By Sir Hardly Anyone
I think I am right in saying that never before in the history of never before, have so many players been tipped by so few to go to the Arsenal before the window swings open.
There are 42 days before the window swings open (do remember if writing about transfers the window swings open (although creaks open is also allowed) and at the end it slams shut (no alternative is available, it slams shut, it always slams shut).
Swings and slams (not swings and roundabouts, although given the lunatic inventiveness of some of these stories roundabouts should be part of the equation). Got it? Swings and slams.
And here’s something to look forward to. We are going to try going back through all these stories ahead of the next publication of the list, to find how many of these players have been listed in the media along with the word “reportedly”. Remembering that “reportedly” means
“According to what some say (used to express the speaker’s belief that the information given is not necessarily true)”
63 Players in total, seven of whom have appeared since we last ran the list… most of them “reportedly”.
No | Player | From | Details | Source |
1 | Kristoffer Ajer. | Celtic | 22-year-old centre-back | Gunnersphere; Scottish Daily |
2 | Miguel Almiron | Newcastle | Their top scorer | Media Referee |
3 | Houssem Aouar | Lyon | Midfielder. Man C want him as do Liverpool! | The Sun tells us he is 25 and the price is £65m. 4th official agree. Gunnersphere also. |
NEW | Sardar Azmoun | Zenit St. Petersburg | The 5th highest Iranian scorer of all time, and he’s still scoring | Leicester want him. 442, HITC, TBR |
5 | Leon Bailey | Bayer Leverkusen | Chelsea also want him. £85m fee. | Just Arsenal |
6 | Jérôme Boateng | Bayern Munich | 31 years old, £13m, defender | Daily Mail. Read Arsenal says Bayern ready to sell |
7 | Ugurcan Cakir |
Trabzonspor goalkeeper
|
Tottenham also interested | HITC. Do we need another keeper? |
8 | Mady Camara | Olympiacos | Defensive midfield | HITC |
9 | Dani Ceballos | Real Mad | Currently on loan | Express, SDNA |
10 | Barcelona | Attacking midfielder on loan at Bayern. Being talked up as a near certainty | Talksport, Express | |
11 | Marc Cucurella | Barcelona | Left back or wide midfield | FoLo £20.9m |
12 | Jonathan David | Gent | Second striker | Football.London |
13 | Ousmane Dembélé | Barcelona | Forward | AS, Sun |
14 | Axel Disasi | Reims | Arsenal and Monaco both enquiring about defender | TBR, L’Equippe, Sun. |
15 | Issa Diop | WHU | Centre back for £60m | Mirror, Metro, Read Arsenal, HITC, West Sussex Today, Sun |
16 | Julian Draxler | PSG | To replace Ozil. Tottenham also interested | Teamtalk |
17 | Odsonne Edouard | Celtic | £50m; goalscoring forward (“Scored more than Messi”) | |
18 | Nebil Fekir | Real Betis | ||
19 | Noah Francoise | Rennes | ||
20 | Ryan Fraser | Bournemouth | ||
21 | Bruno Fuchs | Internacional | ||
NEW | César Gelabert | Palencia | ||
23 | Antoine Griezmann | Barcelona | £90m for the forward. PSG Man Utd, Chelsea, also interested | |
24 | Diogo Jota | Wolverhampton | He’s a 23 year old forward | Sport Review, 4th official, Mail, FoLo, Whoscored |
25 | Gabriel |
Lille | Defender £40m | Everton also want him (Mirror) |
26 | Serge Gnabry | Bayern Munich | Winger | Reports everywhere say he was seen in an Arsenal shirt |
27 | Pape Gueye, | Le Harvre | Defensive midfield | Liverpool also interested. Folo, World of Football. |
28 | Jovic | Real Madrid | 30 year old striker; deal agreed | Daily Express / Starspost / Sport |
29 | Calum Kavanagh | Middlesbrough | 16 year old ; forward | Lancs Post, The 72, Northern Echo |
30 | Jonjoe Kenny | Schalke 04 on loan from Everton | Right back | Tottenham want him |
NEW | Franck Kessie | AC Milan | Midfielder, the next Yaya Torre | Calciomercato |
32 | Orkun Kokcu | Feyenoord | 19 year old midfielder | Express, FoLo |
33 | Layvin Kurzawa | PSG (out of contract). Media Ref says he would bring confidence | 27 years old Polish left back “has agreed a 5 year deal” Standard. | Express says he wants to go to Barcelona. Sport, HITC, Sport Witness, Daily Star say Arsenal. 4th official says “he’s signed |
34 | George Lewis | Tromsø – out of contract | 19 year old winger | HITC, Cannon, Arsenal Youth, Kigalitoday, Arsenal Mania |
35 | Jesse Lingard | Man U | £19.8m right winger | Caught offside say Celtic and Chelsea want him |
36 | Isaac Lihadji | Marseille, 17 year old winger | 17 year old. Man U and Dortmund want him | The Boot Room, Foot Mercato, TBR Football and the Sun all have this, Discussions begun |
37 | Matty Longstaff | Newcastle | Central midfielder who will leave on a free | The |
38 | Dejan Lovren | Liverpool | Defender. Tottenham interested | Express, HITC, FoLo |
39 | Pablo Mari | Arsenal on loan from Flamengo | Left sided centre back | The Athletic – he’ll be made permanent |
40 | Dwight McNeill | Burnley | Winger | Lancs Live. Apparently lots of clubs want him |
41 | Moreno | Valencia £50m | Valencia, forward | Metro, Mirror, replacement for Aubameygang. “A bad move” says Media Referee |
42 | Evan N’Dicka | Eintracht Frankfurt | €24m-rated France U21 international, He is left-footed, and 20-year-old | |
N£W | Wilfred Ndidi | Leicester | Nigerian midfielder | |
44 | Ruben Neves | Wolverhampton | Midfield | Sports Mole |
45 | Unai Nunez | Athletic Bilbao | Centre Back, 23, £18m | Daily Mail says WHU want him. Arsenal ready to meet price, Read Arsenal, Who Scored |
46 | Victor Osimhen | Lille | Nigerian Forward. £87m | Le Quotidien du Foot, Bootroom. Replacement for Aubameyang |
47 | Thomas Partey | Atletico Madrid | Midfielder. Express saying this might involve a swap deal. Boot Room says Lacazette in exchange. | Metro, Goal. Squawka quote €50m. HITC also. He’ll move if At Mad dont get Champs Lge Just £45m! Guardian. |
48 | Adrien Rabiot | Juventus | Midfield | Just Arsenal, Standard. Torreira to be sold. |
49 | Marc Roca | Espanyol | To replace Ceballos | Sport, 4th official. |
50 | Declan Rice | West Ham | Holding midfielder in the style of Gilberto | Express (according to Arsenal “legend” P Merson) |
NEW | Kays Ruiz-Atil | PSG | ‘next Lionel Messi’, 17 year old, central midfield, on the left wing or an outright striker | L’Équipe |
52 | Chris Smalling | Roma on loan from Man U; Roma pulled out of deal for him | Centre back. Tottenham, Liverpool on alert (Express) | Just Arsenal News; Arsenal launch £25m bid; Mirror. HITC, Express, Standard. Only if Man U get Koulibaly (Just Arsenal) |
53 | Carlos Soler | Valencia | Central or right midfield | Sky Sports, Standard, FoLo, Agent says he’s happy to stay where he is Daily Star. |
54 | Malick Thiaw | Schalke 04. | 18 year old central defender | Sport Review; Daily Mail Liverpool and Man C also interested. |
55 | Corentin Tolisso | Bayern Munich, central midfield | Man U want him. Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Napoli monitoring him | Express, FootMercato |
56 | Pau Torres | Vailla Real | 23 years old, Centra back Santi Caz is talking him up. | Sun £43m. Santi Caz is talking him up. He’s learning English! (Just Arsenal) |
NEW | Adama Traore | Wolverhampton | He’s 24, a wing back or midfield, or a winger | Daily Star. He started out with Barcelona. |
58 | Samuel Umtiti | Barcelona | Centre back | Express says he’s available at a discount as he’s always injured |
59 | Dayot Upamecano | RB Leipzig | Central defender. Was all the rage as a transfer a year ago | Football.London |
NEW | Gabriel Veron | He’s a 17 year old forward | “The Brazilian wonderkid” Football London | |
Update | Willian | Chelsea, winger, attacking midfield | Talks have broken down with Chelsea, Arsenal now favourites | Metro, Fo.Lo, Sun, ESPN, Whoscored |
62 | Chris Wood | Burnley | Replacement for Aubameyang | |
63 | Freddie Woodman | Newcastle on loan at Swansea | Goalkeeper, 23 years | Chronicle Live, TBR, HITC |
The transfer window opens on 10 June and will close at 5pm on 1 September. Don’t hold your breath.
We get the idea that most transfer speculation is a figment of a limited media imagination. In reality there will be virtually no serious transfer activity this summer with most clubs struggling to survive .let alone splash huge transfer fees .Most deals will be loans The game is in serious trouble and future articles about transfers won’t be humorous
Henry my view is that football journalists have become so used to writing stories that are so clearly utterly untrue, and have got away with it for so long, they don’t know anything else to write about. And since journalists also don’t know how to shut up they will keep going.
Henry Root
“We get the idea that most transfer speculation is a figment of a limited media imagination.”
But that’s the point right there, if the media had credibility, scruples or a real desire to actually ‘report’ on the serious issues affecting football, they wouldn’t need an ‘imagination’.
So rather than ‘imagining’ 100’s of none existent transfers why not try actually reporting on some ‘real’ news, such as the corruption case that is occupying the European media, mentioned in Tony’s next article ?
Obviously by your “we get the idea” you feel it all a bit crass to keep banging on about these none existent transfers, when looming on the horizon is the possible demise of football as we know it, with the real possibility of seeing the disappearance of some clubs all together.
But isn’t that the exact point Untold is making?
We have all these issues in football, from child trafficking, to possible on going corruption and not a word. All we get is this constant stream of ‘imaginary’ transfers filling page after page.
There is plenty of ‘real’ news out there that doesn’t take any ‘imagination’ at all, but despite having what must be hours and hours of spare time on their hands, given the non existence of any actual sport for the sporting hacks to report on, our media point blank refuse to report on any of it, in any significant way what so ever.
Why is that that?
It’s certainly not due to a lack of imagination as you suggest, as ‘imagining’ is all they seem to do.
Reporting on ACTUAL news seems to be something they actively avoid at all costs.
As far as I’m concerned the medias relentless obsession regarding non existent transfers whilst ignoring some very real issues is an utter disgrace, and exposes the media for the pathetic rabble of ignorant self serving hacks they are.
Just look back at the numerous high quality, investigative articles Untold has put out over the last few weeks. It’s amazing actually.
But the point is, if Untold, with it’s limited resources can do it, why cant the ‘media’?
Well the answer is they can, they just don’t want to, and that is a worry.
Day after day Untold put the media to shame.