by Sir Hardly Anyone
There is no telling when football is going to start again (although talk today among the chattering journalists is not so much about this season being abandoned but whether next season is playable) but the “reportedly” gang are still at it.
In our last run down we found 63 players who had been tipped to sign for Arsenal, but now that number looks to have rushed up to 70 with no sign of anyone playing football and well over a month to go before the window creaks open.
“Is this reality?” I hear you ask (although not literally since I am sitting in my home in Northamptonshire and you are not because we are responsibly socially distanced) and in the sense that yes, all these stories have appeared in the newspapers or on blogs, no it isn’t. Or perhaps as they used to say on Star Trek, “It’s life Jim, but not as we know it.”
Here are the latest
1: Gabriel Magalhaes
This is in HITC, Sports Mole, The Sun, LT Arsenal, le10Sport, Metro, Canon, Football London, TransferTavern, and on and on.
He is 22, he is a centre back, Everton have made an offer, Chelsea and Leicester are keen. But wait, have a look at his actual playing record…
| Years | Team | Games | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016–2017 | Avaí (Brazil) | 21 | 1 |
| 2017–2018 | Lille B | 7 | |
| 2017– | Lille | 39 | 2 |
| 2017–2018 | Troyes (loan) | 1 | |
| 2017 | Troyes B (loan) | 5 | |
| 2018 | Dinamo Zagreb (loan) | 1 | |
| 2018 | Dinamo Zagreb II (loan) | 10 |
What has happened is that he has been out and about but now just come back to Lille and they have found they liked him and so this season he has been playing for them regularly after not cutting it on loan with either Troyes and Zagreb. He is an “exciting prospect”.
2: Kai Havertz.
He is a midfielder with Bayer Leverkusen midfielder and Chelsea and Liverpool are also said to be aftrer him, along with Bayern Munich. He is 20, and is an “exciting prospect”. , following his performances in the Bundesliga.. Football London came up with this one.
3: Emmanuel Dennis
He plays for Club Brugge and among those after him are Manchester United, Arsenal, Newcastle United, Everton, Leicester City, Brighton, Sheffield United, Watford and Crystal Palace. Now that list might seem a bit bonkers, given that Newcastle don’t quite know how much they will have and who their manager will be next season.
He hasn’t been playing that much this year, but he did score against Real Madrid in the Champs League, which says something I guess.
4: Willian
The Daily Mail now claim that Arsenal want to pull off free transfers and swap deals to limit their expenditure, and so the Chelsea winger Willian is now a “top target” because he is out of contract in June. SunSport says he is demanding a three-year deal which matches his current £120,000-a-week salary.
5: Cengiz Under
This story comes from the wonderfully named Italian “outlet” Leggo who tell us that Arsenal could sign the Roma forward in return for Henrikh Mkhitaryan and some money being paid to Arsenal. The idea is in HITC, the Boot Room and the Express.
He is a forward with Napoli and Inter Milan want him, as much as Arsenal. This is in CalcioMercato, the Metro and on Football.London. He has played 225 games for Napoli and scored 90 and is now aged 32 – something which some “outlets” forget to tell us.
7: Wissam Ben Yedder
And finally we have a proper “reportedly” with Sports Mole telling us “Arsenal could reportedly move for Monaco striker Wissam Ben Yedder” as a replacement for Auba. He plays for Monaco, he is 29 and scored 19 goals last season with nine assists. The price is about £40m and the Sun, Mail and Metro all have the story.
8: Malang Sarr
HITC calls this the Bargain of the summer, BeIn Sports says he is definitely on the move, and the Sun says “Skint Arsenal on hunt for free transfers”. Bleacher Report and Football Whispers also has this.
He is 21, he is a centre back, he plays for Nice, and has knocked up over 100 appearances for them since 2016, along with playing for France at every age group from under 16 to under 21.
In February 2018, he was named by the CIES Football Observatory as the world’s fifth-most promising footballer under the age of 20.
The transfer window opens on 10 June and will close at 5pm on 1 September. Don’t hold your breath.
Reckon number 5 is Arse about face , Cengiz Under . Last October he was apparently on Manchester United’s “” RADAR “” and they were qouted 50 million Euros.
If there is a swap on the horizon I think the cash will go the other way.
Verdict :- Unlikely to happen.
This entire transfer speculation ,pie-in-the sky ¨window¨BS ignores the following;
1) Arsenal have no money to spend,as do most other EPL clubs
2) Arsenal have a full squad and many youngsters who are cheaper options,
3) Arteta has spent the pandemic period in learning about his players and assessing them, he knows what he needs or doesn’t as has never whispered a word about transfers,so far
4) Many of these 70 odd speculative transfers are older players who don’t add a bit to the overall strength of Arsenal.