The 25 players Arsenal are now preparing to buy this summer

These are the main transfers that we have found scanning through the media on the morning of 23rd June 2026.  That doesn’t mean that there are not others lurking in the long grass, and we’ll try and catch up with more of them in the coming weeks.

One of the main things to note however is that we have been running charts like this each summer for the past four or five years  and the average number of reports which turn out to be accurate (in terms of the players who actually do come to Arsenal is around about 3% of those reported in the media.

So why is the footballing media getting the transfers so wrong?   The most obvious answer is that what we are seeing here are tales that people tell others for one of two reasons.   One explanation is that clubs that would be willing to sell on a player “if the price is right” slip the story to a gullible journalist that Club X is interested, in the hope that he will run it and that will bring in some interest.  The other is that editors tell their journaliss that “we need some more transfer rumours” on the grounds that “everyone else has got them, why haven’t we?” and so the journalist simply makes a few up.

Of course, everyone denies it – but with 97% of these rumours in the media and on the blogs not ending up in the transfer suggested, what other reasons could there be?