- 3 players for every position; 3 positions for every player, and they all want to be at Arsenal
- Football is teetering on the edge of a financial disaster: here’s why and how
By Sir Hardly Anyone
There are of course two ways of writing up football transfer rumours, which make up the vast bulk of football “reporting” during the summer. One is to take the name of a player and suggest that Arsenal are interested in him and call that an exclusive, the other is to read everyone else’s stories and repeat one of those adding such extras as “talks are moving at a fast pace” or “Arsenal are bulking at the price being asked” or “the player would prefer to move to Chelsea where he is more likely to get playing time” or whatever. By and large research does not come into it, which is why virtually all the reports we count in our regular transfer feature each window then quote another website as a source. No one wants the responsibility or being 97% or 98% wrong, which is the normal error rate.
But this summer’s transfer table is slightly different, because just two weeks into the window the stories seem to have stopped with everyone simply re-running everyone else’s news.
Quite why that is, I am not sure. Maybe the Toppled Bollard public house where London journalists gather to make up these tales has started putting that “little something extra in the drink” and that has slowed the addled brains down even further.
Or maybe our regular pointing out the 97% inaccuracy rate of journalistic endeavors in this regard has finally bit home and the media simply have got fed up with being laughed at.
Anyway, this week we have struggled to find any new stories at all in the incoming players list, although a lot of players have been tipped over and over again (as shown as Updated).
On the other hand three more players are tipped as leaving.
44 Incoming players this summer
| No | Player | Position | From | Sources | No of reports |
| 1 | Ilias Akhomach | Forward | Barcelona | Football Express | 1 |
| 2 | Julian Alvarez | Forward | Man City | FFC The Top Flight | 2 |
| 3 | Marco Asensio | Right wing | Real Madrid | Metro, HITC | 2 |
| 4 | Nicolò Barella | Midfield | Inter Milan | An alternative to Rice FFC and again HITC | 3 |
| 5 | Harvey Barnes | Winger | Leicester | FoLo | 1 |
| 6 | Sacha Boey. | Defender | Galatasaray | HITC GMS | 2 |
| 7 | Bitello | Midfield | Grêmio | SportWitness | 1 |
| Update | Moises Caicedo | Def midfield | Brighton | Fo-Lo Give Me Sport Terms Agreed – Mirror Sports Bible, Arsenal Station Telegraph AFC pulled out FoLo – its now unlikely To Chelsea AFC still on GMS TBR | 12 |
| Update | Joao Cancelo | Full back | Manchester City | On loan with Bayern. Sky Football Talk GiveMeSport – it will be difficult FFC Football Talk “Agreed” FoLo HITC FFC TBR GivemeSport | 10 |
| 10 | Timothy Castagne | Right back | Leicester City | Leicester having a fire sale Modest price | 2 |
| 11 | Federico Chiesa | Forward | Juventus | TBR | 1 |
| Update | Moussa Diaby | Winger | Bayer Leverkusen | Football Talk Arsenal in the lead Team Talk. No its Villa (Hitc) and Birmingham World F365 TBR FFC | 8 |
| Update | Ivan Fresneda | Defender | Valladolid. | FFC FFC (again) | 2 |
| 14 | Jeremie Frimpong | Right back | Bayer Leverkusen | London World | 1 |
| 15 | Serge Gnabry | Midfield | Bayern Munich | FoLo | 1 |
| 16 | Wilfried Gnonto | Winger | Leeds | FoLo | 1 |
| 17 | Arda Guler | Forward | Fenerbahce | Football Fan Cast | 1 |
| 18 | Ilkay Gundogan | Midfield | Manchester City | Evening Standard GivemeSport Hard Tackle TBR TBR (2) Telegraph | 7 |
| 19 | Kai Havertz | Attacking midfield | Chelsea | TheRealChamps 3 Added Minutes, TBR HITC Henry says he’s worth it FoLo Football Fancat Bayern want him HITC Chelsea say no 90min EPL Index Team Talk HITC Chelsea want £70m Goal- he’s going to Bayern AFC leading Compared to Bergkamp Caught Offside (He chooses his number) It’s done and its weird (FFC) It would be a mistake (Last Word) Having a medical HITC Get Football FFC | 25 |
| 20 | Goncalo Iancio | Centre half | Sporting Lisbon | Metro F365 Metro (again) | 3 |
| 21 | Brennan Johnson | Wing | Nottingham Forest | HITC | 1 |
| 22 | N’Golo Kante | Defensive midfield | Chelsea | Telegraph | 1 |
| Update | Romeo Lavia | Defensive midfield | Southampton | TBR Arseblog Team Talk FFC The Top Flight Deal done (Just Arsenal News) TBR Going to Liverpool but prefers Arsenal (Team Talk) Arsenal Station Teamtalk Express Team Talk (4th review) No its not on: Football League World Just starting (Rousingthekop) Inside Futbol GivemeSport | 16 |
| 24 | Maddison | Attacking midfield | Leicester | Mirror | 1 |
| 25 | Sergej Milinkovic-Savic | Midfield | Lazio | Goal. Maybe Saudi bound (HITC) | 2 |
| 26 | Mason Mount | Midfield | Chelsea | Telegraph | 1 |
| 27 | Kylian Mbappe | Forward | PSG | TBR, Team Talk £100m fee (TBR) | 3 |
| 28 | Ethan Nwaneri | Attacking midfield | EPLIndex (He played v Brentford aged 15) | 1 | |
| 29 | Amadou Onana | Defensive midfield | Everton | Telegraph | 1 |
| 30 | Benjamin Pavard | Defender | Bayern Munich | FFC | 1 |
| 31 | Adrian Rabiot | Midfield | Juventus | Sports Mole – no its Man U or Newcastle (Caught offside) | 3 |
| 32 | Declan Rice | Defensive midfield | 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) The Top Flight AFC offer too low Going to Man C. Not Arsenal Mailonline Going to AFC (TBR). WHU Unhappy (Le Grove) | 22 |
| 33 | Alexis Sanchez | Forward | Marseille | The Sun Football 365 (player has called Arteta) | 2 |
| 34 | Savio | Right Wing | Troyes | TBR | 1 |
| Update | Xavi Simons | Forward | PSV | Hard Tackle TBR – it’s happening. Mirror Caught offside – a loan deal. Express Caught offside | 6 |
| 36 | Dominik Szoboszla | Attacking midfield | RB Leipzig | Daily Canon | 1 |
| 37 | Mehdi Taremi | Striker | Porto | HITC | 1 |
| 38 | Youri Tielemans | Midfield | Leicester City | HITC Telegraph | 2 |
| 39 | Jurrien Timber | Defender | Ajax | FFC ESPN Caught Offside FoLo TBR AFC have advantage (Sports Bible) Give me Sport Sports Mole He signed (TBR) | 9 |
| 40 | Dusan Vlahovic | Forward | Juventus | €80m Calciomercatoweb,Telegraph | 2 |
| 41 | Elye Wahi | Forward | Montpellier | Caught Offside; Sport Witness Express | 3 |
| 42 | Kyle Walker | Right back | Man City | Football Fancast The Top Flight | 2 |
| 43 | Nico Williams | Forward | Athletic Bilbao | TBR | 1 |
| 44 | Wilfried Zaha | Wing | Crystal Palace | Football 365 | 1 |
And the 22 players that are said to be leaving Arsenal.
| No | Player | To | Notes | No |
| Update | Balogun | Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Juventus, InterMilan | TBR Just Arsenal . FoLo FoLo again (to Leipzig). And again! TBR (again ) Metro Culto (to Inter) F365 Get Football Mail Online EPL Index (to Inter) Chelsea Chron Express Caught Offside Goonertalk F365 Sport Witness, Last Word | 19 |
| 2 | Gabriel | PSG | PSG Talk. Hard Tackle | 2 |
| 3 | Okonkwo or Hein | ? | FoLo; one of the keepers will go | 1 |
| NEW | Rob Holding | Besiktas | First offer rejected: Mirror | 1 |
| NEW | Kaleel Green | ? | Arsenal youth | 1 |
| NEW | Joel Ideho | Arsenal youth | 1 | |
| 7 | Jorginho | AC Milan or Napoli | Sportsmole | 1 |
| 8 | George Lewis | Norwegian club | Daily Canon | 1 |
| 9 | Ainsley Maitland Niles | Released | Multiple reports | 1 |
| 10 | Marquinhos | Going on loan | TBR | 1 |
| 11 | Nketiah | West Ham | Hammers News He’s worried about his future (Just Arsenal). Questioning his future (Metro) and Mirror | 3 |
| 12 | Martin Odegaard | PSG | FoLo | 1 |
| 13 | Mazeed Ogungbo | Barrow | Transfer confirmed for 20 year old FL World | 1 |
| 14 | Okonkwo or Hein | ? | FoLo; one of the keepers will go | 1 |
| Update | Thomas Partey | Two undisclosed Serie A clubs or Saudi | Just Arsenal Just Arsenal (again) Team Talk (to Saudi) Express Team Talk (again). Express (again) | 7 |
| 15 | Pépé | ??? | TBR TeamTalk: AFC may terminate contract | 2 |
| 16 | Tino Quamina | 1 | ||
| 17 | Emile Smith Rowe | WHU | HITC Not leaving: (Teamtalk) | 2 |
| 18 | Mathaeus Roberts | Released | Talk Sport | 1 |
| 19 | Matt Smith | Released | Arsenal youth | 1 |
| 20 | Tom Smith | Released | Gazette News | 1 |
| Update | Tierney | Newcastle, Celtic | Mirror And Mirror again TBR Newcastle World. TeamTalk Not going anywhere. TBR FFC (to Newcastle) To Celtic (Daily Record) | 10 |
| 22 | Xhaka | He’s gone | FoLo | 1 |
I think Ideho and Green were both released on July 1