to Liverpool
75 Thomas Vermaelen Centre defence Barcelona He’s fit again
76 Victor Wanyama Def. midf. Southampton
77 Julian Weigl Midf. Borussia Dortmund £20 million
78 Granit Xhaka Defend/ midfield Monchengladbac “Deal done”  He signed. Chelsea were rivals but failed.  
79 Andriy Yarmolenko Winger Dynamo Kiev Tottenham Liverpool
80 Simone Zaza Forward Juventus
81 Karl Zouma Keeper Chelsea
Part Two Departures
1 Alexis Forward Juventus bids made Asking for transfer Agent trying to get move
2 Arteta End of  career
3 Bellerin Full back Barcelona Now mulling over Man C deal But also denied
4 Joel Campbell   West Ham But he wants to stay and fight for his place
5 Chambers Centre back Southampton or Watford? 1 year loan
6 Debuchy Been on loan
7 Mat Flamini midfield End of contract The last Highbury player to leave AFC
8 Kieran Gibbs Defend Unhappy
9 Olivier Giroud Forward Napoli Part exchange “We’ve never talked to Napoli”
10 Isaac Hayden Centre back Newcastle
11 Laurent Koscielny Defend Bayern Contract talks stalled? End of contract? Not end of contract
12 Per Mertesacker Defend Considering his future
13 David Ospina Goal Besiktas
14 Rosicky End of contract
15 Santi Cazorla Mid/For Back to Villareal
16 Mesut Ozil Midfield Delayed talks
17 Jon Toral Midfield To Granada
18 W. Szczesny Goal Roma Happy in Rome Returning to AFC.  No, staying as part ofManolas deal
19 Theo Walcott Wing State Aid Utd or Liverpool? £20m On the verge; or maybe not going
20 Wellington Silva   Fluminense on four-year deal
21 Jack Wilshere Midfield Man U They will build the team around him
  Part Three: Coaching
Adam Birchall Lead Development Phase coach  Works with under 16s
Thierry Henry Under 18 Left over TV issue
Tony Adams Under 18 5 week trial
Part Four: Up from the youth
1 Stefan O’Conner Defender was with York To Maastricht  
2 Gedion Zelalem Attack mid Arsenal Loaned to Rangers
3 Chris Willock Attack midf. Arsenal Played in U21s.
4 Jeff Reine-Adélaïde Wing Arsenal Moving into first team
5: Players going on loan
Dan Crowley Midfield Arsenal Coventry Actually gone to Oxford
6: Young Players leaving
Ilias Chatzitheodoridis U-18 no new contract
7: Players signing pro forms
Donyell Malen
Tyrell Robinson West Ham
Joshua DaSilva

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14 Replies to “It had to happen: after 21 days we’ve almost run out of players to buy and sell”

  1. After all that, Tony,
    one can only yearn for the 1st September when, with a closed Window, we can all relax and continue with the season.
    NO WE CAN’T.
    There will be the inevitable recriminations on Arsene Wenger’s failings during the Summer transfers (or lack of them).
    And then we begin the whole sorry business all over again, in preparation for the opening of the January Window. Grrrr.

  2. Tony, you may have mixed up some of the information on Carlos Bacca (No. 3) with that of Alvaro Morata. Bacca’s club side is AC Milan and he has no buy-back relationship with Madrid, as implied.

    Having said that, Arsenal does need to buy one good striker, being the dominant desire of most fans. There are times the board and manager have to seek to excite the fans and ignore the inflated valuation of some of these targets because, if well done, the returns in terms of shirt sales (and new viewership from the Country of the new buy) could far outweigh the initial outlay, over the life of the contract. Take Pogba. The shirts he is likely to sell, if United pulled off the deal, can best be imagined; along with other endorsement deals that could accrue. We need to show a bit more conviction in closing deals.

  3. I find this the dullest time of year, regurgitated turgid drivel come from most sites blogs journalists. Wenger refuses to spend money or dithers or fails to attract player x,y and z. Your blog and site actually offer a good variety and it is of a good standard informative and arguments that are well articulated and most of the time refreshing to read. Keep up the good work and help stave away the mundane that is the transfer window. Even if we get people in now we know the claim will be Wenger panicked and brought any old player. The ones that get my esteemed up the most are probably the writers that say just offer a team what they want to get the player. That kind of idiocy is annoying it’s like walking down the local city centre approaching somebody whose jacket or top you like and saying I want that jacket here is my card and pin take what you want for the jacket. you would find yourself broke for something that’s not worth the money you paid for it. Why is it these people don’t even show some sense when writing or formulating an article the should have their limbs chopped so they can never write another article again.

  4. I was going to contribute but after reading Richard’s 11:21 post realise there’s no need 🙂 You hit the nail on the head right there, Richard ?

  5. It is almost as if football agents ask their business partners from the funny papers to link their players with the good ship Arsenal in an effort to conduct their business.

    No! That could never happen! What am I thinking. There’s no evidence for such conjecture. Is there?

  6. This is kind of unrelated, but how is manchester united managing to spend so much money(allegedly spending 105mil on pogba) without breaking ffp rules and regulations?

  7. FK² ‏@fkhanage
    Sir Alex in his book, ‘Leading’: “There are one or two agents I dislike. Raiola is one of them, I distrusted him from the moment I met him.”

    Blimey! He read a biography on Sah Lord Ferguson! That is unbelievable. I blame Venga for his ditherings driving Arsenal fans to such distractions.

    Vengargggggghhhhhhhhh!

  8. the actual summer transfer not even on a half way line or even closed, yet some channel i found on yt like aftv and tgt already freely running their mouth and make claims like the club transfer policy is becoming a joke and even accusing somebody at the club is lying to them. some of this fans who had channel on yt really had this some kind of hatred feeling especially when they talk about AW. their attitude is undeniably stink and some even claim if Arsenal don’t make any marque signing(striker) when the season start, many Arsenal fans will be pissed off and wish AW take the England job instead. how can someone make such claim like they represent majority of the Arsenal fans?(even the London or England fan base of the Arsenal). is it bcos sometime their channel got a chance to interview the players that make them feel like all the Arsenal fans had the same views like them. mind u this is the channel who had some of their cronies endorse the ‘WENGER OUT’ agenda last season and if the club had a bad run or lose some match, some shameless grown man acting really childish and had an epic meltdown and name calling the players and the club manager for the whole world to see is becoming a routine for some of this hypocrite fans. a preseason match is not even played yet, i already becoming sick and tired of some of this fans who think they had a divine right to said and behave as they pleased toward the club. really hope if the club found out that the striker they want to sign is way over the valuation, AW decide not to sign any striker instead find a way to gave chances to youngsters at the club. that surely will serve them (ungrateful fans) right

  9. At least you all now know why people who care about Man IOU wanted to keep the specialist in signing players signed up to special agents far away from their club. With a barge pole.

    Unfortunately for Man IOU the people trusted in the interim were not much better haha! Di Maria had a good season last year, Gazprom’s former player of the year two seasons running Mata might have to sling his hook.

    I wonder what welcome the proven Man IOU fan at the PGMOB will prepare for his Lord Raiola? Sorry I mean Master Mourinho! Hehe. After all the PGMOB are incredibly subtle it’s not like there was an abnormal ten year high PD (penalty award difference for and against) for LCFC coinciding with a random ten year total low for penalties in the PL last season, the lowest number of penalties awarded in the league in modern era a significant drop of about 20% (I’m looking forward to Usama including those stats in his summaries! 🙂 )

    Mum’s the word.

  10. I believe one thing is certain and will not change. The Arsenal bosses past and present are not accustomed to signing overrated and very expensive players for the sake of to win the Barclays Premier League title which even those over hyped players were signed, by signing them cannot guarantee Arsenal to win the title. But instead will result into to have taken a consequently failed gamble which could plunged Arsenal into financial bankruptcy.

    Man Utd took a big gamble last season to the tone of spending £250m on new players recruitment according to reports. But that gamble could only see them miss out in the Champions League as they finished 5th in the final placing in the table.

    Therefore, it isn’t the signings of many expensive players from the transfer market that can delivered a club the BPL title. But team building and team work that is fortified with top good class players can lead a team to win the title, which Leicester City FC have proved can be the case last season as they unexpectedly won the title after largely exhibited a superior team work with unheralded players in their squad.

    I beleive all the Boss will need to do to fine tune his 1st team squad in readiness to capture the title in this coming season is what he has been doing by signing only 3 players in this summer window. Arsenal are on the Verge of winning the Barclays Premier League title after missing it as they came 4th, 3rd and now 2nd in the table during the last three consecutive seasons.

    Notwithstanding, any greediness and huge amount of money spent in recruiting many big rated players by Man Utd and Man City will deter Arsenal from taking the title in this coming season’s campaign. Because it’s Arsenal turn to win the title this coming season as they’ve already been ordained destined to win by fate. And it will be fruitless for Man Utd & Man City to try to change that destiny.

  11. Sorry the UA editor, the last paragraph of my just recently posted comment has some errors in it which I would have corrected them had my posting is edict facilitated.I wish it is after I read my posted comment.

  12. Akin, not just the last paragraph, bro. Lol.

    In view of the number of ‘likes’ I got on my last post, I have to make it clear that I am not of the WOB, but rather will like to see the club achieve league success again under the man. I feel we can identify a cracking goal scorer, whose valuation suits us and just make it happen. In the event the market moves against us for the quality we deserve (and it appears the market has moved), then we may have to take a pot on one of our targets and move on to the next objective. We need a striker to support/complement Giroud!

  13. Paul Pogba:
    Not considered France’s best player at a tournament they didn’t win (2016)

    Lots of noise by special agents and their partners at some funny papers and Specilaist’s in signing players signed up to special agents all ratcheting up the special cut for the special agent.

    Lots of groaning by AAA if above player is signed for said fees. You can bet your very last dollar on that!

    Abou Diaby:
    Considered France’s best player at a tournament they didn’t win (2010 WC – the last we saw of him more or less before the last one or two uncalled and unpunished hacks called a close his attempts at rehab).

    A Venga indulgence. A pet project. A sign of all that is wrong at AFC.

    Nevermind the Football. Eh?

  14. I’m pasting this crap from a website…..
    Warning : just don’t freak out…..and if you laugh don’t fall off your chair…..

    “Sandberg could be seen as Per Mertesacker’s long-term replacement and might even be needed as cover during this season. Gabriel’s performances are considered a cause for concern, while Laurent Koscielny’s future hangs in the balance.”

    Sure, this 16 year old kid is going to replace Per and Laurent is leaving. As for Gabriel, yeah sure….

    I hope these kinds of stories are the result of some robots, because if actual people are writing this, I may start questionning my beliefs in mankind….

    At least we’ve got UA to have a daily read of sanity

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