By Sir Hardly Anyone and a friend.
Indeed once more it is the Great Transfer Index – the listing of all the players linked with Arsenal since somewhere around the middle of March. The previous edition of the Index appeared here but that was pretty poor fare compared with what we have now, for we have
- 44 players coming in
- 8 players leaving
- 1 new coach
Four players are shown to be promoted from the youth teams and loanees (although two of those are Tony’s tips, and one is Andrew’s so these don’t carry the same weight as if they had been said in the Daily Express).
What makes it even more exciting is that 13 of these players have not shown up on the radar before, and some of them like Robert Lewandowski are newly signed sealed delivered and to all intents and purposes already here! (According to the Express).
It is destined to be the most dramatic transfer window in the history of transfer windows. The only thing that can possibly hold us back would be the highly unlikely scenario that any of the bloggettas and newspaper pundits have made a mistake, or the non-arrival of the window cleaner next week, but we hardly think that is likely to happen.
Do you?
Here’s the table. New entries this week are in bold, although of course some of these were mentioned in the last transfer window, and it might be the case of a journalist just reiterating old news (although I’ve never personally known that to happen).
| Player | Position | From | Current status | Also interested | |
| 1 | Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | Forward | B. Dortmund | ||
| 2 | Carlos Bacca | Forward | Juventus | 49 goal striker | Real Mad buy back clause |
| 3 | Michy Batshuayi | Striker | Marseille | £22m asking price | Chelsea |
| 4 | Riechedly Bazoer | Cen mid. | Ajax | Barcelona, Chelsea, Man U, Tottenham | |
| 5 | Rodrigo Bentancur | Midfield | Boca Juniors | Real Mad, Juve | |
| 6 | Karim Benzema | Striker | Real Mad | Involved in court case | |
| 7 | William Carvalho | Def mid | Sporting Lisbon | ||
| 8 | Edinson Cavani | Striker | PSG | He’d like to come | |
| 9 | Ben Chilwell | Left-back | Leicester | “Arsenal monitoring” | |
| 10 | Troy Deeney | Striker | Watford | WFC captain | |
| 11 | Goncalo Guedas | Wing | Benfica | Next C Ronaldo | Chelsea |
| 12 | Raphaël Guerreiro | Left-backmidfield | Lorient | ||
| 13 | Rico Henry | Full back | Walsall | Next Ashley Cole | |
| 14 | Gonzalo Higuain | Striker | Napoli | Man U | |
| 15 | Zlatan Ibrahimovic | Striker | PSG | Self proclaimed God | Man U |
| 16 | Mauro Icardi | Striker | Inter | Man C Man U | |
| 17 | Odion Ighalo | Striker | Watford | ||
| 18 | N’Golo Kante | Midfield | Leicester | ||
| 19 | Naby Keita | Central mid | Red Bull Salzburg | ||
| 20 | Grzegorz Krychowiak | Midfield destroyer | Sevilla | ||
| 21 | Kalidou Koulibaly | Napoli | Signed and Sealed (Metro) | ||
| 22 | Robert Lewandowski | Striker | Bayern | About to break the bank | |
| 23 | Marquinhos | Defen | PSG | Man U., Man C., Chelsea, Bayern M | |
| 24 | Kostas Mitroglou | Striker | Benfica | “Happy in Portugal” | |
| 25 | Arkadiusz Milik | Striker | Ajax | ||
| 26 | Henrikh Mkhitaryan | Midfield | B Dortmund | Liverpool! Tottenham | |
| 27 | Alvaro Morata | Striker | Juventus (loan) Real Mad | ||
| 28 | Ruben Neves | Defend midfield | Porto | ||
| 29 | Kelechi Nwakali | Midfield | Reported as already having joined Arsenal | WHU, Bayern, Chelsea, Man U Liverpool! | |
| 30 | Domingos Quina | Midfield | Chelsea | ||
| 31 | Adrien Rabiot | Midfield | PSG | Asked for a move, not liked by fans | Chelsea, Man U |
| 32 | Rafinha | RB | Bayern Munich | Metro utterly certain | |
| 33 | Jese Rodriguez | Forward | Real Mad | Surplus to requirements | |
| 34 | Daniele Rugani | Centre back | Juventus | Can’t get a game. | Man U |
| 35 | Ryan Sessegnon | Winger | Fulham | Liverpool! | |
| 36 | Dominic Solanke | Chelsea | Chelsea want to keep him | ||
| 37 | John Stones | CB | Everton | ||
| 38 | Jon Toral | Attack midf. | Arsenal (loaned to Brum) | ||
| 39 | Yaya Toure | C Mid | Man City | ||
| 40 | Victor Wanyama | Def. midf. | Southampton | ||
| 41 | Julian Weigl | Midf. | Borussia Dortmund | £20 million | |
| 42 | Granit Xhaka | Defend/ midfield | Monchengladbach | “Deal done” | Chelsea. Sources |
| 43 | Andriy Yarmolenko | Winger | Dynamo Kiev | Tottenham Liverpool | |
| 44 | Simone Zaza | Forward | Juventus | ||
| Departures | |||||
| 1 | Alexis | Forward | Asking for transfer | ||
| 2 | Arteta | End of playing career | |||
| 3 | Debuchy | Been on loan | |||
| 4 | Kieran Gibbs | Defend | Unhappy | ||
| 5 | Rosicky | End of contract | |||
| 6 | Santi Cazorla | Mid/For | Back to Villareal | ||
| 7 | Szczesny | Goal | Roma | Happy in Rome | |
| 8 | Walcott | Wing | State Aid Utd | £20m | On the verge |
| Coaching | |||||
| Thierry Henry | Under 18 | Accepted post | |||
| Up from the youth | |||||
| 1 | Jon Toral | Attack midf. | Arsenal | Loaned to Birmingham | |
| 2 | Gedion Zelalem | Attack mid | Arsenal | Loaned to Rangers | |
| 3 | Chris Willock | Attack midf. | Arsenal | Played in U21s. | |
| 4 | Jeff Reine-Adélaïde | Wing | Arsenal | Kept at Arsenal and not loaned |
So there we are, a truly remarkable and energetic transfer window and we haven’t even opened the wretched thing yet.
But here’s a question. Could Arsenal actually be linked to 100 players by the day we hear the tinkling of glass as the old frame proves to be stuck and an over energetic enthusiast forces the open air inside?
[Actually I have no idea what that means, so perhaps you’d better come back next week. Tony]
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Sir Hardly got a bit enthusiastic and included Toral twice. Sorry about that. It should be corrected next time around.
Tony, you’re missing Flamini, Özil, Ospina, Bellerin, Ox, Giroud and Monreal from your departures list. They’ve all been mentioned in the press.
A few more jokes.
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
Sometimes I wake up grumpy; other times I let her sleep.
Be nice to your kids. They’ll choose your nursing home.
All generalizations are false
Atheism is a non-prophet organization
No sorry we don’t need any of them as there aren’t any players who are better than what we have already.what is important is to keep the players we have .They are all improving , young and will only get better .This group have mental toughness and desire.Judge this group of players next year………
Cheers colario. Told the wife one of the jokes and she wasnt too impressed.
In your departure list, you said Cazorla will be going back to Villa real and he didn’t even come from there but came from Malaga
Are Bacca and Morata the same person?
There are some who think we really do have two hundred million to spend on transfers of all these players mentioned in this article.
The linked article, which is free to view, but you sign up for, and is written by a non football fan independent analyst provides food for thought for those who overestimate our spending power, and underestimate our managers achievements
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsenal-really-200million-cash-available-7944463
Hindsight is always 100% with the aaa but 100% wrong!!!!
Man Utd will definetly be needing a new coach . The old one was wrecked rather badly by the jubilant but rowdy West Ham fans last week !
And its probably being kept in evidence storage by the police as exhibit # 1 , for the upcoming trial .
@BG, That’s funny but harsh though. But well thought of. ??
Kay Kay. Here is a list of Santi’s clubs. The first number shows the number of games the second in brackets shows the goals.
Even without any further information you can see that his spiritual home is Villareal and it is perfectly correct to say he is going back there.
2003–2004 Villarreal B 40 (4)
2003–2006 Villarreal 54 (2)
2006–2007 Recreativo 34 (7)
2007–2011 Villarreal 127 (23)
2011–2012 Málaga 38 (9)
Granit Xhaka probably isn’t quite a “done deal”, but he’s reported as saying that he’d like to get the transfer completed before the start of the Euros.
Also mentioned (but not in your list is James (“Hames”) Rodriguez from Real Madrid, but unlikely as we’ll spend a huge portion of the budget on Xhaka.