Has Arsenal come to a dead stop in terms of transfers: indeed has everyone else?

By Sir Hardly Anyone

It is as if someone in football has read my name and instead of seeing it as, well, not to put too fine a point on it, my name, they have taken it as what they should be doing in terms of signing players.  And in fact in the past week they have signed hardly anyone.

Indeed in recent days the top 10 clubs from last seasons Premier League have between them signed just one player.  Previously if six leaves blew along the street outside the a training ground they were immediately given a piece of paper, told to sign and promised that they would be a part of a new deciduous forest that would spring up on the spot in late August.

At the moment all we are getting is the recycling of managerial wishes such as “Everton boss Koeman wants three more signings: Giroud and Sigurdsson among them”.   Mind you that was in the Daily Excess which had next to it the headline, and you will forgive me if I give a little prominence to this one…

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Dead alien baby and pregnant mother found inside tomb in Peru’

Meanwhile back with Arsenal, desperation at the lack of new signings gives us“Could Jack Wilshere AND Santi Cazorla be ‘like a new signing’ this season?” –that from Just Arsenal  News.  Actually I agree that the return of either play fit and at the height of their prowess could well be an utter delight to behold in the autumn as the newspapers and their camp followers gear up the “Arsenal’s November collapse” stories.   Although shouldn’t the headline be “two new signings”?

Things got a trifle more exciting when Brazilian winger Kenedy decided to post silly pictures and comments from China.   As one who has spent several weeks in China what I find bizarre is that the club allowed this to happen.  When I was there just a few years back my touring party were told repeatedly, and exactly how to behave and what to expect in various places.  It was made clear that we should never mention Tiananmen Square and the protests therein, that when visiting the Terracotta Army we should not take pictures and that the no photograph signs meant exactly that.  That we could observe activities in the great gardens, but not talk while others focused on their activities, we should not make any sign that we thought the local folk music incomprehensible nor on our river trip laugh at the man standing in the water wearing a suit and bowler hat checking that we were all wearing life jackets.  And obey the local laws and customs we did.

All Chelsea had to do was remind their players morning, noon and night, and give each player a minder, and close down their social media accounts.  China has its own approach to life, one goes there as a guest – especially on a business trip (which in essence is what a football visit is).

Chelsea were humble in their response saying, “We offer this apology with utmost sincerity. We have listened carefully to the criticism and will use the lessons learnt over the last two days to improve our processes in future”.

But The Telegraph loved it speaking of a “growing backlash in China”  Someone at the FA woke up and The FA has also written to both Kenedy and the club for their observations.   There is talk that the government authorities ordered Chinese media to “withdraw all related stories about Chelsea from their dual homepages and news apps” and the People’s Daily said, “China does not welcome a player like this; nor does China welcome a team like this.  It is regrettable that he has said such nonsense. He has created an incident that has humiliated China, an incident that so many fans simply cannot tolerate.  Kenedy’s absurd comments are not only impolite, but also uneducated.”

However in my view the club must take the blame.  If you go to a society such as China, then you need to behave as required.  If you don’t feel you want to control the touring party, don’t go.

Elsewhere it is all fairly everyday.   “Insider reveals the details behind Arsenal’s bid to sign 21-year-old forward” shouts Sky Sports as their reporter “reveals Arsenal are still looking to reach an agreement with AS Monaco about Thomas Lemar’s transfer fee”.

The Mirror in desperation at the lack of stories tries to revive an old favourite – “Arsenal miss out…” with the implication that it is Arsenal’s fault.   This time Arsenal have missed out on Arda Turan.

It is left to the Guardian to bring a smile to Untold’s offices this morning, with the Fiver column calling West Ham United “The Taxpayers’ Club”.   Although without the apostrophe, as some Guardian scribblers are still not 100% au fait with the grammatical rules on the plural possessive.

Still, I wonder where they got that idea from.  The Taxpayers’ Club!   What a lark!

Here’s the list of transfers inwards for the top 10 from last season.  Only one addition in the last week.

The price for Begovic was wrongly written as £30m and has been changed to £10m.  Sorry about that.

Club Player  From Date Fee Total £
Arsenal (2) Alexandre Lacazett Lyon July £46m £46m
Sead Kolasinac Schalke June End of contract
Chelsea (5) Antonio Rüdiger Roma June £29m £126.7m
 
Ethan Ampadu
Exeter July Compensation
Willey Cabeleero
Free agent July £0
Tiémoué Bakayoko Monaco July £39.7m
Álvaro Morata Real Mad July £58m
Man City (6) Benjamin Mendy Monaco July £52m £217m
Douglas Luiz Vasco de Gama July £10m
Danilo Real Mad July £26.5
   Bernardo Silva Monaco July £43.6
 Kyle Walker  Tottenham July £50m
Ederson Benfica June £34.9m
Man U (2) Victor Lindelof Benfica June £31m £106m
Romelu Lukaku Everton July £75m
Liverpool (3) Andrew Robertson Hull July £8m £44.9
Mohamed Salah Roma June £36.9m
  Dominic Solanke Chelsea May Released
Tottenham (0) £0
Everton (10) Cuco Martina Southampton July Released £58.7
Michael Keene Burnley July £25m
Josh Bowler QPR July Unknown
Sandro Ramírez Malaga July £5.3m
Henry Onyekuru Lupen June £7m*
Nathangelo Markelo FC Volendam June Unknown
Davy Klaassen Ajax June £23.7m
Jordan Pickford Sunderland June £25m
Boris Mathis Metz July Unknown
Wayne Rooney Man U July Free?
Southampton (1) Jan Bednarek Lech Poznan July £5.7m £5.7m
Bournemouth (4) Asmir Begovic Chelsea May £10m £30m
Nathan Aké Chelsea June £20m
Jermain Defoe Sunderland June Free
Connor Mahoney Blackburn July Released
West Brom (4) Ahmed Hegazi Al Ahly July Loan £12m
Yuning Zhang Vitesse Arnhem July Undisclosed
Ben Pierce Free Agent July Free
Jay Rodriguez Southampton July £12m

Everton still way in front with 10, Manchester City with 6, Chelsea 5, and at the foot of the table Southampton stuck on 1 and Tottenham resolutely on zero.

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6 Replies to “Has Arsenal come to a dead stop in terms of transfers: indeed has everyone else?”

  1. Did you see this in the Express Sir Hardly…

    ‘Arsenal approached Real Madrid for stunning Gareth Bale transfer – shock claims from Spain’

    Now that really would have pissed off the Spurs supporters!!!

  2. I think that as far as AW is concerned he believes he has all the individuals he needs right now…as long as Sanchez stays that is. He’s probably right although I still feel we are a little light in the creative midfield area and Carzola is not going to be too useful for a while yet.
    As for the competition, nothing new, more money than sense 🙂

  3. where did you get 30m for Begovic from Chelsea from?

    Since Untold Arsenal is so sanctimonious about “facts”, I would have expect better

  4. Yes you are right – it is a misprint – I will go and change it. Thanks for pointing it out, although I think “sanctimonious” (defined as “making a show of being morally superior to other people” isn’t quite right.

  5. The Guardian journalists have been naming West Ham “The Taxpayers FC” (sic) for a while.

    Truth to be told, I think that Chelsea (or any other club for that matter) can’t control players and their social media. They did react by condemning what their player did. He acted stupidly, disrespectfully and I would never want a player with that sort of character at Arsenal. I would also expect from Arsenal to make a public statement to condemn the player and either issue a warning or fine the player according to internal penalty code of the club. I don’t know if Chelsea did the second thing. If they didn’t, they should.

    On the bright side, “Kenedy causes a growing backlash in China” doesn’t sound as dangerous as it would sound in 1960s.

  6. There’s usually a few lulls in the transfer window.
    I’d guess it’s about waiting for some of the seller clubs to line up their replacements before letting players go.
    Until that happens many clubs wants top dollar for their players as it doesn’t know what the replacement will cost, so I’d expect the Lyon/Monaco/Seville/Hoffenheim etc clubs to be working quietly with lower clubs while they sort potential replacements and then the market will kick off again with slightly more realistic (but still outrageous) prices for SOME of the players.
    I believe there’s still a few players on our radar but we’re a bit less likely to be held to ransom over them… probably 😀

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