By Sir Hardly Anyone
It is extraordinary to think that no one has ever put together a cumulative list of players who, according to the bloggettas and their chums in the rapidly declining newspapers, have signed for Arsenal this summer – or at least are very close to doing so.
[Incidentally, before going on, vis a vis the newspapers, it has been reported this week in the marketing press that the newspapers’ habit of tracking people who run ad blockers and popping up notices saying “don’t block our ads” or words to that effect, is illegal – under EU law. They are however still doing it. Untold doesn’t do this – we like it if you click on an advert we show – and we get paid a penny each time – but we only want you to do this if you really are interested in the advert. Now back to the plot.]
So, Untold is never afraid of stepping in what no one has stepped in before and so it is my great honour, privilege and pleasure to bring you, for the very first time in human history the Great Arsenal Transfer Index.
The intent is to keep this running through the summer – listing all the players linked with Arsenal including all the ones we have absolutely, definitively, and totally signed, and then we can see how accurate the media and their fellow travellers actually are.
So here is the list thus far…. The Great Arsenal Transfer Index (including everyone mentioned by your humble servant in the transfer articles in the past month).
| Player | Position | From | Also interested |
| Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | Forward | B. Dortmund | |
| Riechedly Bazoer | Cen mid. | Ajax | Barcelona, Chelsea, Man U, Tottenham |
| Rodrigo Bentancur | Midfield | Boca Juniors | Real Mad, Juventus |
| Ben Chilwell | Left-back | Leicester | |
| Raphaël Guerreiro | Left-back/ midfield | Lorient | |
| Gonzalo Higuain | Striker | Napoli | Man U |
| Mauro Icardi | Striker | Inter-Milan | Man C, Man U |
| Odion Ighalo | Striker | Watford | |
| N’Golo Kante | Midfield | Leicester | |
| Naby Keita | Central mid | Red Bull Salzburg | |
| Marquinhos | Defender | PSG | Chelsea |
| Kostas Mitroglou | Striker | Benfica | |
| Arkadiusz Milik | Striker | Ajax | |
| Henrikh Mkhitaryan | Midfield | B Dortmund | Liverpool! Tottenham |
| Alvaro Morata | Striker | Juventus (loan) Real Mad | |
| Kelechi Nwakali | Midfield | Reported as already having joined Arsenal | West Ham, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Liverpool!l Man U |
| Domingos Quina | Midfield | Chelsea | |
| Ryan Sessegnon | Winger | Fulham | Liverpool! |
| John Stones | Centre back | Everton | |
| Jon Toral | Attack midf. | Arsenal (loaned to Brum) | |
| Yaya Toure | Cent midf | Man City | |
| Victor Wanyama | Def. midf. | Southampton | |
| Granit Xhaka | Defender, central mid | B Monchengladbach | Chelsea, |
| Andriy Yarmolenko | Winger | Dynamo Kiev | Tottenham Liverpool |
| Simone Zaza | Forward | Juventus |
Not a bad start, I am sure you will agree, especially as it is still only April.
And just in case you are wondering where all this comes from, allow me to give you a little snippet of the drivel, garbage and other dirty doings that I, your humble servant in these matters, has to skip through. For we have…
“Arsenal transfer news: Scouts watch Boca Juniors teenage starlet Rodrigo Bentancur ahead of summer move… the 18-year-old is also attracting interest from Real Madrid and Juventus.” That from the almighty ESPN this week.
While the Guardian has recently given us “Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea, United and Tottenham all want to sign the Ajax prodigy Riechedly Bazoer… “
But will Mr W sign anyone? He recently said, “If you look at the top three teams, you will see they have not changed their team a lot. We have to strengthen our squad but it’s not obvious to find the players despite the money the English clubs will have…
“You cannot dismiss that the players are young: Alex Iwobi is 19, Mohamed Elneny is 23, Francis Coquelin 24, and they will be stronger next year but you need to keep a core of players and strengthen where we can. The team is going the right way.”
As for whether Britain leaving the EU would affect the Premier League and its policy of bringing in large numbers of European immigrants to work for the club, he said, “It raises many questions. Will the European players be considered as they are now? For example, if England votes for Brexit, will the French be considered like South Americans players. That would completely re-question the influx of foreign players.
“Will England go that way? If they did, that would leave the Premier League with some questions. Also there would be no one out there stopping the newspapers from tracking the actions of honourable football supporters.” (Actually he didn’t say that last sentence, but I am sure he would have done had anyone asked him).
It would of course also give the anti-Wengerians all the ammo they need to call for his expulsion from the UK for being an immigrant.
But back to our list:
“Arsenal believe they have won the race to sign the 16-year-old Portuguese prodigy Domingos Quina, sought after by a host of Premier League clubs. Quina was signed by Chelsea’s academy at the age of 13, from the Portuguese club Benfica, but has not committed to the London club for a scholarship deal.
“He cannot sign a professional contract until the age of 17 and any deal with Arsenal will guarantee that….
“It represents a coup for the Arsenal academy who have traditionally not competed with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City for the top teenage talent in Europe and beyond.”
That is an interesting one because it was reported virtually word for word in The Telegraph, Google News, footballio.com, football.co.uk, www.atomicsoda.com (and I assure you I did not just make that up), www.uk.sports.yahoo.com, sky sports, theweek…
So do we have anything new for you? Well The Sports Columnist (a bloggetta) is leading with the news that Chuba Akpom will be returning to Arsenal from Hull and be given his chance in the same way that players like Coquelin, Bellerin and Iwobi have been of late.
The Star is running a “back to Arsenal” story as well, with Gedion Zelalem their feature – he is returning from Rangers they announce in big letters.
There is yet more chatter that
Xhaka is coming from Monchengladbach and only the fee differential stands in the way of “the young Schweinsteiger”
But then finally, after a lot of searching I have found us one new name not in the 25, it is in the Sports Columnist….
With Ramsey and Chamberlain likely to leave Arsenal this summer, the Gunners have been linked to the signing of several high problem midfielders. This includes Ilkay Gundogan who is reported to be one of Wenger’s main target in the role. The 30 million rated German was linked with a move to Arsenal last summer but he instead chose to remain at Dortmund.
He has however in recent time confirmed he will like to seek new pastures which means Arsenal will have a good chance of signing him this summer. Unfortunately it appears Manchester City have stolen a match on the Gunners and will be signing him for 30 million having already agreed personal terms with him.
So there we are – the 25 plus one. But no, what’s this: it is from the Sports Columnist which seems to be working overtime to find us players not in the 25.
Wenger is trying very hard to sign Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City. The Algerian has been in stellar form for Leicester City this season and is in line to become the PFA player of the year. According to the reports, Wenger is trying to sign Mahrez whether or not Walcott is sold….
Riyad Mahrez is primarily a winger but also can play in the 10 role when necessarily. He has played on both wings and in the 10 roles at various stages of the season for Leicester City. Leicester will certain not want to sell him but unfortunately for them, Arsenal and the other clubs interested are bigger than the foxes and even Mahrez accepts this for a fact and could be tempted to leave this summer.
So there we are. Two for the price of one. What more can you want. That’s 27 players now, plus two returnees.
- REF REVIEW WEST HAM – ARSENAL: A new entry in the table of shame
- Group 2 of our potential manager list: Dragan Stojkovic, Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp
- Arsenal – Crystal Palace: 1-1 : A come back from catenaccio
- The importance of Thursdays (and not playing football on them)
- A selected anniversary from beyond football and a nice picture of the stadium and a train.
- Today’s Arsenal anniversaries and the Insult of the Day
- A list of the most recent posts from Untold and the Arsenal History Society
- Details of all the the books Untold Arsenal has published
OT but a serious note – question.
Are we surprised that Man city were given an off side goal last night against Newcastle?
No we are not!
Colario, just seen a picture of that goal…. It wasn’t even close to being just offside… it was blatant offside…
But all is fine in referee land. It is, because Mike ’49’ Riley says so….
Apparently, Jon Moss was given full support by his bosses at a PGMOL meeting yesterday.
We need Ramos!
Hmm, this offside goal allowed Man City to get away with it at Newcastle yesterday night, is a mockery of professional football and professional football refereeing.
Can’t the FA do something over any act of gross mis-refereeing by the match officials. It’s not only at Newcastle’s Stadium that that professional misconduct of refereeing was watched yesterday but also watched across the World. Something has to be done by the FA to stop this farce in refereeing continuing.
The Boss has talked about so many lack of mentality in the rank & file of the Gunners. The latest being repair of damaged mentality. We’ve heard of the lack of winning mentality, lack of focus mentality, lack of consistency mentally, lack of mental strength and etc before. But above all the mentalities which I think the Gunners lacked most is, lack of consistent fighting spirit mentality to win titles.
Out of no where, Arsenal have a chance to go back to 3rd position in the table tomorrow if they beat West Brom. But will Arsenal beat them? That’s the big question the Gunners must answer to unfailingly collect all the 3 points which are going to be at stake in that match.
Arsenal can best avoid to play the 2 qualifying Ucl match rounds as that will be an extra workload demand on the Gunners going into their opening BPL games next season. But on the contrary, it could also serve as a good preparatory games before the opening of next season BPL campaign as the Gunners are billed to play only 2 preseason friendlies without the 2 games of the Emirates Cup annual friendlies. But it’ll be save for Arsenal to be in 3rd or 2nd position in the table to avoid been eliminated altogether from the UCL should Man City win the UCL which we all want them to win also if Liverpool win the Europa League too.
By my own thoughts, the Boss should sign at least 4 proven top quality players in summer to strengthen his 1st team for next season campaign. a big, strong & pacy striker is desirous at Arsenal next season. So too are a big, strong, powerful and pacy CDMF, CB and LB are all desirous to have at Arsenal next season to successfully withstand the title challenge by Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea. I don’t think a title challenge by the likes of Leicester and Spurs will be allowed by the big 4 to repeat again next season.
What’s the point of including one of our own players – Jon Toral – in that list??
SamuelAkinsolaAdebosin – which part of complicit do you not understand? The FA appoint PGMOL & are complicit in the process of dodgy decisions.
For someone who spends more time thinking about football matters , as it’s being commonly accepted Wenger does, it’s an astonishing statement to make : ” if you look at the top three teams, you will see that they haven’t changed a lot.”
The league leaders ,Leicester City , added among many others:
Christian Fuchs – a left back on a free,
Shinji Okazaki – CF for €11m,
N’Golo Kante – CM for €9m,
Robert Huth – CB for € 4.2 m
These four have become the preferred starting players in their respective positions, that’s 40% of new additions to the starting line up, but there are also other senior players like Inler and Dyer, among others, who have contributed to Leicester’s cause, especially Dyer’ who got their season rolling with a gutsy performance off the bench in the brilliant come back against Villa to start off the season.
Tottenham added Son , Alderweireld and Wimmer, among many others, and sent away Soldado,Townsend, Paulinho, Capoue, Holtby, Lennon, Kaboul who all featured in their starting eleven before.
Man City , who are for the time being third, added De Bruyne, Sterling, Otamendi,Delph and about four others, while sent packing the other way :
Negredo, Dzeko,Sinclair, Jovetic, Boyata, Nastasic and others.
Arsenal, of course, are the only club in five top European leagues who didn’t add a senior outfield player in the Summer, a fact which, I suppose, seemed like a no big deal to Arsene since his perception of transfer reality amongst his rivals is so profoundly warped.
@ Tom
April 20, 2016 at 12:10 pm
From you
‘Man City , who are for the time being third, added De Bruyne, Sterling, Otamendi,Delph and about four others, while sent packing the other way :
Negredo, Dzeko,Sinclair, Jovetic, Boyata, Nastasic and others.’
Fact:
‘Are we surprised that Man city were given an off side goal last night against Newcastle?
No we are not!’
‘Colario, just seen a picture of that goal…. It wasn’t even close to being just offside… it was blatant offside…
But all is fine in referee land. It is, because Mike ’49’ Riley says so….’
That is why Manc are 3rd.
Evidently the claims of the won nothingers who are experts at fantasy football and chanting what they are told to chant is all you need for facts.
Colario
What has a blown offside call got to do with Arsenal transfer policy, or Wenger’s misperceptions of that of his rivals.
I am on record agreeing with UA that Arsenal suffer from referees’s decisions and it all does not even out in the end.
Arsenal transfer policy, however, is deeply flawed and Wenger misrepresenting table topping,Leicester City’s transfers ,and others as well,either out of ignorance or as a matter of planned out strategy to explain his own inaction, is somewhat disturbing for me.
It suggests Arsene is detached from reality.
Man city goal definitely offside but I see no mention of the penalty that was not given ? And as Tom points out these decisions have nothing to do with our transfer policy
@Tom,
Here’s the difference though, the transfer requirements of some Arsenal fans are much different than those of Leicester City.
If Arsenal and Arsene Wenger signed any of the players you mentioned Christian Fuchs (free), Shinji Okazaki (€11m), N’Golo Kante (€9m), or Robert Huth (€4.2 m), the same fans demanding more transfers would be the first one to say those players are not good enough or world class. Heck, some fans questioned the Özil transfer when it happened saying he’s not worth 42m and that we got a Real Madrid reject. It’s a no win situation with some fans.
It’s a lot easier to say spend the money, when you’re not footing the bill.
Good to know you agree that Arsenal suffer from the agents of the PMGOL.
It is this that governs leagues positions and any club’s transfer policy is irrelevant.
Only in ‘fantasy football’ can you know better than the manager what is happening and going on.
‘Untold’ is for parodying fantasy football as this by sir hardly one does.
Untold’s main function is to discuss what is really happening in the real world of English football.
The world is welcome to come here and share their opinion be it with factual support for their claims or fantasy support.
By fantasy support I mean factless opinions that are claimed as ‘facts’ by the writer.
Tom – good summary of Leicester purchases. No mention of the invisible shareholder.
Any idea what the restaurant blue bandage on Vardy the waiter is?
Just notice we have some proper characters here – Tom & Jerry, Quinn medicine man, & the Menace.
More ! More ! More Sir Hardly Anyone , please ! It would be so bloody boring without him.
A truly great shot of reality . And at stupidity !
Jerry
Elneny transfer kinda dispels the myth that all transfers have to be Warld- class. The only criticism leveled towards Wenger re Elneny’s transfer is that it came too late in the season.
Also, when the Arsenal board had said we were going to live within our means, most fans were cool with it. Hoarding cash to levels unprecedented in football is another thing entirely.
As for not wheeling to spend when it’s you footing the bill, well I can only speak for myself, but it’s not exactly cheap to come to London from Chicago twice a season or more to watch the team play, this you can be sure of.
Menace
🙂
SERENDIPITY –
The New Oxford Dictionary of English defines serendipity as the occurrence and development of events by chance in a satisfactory or beneficial way, understanding the chance as any event that takes place in the absence of any obvious project (randomly or accidentally), which is not relevant to any present need, or in which the cause is unknown.
Innovations presented as examples of serendipity have an important characteristic: they were made by individuals able to “see bridges where others saw holes” and connect events creatively, based on the perception of a significant link.
ZEMBLANTY –
William Boyd coined the term zemblanity to mean somewhat the opposite of serendipity: “making unhappy, unlucky and expected discoveries occurring by design”.
A zemblanity is, effectively, an “unpleasant unsurprise”.
BAHRAMDIPITY –
It describes the suppression of serendipitous discoveries or research results by
powerful individuals.
From- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity
BRICKFIELDS GUNNERSPITY –
ERROR ! Word does not compute . Nor exist !
Brickfields Gunners does not have the need nor feels pity for fools .
You that one right !
Change to route one football for the Arsenal ? No thanks , definitely not for me , not after I have enjoyed the real beautiful thing .
Well very much like ……
http://www.sickipedia.net/pic/1946/And-never-would-me
One of the most amusing things I see is in the comments sections where people suggest that Untold is biased.
Of course Untold is biased – just as every media outlet is biased. The only difference is that we admit it.
I do continue to publish the comments complaining about our bias, because they make me giggle almost as much as the wild transfer rumours that build up each year.
Keep em coming lads.
@Menance. Which authoritative body are in place to deal with any ill in the Job of refereeing in the Premier League other than the FA?
Even if there be complicity in the work of refereeing across the 4 tiers of the League in England as been widely alleged, it’s still has to be the FA who w’ll be turned to to rectify any anomaly which could bother on incompetence, the show of favouritism to a particular team or teams, hate towards a team or a manager of a team or managers, conspiracy allegations in the appointing of the match officials for a match or matches by the Pgmob.
I should think only the FA can take disciplinary action against the head of the Pgmob and their referees for any misgiving in their action or actions in the discharge of their official assignments.
Therefore, pressure MUST be brought on the FA by the stake holders that includes the UA, in the popular English 3 top domestic competitions to take the bull by the horn and wrestle it to the ground and slay all the ills in refereeing job.
If you want cheering up, go to YouTube and find Dragan Stojkovic scoring a goal when he was manager of Nagoya Grampus. He got sent off for it but what a goal!
@Tom,
That’s not true, because after the window, the mirror headline was something similar to elneny is a decent addition, but not enough. Other blogs saying he is set up to fail at Arsenal because we needed other central midfielders like Wanyama or Schneiderlin, etc, but that Elneny is good for the future.
So yes, even his signing was questioned for this season. Do I think the team needs a signing or two? Yes, but I leave that up to the manager and club to decide, but definitely not a whole sale change.
Just in the last two seasons, we’ve had Sanchez, Welbeck, Coquelin, Bellerin, and Iwobi join the first team.
@Colario. the PGMOL doesn’t govern league positions. Do you think they sit there planning the league positions every year? If you think that what’s the point of following the league. I suggest you go and do something more rewarding. If you look at the ststs for Spurs they are top in virtually everything, most goals scored, least conceded etc. The PGMOL didn’t plan that, their manager played a major part. I’d love to see us give Stoke a 4-0 drubbing at their own ground.
@Jerry, that’s not the point though. It’s not whether those players are good enough for Arsenal, the question is why does a club that finished third and repeated its usual capitulation in the CL not buy at least one top class outfield player?
@Tom,
See some fans will never be happy unless it is world class players, and will sing like a (yellow) canary till their face turns blue.
@Yellow Canary,
Perhaps because most of the teams that bought all these top class outfielders last summer are still below us in the table (except City)
Can we throw some corruption news in here?
Inside World Football has been busy today. A couple of articles about how the old boys club that is still FIFA operates in the Caribbean and CONCACAF.
http://www.insideworldfootball.com/2016/04/21/news-analysis-fifa-blasts-caribbean-mocking-bird-heavy-artillery/
By James Dostoyevsky
http://www.insideworldfootball.com/2016/04/21/exclusive-fifa-ethics-ruled-derrick-despite-passing-integrity-check/
By Paul Nicholson
And an article about new laws for Switzerland, to help tackle sports corruption. Maybe. Possibly.
http://www.insideworldfootball.com/2016/04/21/swiss-bring-lex-fifa-laws-giving-power-prosecute-sports-corruption/
By Andrew Warshaw
World Soccer has a story, about an autobiography of the septic bladder. My impression, is that the septic one is a fan of Ian Fleming. Septic bladder, super spy, out to save the world.
http://www.worldsoccer.com/features/authorities-hoped-to-use-blatter-to-bring-down-dictator-370240
I wonder if we can get any of the Five Eyes to verify that super spy story?