The world of transfers in five snap shots….
- Arsenal have too many players in the 25 man squad. Who will leave?
- Did Arsenal really go for Mudryk or was it all a clever trap for Chelsea?
- How spending a fortune on transfers is not always a good idea.
- The significant success of Arsenal’s recent signings recognised
- How much have Arsenal spent on transfers in recent years?
The rumours from the January transfer window are published here and pretty embarrassing they would be for the media that published them… if they were ever capable of being embarrassed. But just as they predicted Arsenal would finish outside the top four, and that Chelsea and Tottenham would both end up above Arsenal – and then made no apology for such a glaring set of mistakes, so last January they got most of it wrong, and yet not a word was said.
On average about around 97% to 98% of transfer tales never happen. But still the media continue, thinking as they always do that their readers and listeners are idiots. So here is what they have been up to… but just in case you are inclined to believe any of these, remember that in the last window we charted 53 separate reports that said Arsenal were signing Mudryk.
The 25 players the media say Arsenal are looking to sign…
| No | Position | Player | From | Notes |
| 1 | Forward | Ilias Akhomach | Barcelona | |
| 2 | Right wing | Marco Asensio | Real Madrid | Metro, HITC |
| 3 | Defender | Sacha Boey. | Galatasaray | HITC GMS |
| Update | Def midfield | Moises Caicedo | Brighton | Fo-Lo Give Me Sport Terms Agreed – Mirror Sports Bible Arsenal Station Telegraph |
| 5 | Full back | Joao Cancelo | Manchester City | On loan with Bayern. Sky Football Talk GiveMeSport – it will be difficult. FFC Football Talk “Agreed” FoLo HITC FFC |
| NEW | Right back | Timothy Castagne | Leicester City | Leicester having a fire sale |
| NEW | Forward | Federico Chiesa | Juventus | TBR |
| 8 | Midfield | Serge Gnabry | Bayern Munich | FoLo |
| 9 | Winger | Wilfried Gnonto | Leeds | FoLo |
| Update | Midfield | Ilkay Gundogan | Manchester City | Evening Standard GivemeSport Hard Tackle TBR TBR (2) Telegraph |
| NEW | Attacking midfield | Kai Havertz | Chelsea | TheRealChamps |
| NEW | Defensive midfield | N’Golo Kante | Chelsea | Telegraph |
| 13 | Attacking midfield | Maddison | Leicester | Mirror |
| 14 | Midfield | Sergej Milinkovic-Savic | Lazio | Goal |
| NEW | Midfield | Mason Mount | Chelsea | Telegraph |
| NEW | Defensive midfield | Amadou Onana | Everton | Telegraph |
| 17 | Defender | Benjamin Pavard | Bayern Munich | FFC |
| Update | Defensive midfield | Declan Rice | West Ham | Football London, Sun., Metro Football Talk. “Terms agreed” Football Transfers. Going to Man U, 4th Official Shoot Give Me Sport. Mirror (“it’s on”) It will happen soon (HITC) Bid Made (HITC) Going to Chelsea (TBR) Quick move to AFC (Give me sport) |
| 19 | Forward | Alexis Sanchez | Marseille | The Sun |
| 20 | Right Wing | Savio | Troyes | TBR |
| Update | Forward | Xavi Simons | PSV | Hard Tackle TBR – it’s happening. Mirror |
| 22 | Attacking midfield | Dominik Szoboszla | RB Leipzig | Daily Canon |
| Update | Midfield | Youri Tielemans | Leicester City | HITC Telegraph |
| 24 | Forward | Dusan Vlahovic | Juventus | €80m Calciomercatoweb,Telegraph |
| NEW | Forward | Nico Williams | Athletic Bilbao | TBR |
And the nine players that are said to be leaving Arsenal.
| No | Player | To | Notes |
| 1 | Gabriel | PSG | PSG Talk. Hard Tackle |
| NEW | Jorginho | AC Milan or Napoli | Sportsmole |
| NEW | Okonkwo or Hein | ? | FoLo; one of the keepers will go |
| 4 | Marquinhos | Going on loan | TBR |
| 5 | Martin Odegaard | PSG | FoLo |
| NEW | Emile Smith Rowe | WHU | HITC |
| NEW | Pépé | ??? | TBR TeamTalk: AFC may terminate contract |
| 8 | Tierney | Newcastle | Mirror And Mirror again |
| 9 | Xhaka | ?? | FoLo |
You can add Holding and Patino to the leaving list. Holding apparently is not good enough and Patino wants regular playing time.
Every man & his dog have said Balogun will be gone with AC & Inter interested amongst others.
PS Would these clubs have the same interest in signing Nketiah instead?
Adrian that’s true of course about Balogun, but equally true is that the media and pundits are wrong 97% of the time, as we’ve shown season after season. But remember that when everyone was saying that Saliba must come back to join the Arsenal defence, Arteta gave him one more year in France to build up his strength and experience, and he might well choose to do the same. What we don’t want is a highly talented player coming in and then just being on the bench behind Saka, Martinelli and Jesus, and possibly Eddie as well.
So one more year on loan might not mean, he’s not wanted, but rather the opposite.
Mick, I take your point, but there are no reports I’ve seen of clubs enquiring about Holding. Patino could go on loan.
Did anybody (other than football.london) really believe the Tielemans to Arsenal stories? I think that ship sailed months ago, but now football.london, Goal.com and football365 are pumping out stories like “Arsenal miss out”. As usual, their stories don’t make any sense.