By Sir Hardly Anyone (with added links!)
The next transfer window opens 1 July, which by my reckoning is around about 100 days away, and is planned to close on 2259 BST on 31 August although there seems a certain amount of uncertainty over the closing time – as indeed there is at the Toppled Bollard public house, wherein reside many of the journalists who gather this tittle-tattle.
Last summer’s transfer window saw over 130 players tipped by the media to be coming to Arsenal, and given that journalists are already active with their tips it seems possible that this extraordinary level of ineptitude at predicting transfers could be exceeded this time around.
However, we must give a serious word of warning. Over the years we have been running these summer charts, accuracy rates have ranged between 1% and 3%, so we’re not over-excited by any of the names being put forward this far.
You can find a link to last summer’s transfer tips below – the file in fact got so large that we had to cut it into two. I am sure this summer our jolly journos always anxious to file a story without doing any work at all, will be keen to get the number beyond that point.
And just to give a smattering of context here is the list of players we signed last summer. (I would give a list of the player Arsenal signed in January, but for the life of me I can’t find it, despite quite a few young chaps being tipped to join the club).
- Ben White: £50m from Brighton and Hove Albion
- Martin Odegaard: £31.5m from Real Madrid.
- Aaron Ramsdale: £25m from Sheffield United.
- Takehiro Tomiyasu: £17m from Bologna.
- Albert Sambi Lokonga: £16m from Anderlecht.
- Nuno Tavares: £7m from Benfica.
I am sure you will agree that was a jolly bunch of young lads, so let’s see who is joining them this time…
| No | Player | Source | Club | Notes |
| 1 | Armando Broja | Mirror, Caught Offside | Chelsea (loan at Southampton) | Forward |
| 2 | Dominic Calvert-Lewin | Express, Mirror, Mail | Everton | Forward |
| 3 | Reyes Cleary | Foot365, Canon. | WBA | 17 year old forward |
| 4 | Jonathan David | Express, Mirror, Foot365, PBR | Lille | Forward; agent confirms he’s leaving |
| 5 | Joao Felix | Football London, Daily Canon, HITC | Atletico Madrid | Replace Lacazette |
| 6 | Alexander Isak | Express, Mirror | Real Sociedad | Forward |
| 7 | Jesper Lindstrom | HITC | Eintracht Frankfurt | Attacking midfield |
| 8 | Lautaro Martinez | Caught Offside | Inter Milan | Forward. WHU interested |
| 9 | Darwin Nunez | Mirror, Standard | Benfica. | Forward |
| 10 | Lucas Paqueta | Hard Tackle | Lyon | PSG, At Madrid also want him |
| 11 | Yeremy Pino | HITC | Villarreal | Release clause worth €80m. Forward |
| 12 | Marcus Rashford | 90 Min, HITC, TalkSport, Daily Cannon. | Man U | Forward |
| 13 | Sergi Roberto | Football London | Barcelona | Right back |
| 14 | Renato Sanches | Sun, Mirror, Sports Mole | Lille | Midfield. Juventus want him |
| 15 | Djed Spence | Hard Tackle | Middlesborough on loan at Forest | Full back |
Leaving Arsenal
| No | Player | Source | Club | Notes |
| 1 | Dan Ballard | News at Den | Millwall | Loan |
| 2 | Eddie Nketiah | Evening Standard | Crystal Palace |
Last Summer’s transfer window
- Arsenal break their all time record for transfers: numbers 1 to 69
- From number 70 to number 136
- What happened to the players said to be coming to Arsenal last summer?
- Who starts the transfer rumours and why are they inventing more and more?
Tony,
aren’t you forgetting Lacazette ?
Why is Erling Haaland not on your list? 🤷
Rob, the list grows through the months to the end of the window, and names are added at around 10 at a time. So at this stage there are lots of names not yet on the list, but they will be there in the coming weeks and months.
OT,
well it sure looks like Chelsea are in a quagmire. Abramovich’s assets in the UK have been frozen.
Wonder how that sale is going to go ahead ?
WHERE IS VICTOR OSIMHEN? THATS THE BEST I THINK WE SHOULD GO FOR SINCE WE CANT GET HALLAND.
Sam, as I noted with my answer earlier, we just pick up the tales reported that day in some of the media, and add a few more every couple of days. Any names missing are simply because they were not in the newspapers and blogs on the day we looked – but experience across the years shows the same names come around and around.
Only 15, surely there must be more?!
Hasn’t the Toppled Bollard moved onto Facebook, social distancing and all that…
The Mirror have also said today we’re in for Danilo (Palmeiras), Carney Chukwuemeka and Douglas Luiz (both Aston Villa), and Youri Tielemans (Leicester).
They also say, “Arsenal are hoping to make Dinos Mavropanos’ loan to Stuttgart, Matteo Guendouzi’s loan to Marseille and Lucas Torreira’s loan to Fiorentina permanent.” And they also say Laca is off to Lyon although I read elsewhere he’s going to Juve.
I find so very amusing lol
Well, it just looks like Chelsea are in it for a complicated run-in to this year’s 3rd/4th place….
Who would buy them even at a cheap price ? The risk that at some point some court rules that the freezing was not legal and the new owner is in trouble.
Would you spend a billion or more not being 100% sure that you are the real and rightfull owner ?
Then, would any caretaker authority dare to decide anything considering the risk to get sued for that, like selling the club below the announced value.
Then what happens to the sales proceeds. What happens if a court overturns the decision to sell, and at the time Chelsea have been relegated ? The new owner has to fight the old one for mismanagement and losses ?
Go down the hierarchy, how can a sports director take any decisions ? Or a player sign a contract not knowing if it will be valid or upheld ?
Or whatever such combination. The legal ramifications are infinite.
Just read the restrictions that have been put in place : no new tickets, no merchandising, but catering, reasonable expenses, etc. etc… can’t run a club like that. my take is that anybody’s old Chelsea tshirt just got more valuable : it is vintage.
Chelsea have just become radioactive.
Frank McAvennie believes that Harvey Elliot has been “hard done By” after the FA wrote to him regarding his flare gun antics last week.
One rule for them, another for everybody else.
LiVARpool! hoping to be let off the hook again.