By Sir Hardly Anyone
In the last month Arsenal have been tipped to sign an unbelievable 57 players. 57 in one month, and it is more than likely that in the hurly burly I have missed a few. Apologies to those players, their agents and the tipsters in the press for all omissions.
According the “reports” (that word which seeks to blame gibberish onto some other newspaper – as in “We only report the news mate, we’re not the ones making it up,”) we have actually lined up no less than another seven new players this week, although you may be excused if you haven’t seen them all. And that is in addition to Granit, who we have actually signed.
Meanwhile 12 players are said to be leaving Arsenal this summer – up from 10 noted last week.
We also have one new youth player going out on loan, plus the previously reported four ready to rise from the youth team, and 1 addition to the coaching staff for next season.
Unbelievable Transfer Shock; Arsenal sign £20m striker in secret.
The new players we have actually got hold of and apparently signed already, are…
- Medhi Benatia
- Kalidou Koulibaly
- Chiori Johnson (and yes we may actually have signed him!)
- Maxi Romero
- Islam Slimani
- Jamie Vardy
- Karl Zouma
Perhaps the most confusing is Kalidou Koulibaly whose deal was signed and sealed as he joined us from Napoli (The Metro). Except that within a week the Metro told us that no he hadn’t joined us at all and the whole deal was dependant on Chambers going to Southampton.
I mean if newspapers are going to turn their own stories upside down in the space of a week, who are we to believe? And how is the Index supposed to keep up???
The players added to the list since the last Great Transfer Index are in Red.
| Player | Position | From | Status | Also interested | |
| 1 | Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | Forward | B. Dortmund | Being urged to leave | Man U |
| 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 | Medhi Benatia | Centre back | Bayern | 29 yrs, prone to injury | |
| 6 | Rodrigo Bentancur | Midfield | Boca Juniors | Real Mad, Juve | |
| 7 | Karim Benzema | Striker | Real Mad | Involved in court case | |
| 8 | William Carvalho | Def mid | Sporting Lisbon | ||
| 9 | Edinson Cavani | Striker | PSG | He’d like to come | |
| 10 | Ben Chilwell | Left-back | Leicester | “Arsenal monitoring” | |
| 11 | Troy Deeney | Striker | Watford | WFC captain | |
| 12 | Mario Götze | Attack midfield | Bayern Munich | Flopped after Dortmund | Liverpool |
| 13 | Goncalo Guedas | Wing | Benfica | Next C Ronaldo | Chelsea |
| 14 | Raphaël Guerreiro | Left-backmidfield | Lorient | ||
| 15 | Alen Halilovic. | Attack midfield | Barcelona | Last season loan to Sporting Gijon, | |
| 15 | Rico Henry | Full back | Walsall | Next Ashley Cole | |
| 17 | Gonzalo Higuain | Striker | Napoli | Man U, Liverpool? | |
| 18 | Zlatan Ibrahimovic | Striker | PSG | Self proclaimed God | Man U |
| 19 | Mauro Icardi | Striker | Inter | Man C Man U | |
| 20 | Odion Ighalo | Striker | Watford | ||
| 21 | Chiori Johnson | Defender | Aged 18, Now signed | ||
| 22 | N’Golo Kante | Midfield | Leicester | Won the most tackles | |
| 23 | Naby Keita | Central mid | Red Bull Salzburg | ||
| 24 | Toni Kroos | No 10 | Real Madrid | £45m | |
| 25 | Grzegorz Krychowiak | Midfield destroyer | Sevilla | ||
| 26 | Kalidou Koulibaly | Napoli | Signed and Sealed (Metro) but… | Dependent on Chambers going (Metro) | |
| 27 | Robert Lewandowski | Striker | Bayern | About to break the bank | |
| 28 | Marquinhos | Defen | PSG | Man U Man C Chelsea and Bayern Munich | |
| 29 | Riyad Mahrez | Wing | Leicester | Considered him while at Le Havre | |
| 30 | Kostas Mitroglou | Striker | Benfica | “Happy in Portugal” | |
| 31 | Arkadiusz Milik | Striker | Ajax | ||
| 32 | Henrikh Mkhitaryan | Midfield | B Dortmund | Liverpool! Chelsea, Tottenham | |
| 33 | Alvaro Morata | Striker | Juventus (loan) Real Mad | Said to be the next one to happen | AFC talking to Real Mad direct |
| 34 | Ruben Neves | Defend midfield | Porto | ||
| 35 | Kelechi Nwakali | Midfield | Reported as already having joined Arsenal | WHU, Bayern, Chelsea, Man U Liverpool! | |
| 36 | Domingos Quina | Midfield | Chelsea | ||
| 37 | Adrien Rabiot | Midfield | PSG | Asked for a move, not liked by fans | Chelsea, Man U |
| 38 | Rafinha | RB | Bayern Munich | Metro utterly certain | |
| 39 | Jese Rodriguez | Forward | Real Mad | Surplus to requirements | |
| 40 | Maxi Romero | Forward | All Boys, Argentina | The new Messi | We were going to sign him last year but he got injured |
| 41 | Daniele Rugani | Centre back | Juventus | Can’t get a game. | Man U |
| 42 | Riccardo Saponara | Attack midfield | Empoli | Liverpool? | |
| 43 | Ryan Sessegnon | Winger | Fulham | Liverpool? | |
| 44 | Islam Slimani | £23.25m Sporting Lisbon star | £23.25m | Tottenham, Leicester | |
| 45 | Dominic Solanke | Chelsea | Chelsea want to keep him | ||
| 46 | John Stones | CB | Everton | ||
| 47 | Daniel Sturrage | Striker | Liverpool? | “Will reportedly…” | “Tried last year” |
| 48 | Jon Toral | Attack midf. | Arsenal (loaned to Brum) | ||
| 49 | Yaya Toure | C Mid | Man City | ||
| 50 | Arda Turan | Attack midfield | Barcelona | Struggled at Barca | |
| 51 | Jamie Vardy | Forward | Leicester | £20m | Signed but kept it a secret |
| 52 | Victor Wanyama | Def. midf. | Southampton | ||
| 53 | Julian Weigl | Midf. | Borussia Dortmund | £20 million | |
| 54 | Granit Xhaka | Defend/ midfield | Monchengladbach | “Deal done” | He’s actually signed!!! |
| 55 | Andriy Yarmolenko | Winger | Dynamo Kiev | Tottenham Liverpool | |
| 56 | Simone Zaza | Forward | Juventus | ||
| 57 | Karl Zouma | Keeper | Chelsea | ||
| Departures | |||||
| 1 | Alexis | Forward | Asking for transfer | ||
| 2 | Arteta | End of career | |||
| 3 | Bellerin | Full back | Barcelona | Must be the DNA | But also denied |
| 4 | Chambers | Centre back | Southampton | 1 year loan | |
| 5 | Debuchy | Been on loan | |||
| 6 | Kieran Gibbs | Defend | Unhappy | ||
| 7 | David Ospina | Goal | Besiktas | ||
| 8 | Tomas Rosicky | End of contract | |||
| 9 | Santi Cazorla | Mid/For | Back to Villareal | ||
| 10 | Mesut Ozil | Midfield | Delayed talks | ||
| 11 | W. Szczesny | Goal | Roma | Happy in Rome | A second year loan mooted |
| 12 | 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 | |
| Players going on loan | |||||
| Dan Crowley | Midfield | Arsenal | Coventry |
All this action has now taken place with one month to go before the transfer portal slides into the open position. With that month, and then two months of the window being open, that gives us the likelihood that if the current rate of announced transfers continues, by 31 August Arsenal will have been linked to a grand total of 228 players who will be coming into the club.
Meanwhile 48 players will be on their way out (that is the entire first team and under 21 squad).
This is of course utterly preposterous, and yet the media churn this gibberish out day by day and seemingly people read it day by day.
So what are we to make of it all?
Psychological theory 1: It’s a negative/positive/negative thing. The average supporter lives in a state of total depression, but then thinks, wow we could sign these guys and win the league, and then when we don’t gets reassurance from the fact that he was right in the first place he sinks back into depression.
Psychological theory 2: The average reader of such stories is bonkers, and the media are pandering to this bonkisity on the grounds that someone silly enough to read this, might also buy something advertised in the paper or on the web site.
Psychological theory 3: Most readers know it is all tripe, but enjoy reading the silly stories that other people are willing to believe as it gives them a sense of superiority.
Psychological theory 4: No one reads this guff apart from me.
I leave those of infinitely higher intelligence than I to sort that out.
- Maybe it is wholly appropriate that the PL has a ref system different from all the rest
- Arsenal won the Fair Play League this season. I wonder why the media didn’t mention it.
- The reform of the FA is now down to a man particularly familiar with lap dancing.
- 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
Interesting stuff from the media – mostly rumours created by typing in random numbers and coming up with 42.
More interesting was seeing Arsene (along with David Dein) at the England v Portugal game last night. Hopefully, he was checking on Raheem Sterling rather than “William” (otherwise known as Carvalho). Or perhaps he was just there to support Jack Wilshere.
In this piece
http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/53315
A number wrote saying they either don’t or read but don’t believe the UK media, I now know I am in good company.
The regular media item I read is the Guardian’s Fiver. I read it because it does occasionally make a point or contribute something amusing.
This was in the email a few years back.
“”I was playing 11 a-side at the local park with a bunch of friends,”
begins Steve Johnson, kicking off another round of ‘Stupid Friends’.
Channel 4: Brazilian Football Championship (3.25pm)
“Our goalkeeper Ian had a left foot like a cannon, a heart of gold
and a mind like Swiss-cheese.
“The ball went out for a goal-kick. Ian places the ball, retreats and
begins his charge towards it.
“What he can’t see is the small black terrier zipping towards the
ball from behind him.
“The terrier arrives only just before Ian, knocks the ball out of the
way and is punted 15ft up the pitch for his troubles.
“Cue 21 players collapsing in laughter, one bemused goalkeeper, one
horrified owner and a stunned dog that will never chase a ball again.
“Best of all Ian only realised he’d kicked a dog when it got up and
ran away.
“Until then he thought he’d burst the ball!”
Errrm. Bacca plays for AC Milan and scored 18 goals last season, so what is that all about? You don’t mean Morata as he is elsewhere in the list and also didn’t score 49 goals? Who did? Even Higuain only managed 42 for club and country. I thought this might be an entertaining read but the clearly inaccurate list doesn’t help.
Colario
Is this the same Guardian that makes you “ashamed to be English”, that you recently complained doesn’t provide daily email links to news of corruption, and more recently described as the “the UK gutter press”?
That Guardian?
Leon
June 3, 2016 at 9:37 am
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All very amusing this transfer stuff.
Was getting QUITE nostalgic over the annual Solomon Kalou link, unfortunately, nothing doing, but number 26…the name sounds a little like Kalou.
But, regarding transfers, as we all know, never…ever believe anything until it is on “The Arsenal Horse” twitter feed.
On another note, some interesting , and encouraging words from Ivan G in the Telegraph….if you happen to rate our manager, that is…
Corrasco – please Arsene
Mandy – good spot. I was particularly interested in Ivan Gazidis’s final comments:
“Our renewal rate on season tickets is higher historically this year than ever. I don’t use that to say all fans are happy, but most people are not engaging daily on social media and their opinions are much more nuanced than it might seem.
“What’s quite difficult is that once people have created a story in their own mind, their own confirmation biases will kick in. It’s true of all of us. My confirmation bias is we are a club making progress. Our ambition is to win the Premier League but we have had our best finish in years and two FA Cups in three seasons.”
The season ticket renewal point is really important. Do the whingers really realise quite how small a minority they are.
Mandy also directed us to an Online Gooner article (Tom’s plagiarism) the other day. Just about every single comment ranged from slightly to overwhelmingly hostile to the club/the manager/the team etc. All positive voices have given up now. There were even digs at UA from one commenter describing the site as “weird”!!!
Confirmation biases. An interesting point from Ivan Gazidis. I have what seems like an example. A young Arsenal supporter I know has been going on about Arsene’s failure to buy. So thinking he would be happy I mentioned Granit Zhaka. He turned up his nose at him, saying no one had heard of him. Obviously this wasn’t the transfer he wanted (whoever that may be)!
So even though Arsene Wenger has moved early in the transfer window and bought a great player to help replace the three midfielders who have gone, my friend’s confirmation bias won’t let him acknowledge it!
Oh dear, just realised I’ve spelt Granit Xhaka’s name wrong!
The Arsenal’s CEO, Ivan Gazidis has recently made some appraisal statements in the media where he extolled the good virtues of Arsenal boss, Mr Arsene Wenger. And has also commended the non interference stand of the Arsenal owner, Stan Kroenke on the team selections of the Boss.
But what Mr Gazidis has not told us is, is Stan ready now to sanction 4 marquee signings for Arsenal this summer, instead of just only 1 signing we’ve been seen signed by Arsenal each summer since Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Petr Cech were signed in the last 3 summers without any further signings added to them in the same summer window they were signed?
I can understand if the Boss’s hand is tight if Arsenal don’t have enough money to sign many top players in one summer window. More so if the banks have not relaxed the limit on transfer spendings by Arsenal in a windowcso as not to jeopardize the security for their bank loans which Arsenal took to build the Ems which I am made to understand they haven’t repaid all the loans yet, through some posted comments I’ve read on this website.
Other than this bank loans repayment issue, if it is actually so. but if not, I can’t accept it as Arsenal supporter why Arsenal have refused to properly invest on top quality players in a transfer window to boost the on the field competitive quality of the Gunners.
If at all my agitation to sign at least 3 more marquee players this summer will fall on the fertile heart of Stan Kroenke, I would have loved it if he will sanction 3 more top quality signings for Arsenal this summer window, so that Arsenal will not lagged behind in points collection behind the other top clubs who are going to be competing for maximum points takes next season. And if Arsenal are leading, they can keep the momentum of their leadership on the table going without collapsing as we’ve been seeing it happening in the past couple of seasons.
Vardy, Morata & Koulibaly? The Boss knows best. I leave it to him. There wouldn’t be a need for Chambers to be sent out on loan even if a top CHB is signed and Debuchy returned from his loan spell in France. The season will be long, hard, tough and very competitive for than ever I should think. I think Jenko is still sidelined. Arsenal will therefore need all their top players on deck for a successful competitive campaign season in all the 4 competitions they’ll compete in.
Speculation that there is movement in the waiting list for season tickets – we’ve now been waiting for 8 years, and haven’t been offered one yet.
Living where we do with no immediate access to trains, (rural Lincolnshire), makes it almost impossible to do deals on Ticket Exchange, even if they were available in pairs.
This is what annoys me most about aaa – they cling onto their season tickets just so they can moan – whilst genuine fans (like me) miss out.
It’s all very democratic – but still not playing the game, IMHO
I think spelling Xhaka’s name wrong is de rigueur
Colario I think there is a spelling error in your post.
No
The media speculation is always ridiculous during the silly season. Apparently, even the players have a laugh at the media’s expense. From a recent interview of Zlatan:
“I want you to still write a lot of stories.
“I get excited when I see them because I want to see who is making up the best story. And when I am tired of it, I will let you know where I will go.”
Probably what a lot of the other players are thinking as well!
Vardy release clause triggered says the BBC….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36450106
Yes, Mick, lots of chatter on Vardy, not confirmed on the reliable source below, but they seem to be putting out hints
https://mobile.twitter.com/afcarsenalhorse?lang=en-gb
If he plays for Arsenal, he will have to stop diving or he will get sent off
I don’t think Vardy will leave Leicester, I read he’s close with the owner and manager, plus if he stays at Leicester he will cement himself as their legend, something money can’t buy.
Not sure how he will fit in with Arsenal style of play, as Arsenal don’t play park the bus and pass long ball into space. If Arsenal is going to change to this style, wouldn’t Theo be just as suitable?
The only thing That i can say is, I,m really confused, by the comings and goings, please AFC, get your house in order, from a confused and angry GOONER ?