Web site reveals Arsenal’s next summer’s transfer target 10 months early!

By Sir Hardly Anyone

If you are a regular habitué of these parts you will know that in June each year we start recording all the players who are mentioned in the media as being about to be transferred to Arsenal.  The summer total always ends up as being between 90 and 115 players.

However this year everything is changing, as the transfer rumours for NEXT summer (that is to say the summer of 2020) have already started.  Read Arsenal is at the forefront of this move, and if this develops in the way that such matters normally go we can expect Football London to be churning out daily 2020 transfer rumours any moment now.

The first proposed transfer to Arsenal for NEXT summer is Bournemouth’s Ryan Fraser.  The progenitor of this story is, as mentioned, Read Arsenal who first put it out on a record breaking 7 September.

And indeed no sooner had I written that than the Daily Star tells us that football.London has indeed got a transfer story in that it has “revealed” that Lacazette is off to Barcelona next summer.

Indeed the Daily Star has been quite busy for not only are they re-writing the future before it has been writ (if you see what I mean) but they are also re-writing the past.  I quote word for word…

“Unai Emery’s Arsenal claimed to have limited funds available at the beginning of the summer.”

Err, no I don’t think they did, except in the sense that no club has infinite funds available and thus all clubs have limited funds.  But the main story came from the Arsenal Supporters Trust who had their “accountant” go through Arsenal’s accounts and come up with the notion that Arsenal only had £40m to spend.

It was pure financial fantasy of course, but that didn’t stop the media going for it big time as with headlines such as”UNAI EMERY only has £40million to spend this summer if Arsenal fail to reach the Champions League,” in the Sun in February 2019.   (It also has a banner on the site for that day proclaiming itself to be “News Website of the Year” which is a bit sad when the story next to the proclamation is total rubbish.)

This in turn led on to the notorious document and tweet “We Care Do You” which stated that Arsenal’s fans were marginalised, and less the stadium being a soulless place.  The document was supported by AST, Arseblog, Black Scarf Movement, Highbury Library, Gooner Fanzine, Le Grove, RedAction, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and 7am kickoff.  I just like to get these historic facts straights.

Anyway back to next summer’s transfers, “The agent of a Russian Premier League talent has revealed that Premier League giants Arsenal are ‘closely following’ the 18-year-old winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia,” according to a report in Caught Offside.

So there we are.  Next summers’ transfers before we have reached autumn (which starts on September 21 by the way).

But of course this is the interlull-land so nonsense is de rigueur as they say in foreign parts.   So let us finish with some real live all action gibberish nonsense.

That comes from the Metro.  So, to finish, let’s just check that out by looking at how Leicester and Everton are doing thus far.

Leicester City have drawn at home with Wolverhampton, drawn away with Chelsea, and beaten Sheffield United and Bournemouth.   Yes one of those results was against a top six club, but I would say against the most troubled top six club (absentee owner, new manager, ground cancelled, transfer ban).

I am not sure if Chelsea will be allowed to sink further into the mire, but they are not functioning well at the moment.  As a result I am not at all sure that a draw with Chelsea proclaims that much about a team.

Everton did spend money in the summer (£29m net, with three major buys and four players leaving for over £10m each), but they have had the luxury of existing in a top six free zone thus far.  They’ve drawn with Palace, beaten bottom club Watford 1-0, lost to new boys Villa, and beaten Wolverhampton by the odd goal in five.

Of course Merse could be right, and one or two of the top six of last year could drop out by the end of this season – after all the top six has only been settled for the last three years, but there is nothing here to bak up such wild claims.  Why does anyone take him at all seriously?