Three players signed by Arsenal and one more from Chelsea on the horizon

This, however, does not mean that Arsenal have some sort of special link with Chelsea, but as we showed in the recent article, Chelsea just keep on spending more than other clubs.  Their transfer model is to buy the players, and then see who they have got and how they are settling in, and then sell on some of the ones they have bought that don’t seem to fit.  Not because they are not good enough, but because they’ve got more than they can put in their 25.

It’s a curiously disjointed system, but not against the rules, and it is one way of finding a team that can end up higher than third, which they have not managed to do for the last eight seasons.  Indeed, it must be a bit gruelling for Chelsea to find that Arsenal keep coming second while apparently taking Chelsea cast-offs.

To try and make something newsworthy out of the story of “Yet another Chelsea player” the media have been talking up a petition against the signing of Madueke, as they always love “Arsenal fans are revolting” tales.  Although I rather suspect in this case some people (including journalists) have confused, “No to” with the player’s first name Noni. 

Or maybe they are getting confused with the PSG right back Nordi Mukiele who it was alleged we were trying to sign in January 2024.   But we must feel some sympathy for these journalists; it is difficult when these players insist on having foreign names.  (Or perhaps it is just the fact that as a youth player he was registered with Tottenham Hots).

It is worrying though, this setting up of “don’t sign him” posts, which are of course encouraged by supporters (and quite possibly the management) of other clubs, along with the media that run the stories.   There is probably no better way to make a player feel unwelcome than to have a campaign against signing him.  Indeed, it is also a very good way of persuading the club’s manager that maybe, he too, should be somewhere else.

There is also a story doing the rounds that Chelsea have made a profit on Mukiele although I am not sure that is true when you include the salary they have paid him.   To counteract that we have tales that Fenerbahce are interested in signing Trossard.

Meanwhile, the list of signings from Chelsea is growing, including of course, Kepa Arrizabalaga, David Luiz, Willian, Jorginho, Kai Havertz and Raheem Sterling.   Not all of them worked of course – Sterling certainly didn’t – but Arsenal are getting these players are reduced rates so a bit of experimentation always can lead to some transfers not working out.  And if others do, then Arsenal can benefit from the oddities of the model.  Plus of course in recent seasons Arsenal have not had a full 25 man squad.

What last season certainly did show is that it would be good to have a backup for Saka, who is seemingly unmovable from the lineup except when injured.  I am really not sure he can keep on playing this number of matches per season.

Meanwhile, the media are talking up the chance of  Ethan Nwaneri moving to Chelsea, which would not be welcome.

But of course, we come back to the key point every time, at most only three per cent of the transfer stories that circulate in the media every summer actually turn out to be true – and that includes the departures as well as the arrivals.   So the odds are very much in favour of nothing happening.