Arsenal Transfer Index update No 9. One player in, one player out; 58 rumours outstanding

Posted on by Tony Attwood

 

by Sir Hardly Anyone

We’ve made our first signing and the Guardian says

“Given Arsenal’s tendency to wilt at the first glimpse of pressure, that grittiness will be a useful addition. Again, that suggests that Wenger, at last, has acknowledged that not all the world’s problems can be solved by neat, slight midfielders with nice hair.”

Now we might consider this alongside the fact that Arsenal was the only team last season to beat Chelsea twice, and had a 19 match unbeaten run near the start of the season and a 10 match run with just one defeat which included a victory over Man City, and one of the victories over Chelsea, and then consider exactly what on earth Jonathon Wilson is talking about we might conclude that if we wrote it backwards we might describe his commentary as skcollob.

He also makes the point that Kolasinac was not a regular wing-back with Schalke nor his country, but gained a reputation as tough, powerful defender, “there seems little positional reason why he could not operate as either a left-sided central defender or as a wing-back – as well as in his more familiar full-back role.”

The article also says, “nobody has ever doubted his work rate or commitment. He scored three goals and set up five in the Bundesliga last season. No other defender registered so many assists (even if the stat is slightly diminished by the fact that some of them came when he was playing in midfield).”

But the negativity ALWAYS has to be there – this is after all the Guardian writing about Arsenal, so aside from the lunacy of the pressure comment they go on to say he is a certainly not a great passer or brilliant crosser of a ball and in that sense he is not an obvious fit for Arsenal – which may, of course, be no bad thing.”

“Sead is a tree,” said the former Schalke manager Jens Keller. “He gets hit on the head, but just shakes it off and continues to play superbly.”

But the Guardian rumbles on, “From a global perspective, Kolasinac is perhaps best remember (sic) for the early own goal he scored against Argentina in Bosnia’s first game at the 2014 World Cup….”

Ignoring the endless jibes which will of course continue until Doomsday, the reality is that Arsenal has now signed its first player which currently gives the pundits a success rate of 2.17% in their predictions.

And we have one youngster who has gone which makes a 7.14% success rate there in predicting leavers – except that they didn’t actually predict his departure at all, but just reported it after it had happened.  So 0.00%.

Here’s the update on all the players tipped as going and coming.  As before the newbies on the list are shown as NEW and a we have a few with UPDATE as well.

Part 1: The players coming in

Players listed for the first time in this chart have the cunning entry word “New” written in the first column.  It’s all clever stuff you know. There are three new entries and three updates.

No Player Club Position Notes
 1 Tammy Abraham Chelsea  Striker  Currently on loan to Bristol City
 2 Marcelo Allende  Deportes Santa Cruz Attack m’f  Had 3 trials, training with first team.  Signing today!  Actually that was two weeks ago.
3 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Borussia Dortmund Forward £80m to replace Alexis.  Man U want him
4 Carlos Bacca AC Milan Striker He’s 32 years old.  Was going to WHU
5 Gareth Bale Real Mad Striker Stan Collymore tipped this one.
6  Ross Barkley  Everton Attack mid  Been there since 2010 and played 150 games – does he really want to come?
7 Karim Benzema Real Mad F’wd Definitely going to either AFC or Chelsea
8 Andrea Belotti Juventus F’wd Sadly he has just signed a new contract
9 Joel Campbell Return F’wd Loan period ending
10 Iker Casillas Porto Goal To solve our goalkeeping “crisis”
11 Kingsley Coman  Juventus Wing On loan with Bayern this season
12 Virgil Van Dijk Southampton Defence Helps us play a back 3 all the time
13 Ederson Benfica Goal 23 year old to replace Cech
14 Emil Forsberg RB Leipzig Midfield He’s Swedish and he’s 25 years old
15 Jose Luis Gaya  Valencia LB Man City winning the race
16 Ben Gibson Middlesbrough Centre back £30m.  Tottenham want him.
17 Leon Goretzka Shalke M’fld £21m, 1 yr left on contract.  Wanted to replace Ozil (Most quoted story by far)
NEW Antoine Griezmann Atlético Madrid Forward Man U don’t want him after all.
19 Amine Harit. Nantes M’fld Arsenal have given him a trial.  He is 19-years-old
20 Lorenzo Insigne Napoli F’wd Liverpool! are on alert!
21 Jakub Jankto Udinese M’fld To play alongside Xhaka
22 Naby Keïta RB Leipzig Right back Has refused to sign a new contract
23 Grzegorz Krychowiak PSG Def M’fd New in the sense that this is the first entry for him this year, but it is the third year he has been tipped to join us.
24  Koke Atl Madrid M’fld Replacement for Santi Cazorla
25 Dawid Kownacki Lech Poznan Striker the new Robert Lewandowski’
SIGNED Sead Kolašinac Schalke Defender The deal is announced by Arsenal
Update Kylian Mbappe Monaco F’wd The French press seem sure this is on at around €100m
Update Alexandre Lacazette Olympique Lyonnais Striker Man City want him. At. Madrid can’t because of their buying ban.  Maybe Arsenal after all…
29 Mario Lemina  Juventus Cent mid He’s 23, previously with  Lorient and Marseille.
30 Romelu Lukaku Everton Forward Dead cert to join AFC
NEW Riyad Mahrez Leicester Winger He says he has an agreement that he can now leave.  Tottenham want him too.
32 Henry Onyekuru  KAS Eupen Forward He’s 19 usually plays on the left, one for the future.
NEW Oguzhan Ozyakup Besiktas Midfield £20m is the fee being quoted.  He says he wants to come to Europe.
34 Florentin Pogba St Etienne Defender Brother of Paul at Man U
35 Leandro Paredes Roma Midfield A story from last year now resurrected
36 Jordon Pickford Sunderland Goal Although Mr W has said he is not looking to sign a keeper.  Man U, Everton and Liverpool want him
37 James Rodriguez Real Madrid Midf/wing  Juventus Milan Man U all want him
38 Ivan Perisic Inter Midf/wing Man U desperate for him
39 Kasper Schmeichel Leicester Goal The man to solve our goalkeeping “crisis”
40 Michaël Seri Nice Midfield Tottenham, Barcelona and PSG want him.
41 Chris Smalling.  Man U Centre back Played 153 times for Man U.
42 Wojciech Szczesny Roma loan Goal Mr W. said that he is not looking to sign a keeper (allegedly) so everyone assumes it is Szcz’s return
43 John Terry Chelsea Nasty This story from the Daily Mail
44 Corentin Tolisso  Lyon M/fld or F’wd French international, dreams of Arsenal.  Still being mentioned
45 Arda Turan Barcelona M’fld He’s 30 years old
46 Jack Wilshere Bournemouth M’fld 75% of guys in the pub want him back

 

Part 2: The 14 players already said to be on their way out

No Player Club Notes
 1a Alexis Man C Guardiola making £50m offer his summer priority
1b Alexis Chelsea Will play out contract and go on a free to Chelsea.
1c Alexis Man U Has already agreed deal
NEW Alexis Nowhere Mr Wenger has said “he is staying”
2 Krystian Bielik Birmingham City keen to extend loan for another year.
3 Bellerin Barcelona Barce will sign him; no, he is happy to stay
4 Campbell Fenerbahce Currently in talks to sign
5 Francis Coquelin  Valencia This story has been going on and on and on and…
6 Olivier Giroud  Marseille He wants to play more games.
7 Jenkinson Newcastle Just promoted, need players
8 Koscielny Marseille He’s just had enough
9 Ospina Fenerbahce Some are just saying “to Turkey”
Update Özil Real Mad They realise they should have kept him.  Mr Wenger says, he is staying
11 Lucas Perez PSG He’s an “outcast” according to “reports”
12 Wojciech Szczesny Napoli Every newspaper seems to have this one.
13 Nathan Tella Southampton Deal done and completed
14 Theo Walcott West Ham Ray Wilkins says he must leave to protect his career

More transfers will be announced shortly.

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11 Replies to “Arsenal Transfer Index update No 9. One player in, one player out; 58 rumours outstanding”

  1. “Given Arsenal’s tendency to wilt at the first glimpse of pressure”

    I would suggest the pressure Arsenal FC, the players and the manager where under towards the end of the season, was the greatest they had been under for a very long time and to my eyes they copped with it brilliantly.

    I think I’ve seen statistics that show we’ve won more games with 10 men than anyone else.

    Scored more late (last 10 mins) goals than anyone else.

    All these insulting soundbites that are thrown at us are just more examples of the endless negativity that is dumped at our door.

    We start the season poorly, end the season poorly, and the less said about how we deal with those cold mid winter nights the better.

    Our managers shit and doesn’t do tactics.

    Our players are shit and have no bottle.

    We have no leaders.

    We’re a bunch of Southern softies yet somehow we proportionately get more cards than those lumps of Granite up North.

    We tippy tappy the ball about in the penalty box for 90 minutes yet somehow manage to avoid winning penalties as efficiently as Spurs avoid winning Trophies.

    We always dilly dally in the transfer market. If we’re not dilly dallying we’re panic buying. Yet Spurs and Liverpool, who always act so much better and more decisively in the transfer market, palpably manage to buy far more flops than we ever do, a fact bourn out by the fact that those 2 Clubs combined trophy haul over the last 10 years is less than ours alone over the last 4 years.

    Apparently our ticket prices are the highest in the PL, which UA has shown is clearly an exaggeration.

    Apparently our injuries are the worst in the PL, which again is clearly untrue.

    Our Manager is greedy, our owners are greedy, where as all over managers and owners earn every penny.

    Articles in the vein of that Wilson article are now the bog standard pile of media dog shite spouted about us on an almost hourly basis. It has no foundation in truth or fact but there is absolutely no means of rebuttal.

    It is written and printed as fact, and alas there are enough dimwits out there that believe it, and worse, even if they don’t, still enjoy reading it.

    If I did my job to the level that these people do I would be out of work in a flash.

    The sad thing is, these people are actually better rewarded the worse they are.

  2. Good article Sir Hardly and welcome to Sead!

    Adding to Nitram’s point, it’s amazing how Liverpool can tap up Virgil van Dijk, apologize about it and end interest, and the Premier League is expected to end the investigation.

    I can only imagine the uproar in the media if Arsenal did that. (Not to mention Liverpool is already serving a 2 year suspension from signing youth players registered with PL or EFL clubs because of their illegal approach last year to sign a 12 year old from Stoke’s academy)

  3. It seem AW pretty much confirm in his latest interview that Gibbs is staying and will play at left back. Nacho to play more as central defense. Sead rotating between wing back or left back depending on formation.

  4. Happy Polling Day, Tony! Let’s hope it’s a good one! Jeremy Corbyn gave a very nice interview about Arsene Wenger and why he thought he should stay. A true Gunner!

  5. Jerry

    I don’t know what there smoking up there but it seems to be having a catastrophic effect on there ability to comprehend rules regarding player transfers.

    Still, I’m sure there’s a big enough carpet at the FA head quarters to brush it under.

  7. I did read somewhere (can’t remember where though) that we were interested in Kondogbia and Inter need money, so he wouldn’t be stupidly expensive…
    I’ve no idea if this has teeth or not (although I think probably ‘Not’)…

  8. Also, I believe Sanogo has said that his contract won’t be renewed and he’s looking for a new club.

  9. I understand Tella was released by us, rather than transferred from us.
    Kamara, De Gracia, Pileas and Mourgos are in a similar situation of looking for new clubs.

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