By Sir Hardly Anyone
Last summer’s 136 Arsenal transfers were predicted by the media. You can read about them here: Part one; Part two.
Below is the latest edition of the list of players deemed by the all-seeing and usually totally inaccurate media that report such matters, to be coming to and going from Arsenal this summer. Last summer the self-same media had a success rate of 3% out of the 136 players that they nominated.
Now you might have thought that after a failure rate of 97% in their predictions the media might pull out of the transfer prediction business, but no. It is a form of journalism that requires little other than an over-excited imagination, so without any mention for last summer’s failures, they are back with their predictions once again. This summer’s accuracy rate is expected to be lower than last year.
This is what we have so far…
| No | Player | Source | Club | Notes |
| 1 | Tammy Abraham | TBR | Roma | Forward |
| NEW | Kerem Akturkoglu | TeamTalk | Galatasaray. | Forward |
| 3 | Armando Broja | Mirror, Caught Offside | Chelsea (loan at Southampton) | Forward |
| Update | Dominic Calvert-Lewin | Express, Mirror, Mail, F365 | Everton | Forward |
| 5 | Reyes Cleary | Foot365, Canon. | WBA | 17 year old forward |
| 6 | Phillipe Coutinho | Mirror, Give Me Sport | Aston Villa | £33.57m |
| 7 | Danilo | Teamtalk | Leeds | Defensive midfield |
| 8 | Jonathan David | Express, Mirror, Foot365, PBR | Lille | Forward; agent confirms he’s leaving |
| NEW | Paulo Dybala | HITC: Totts want him also | Juventus | Forward |
| 10 | Joao Felix | Football London, Daily Canon, HITC | Atletico Madrid | Replacement for Lacazette |
| 11 | Erling Haaland | HITC, Sky, Express | Borussia Dortmund | Age 21. £250m |
| NEW | Eden Hazard | HITC, AS | Real Madrid | £33.5m |
| 13 | Alexander Isak | Express, Mirror, | Real Sociedad | Forward, £75 release clause |
| NEW | Luka Jovic | Football.London | Real Madrid | Everton, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund |
| NEW | Noa Lang | Hard Tackle; Team Talk | Club Brugge | Liverpool and Milan also want him. Seen as replacement for Pepe but player fancies Milan. £25m |
| 16 | Robert Lewandowski | Express | Bayern Munich | Striker |
| 17 | Jesper Lindstrom | HITC | Eintracht Frankfurt | Attacking midfield |
| 18 | Lautaro Martinez | Caught Offside | Inter Milan | Forward. WHU interested |
| Update | Darwin Nunez | Mirror, Standard, Express 442, TBR | Benfica. £67m | Forward. Transfer in progress |
| 20 | Lucas Paqueta | Hard Tackle | Lyon | PSG, At Madrid also want him |
| 21 | Yeremy Pino | HITC | Villarreal | Release clause worth €80m. Forward |
| NEW | Paul Pogba | Football.London | Man U | Contract talks broken down |
| 23 | Michael Olise | HITC | Crystal Palace | £24m |
| NEW | Victor Osimhen | HITC, Corriere dello Sport, Mirror | Napoli | £84m centre forward |
| 25 | Marcus Rashford | 90 Min, HITC, TalkSport, Daily Cannon. | Man U | Forward |
| 26 | Sergi Roberto | Football London | Barcelona | Right back |
| 27 | Renato Sanches | Sun, Mirror, Sports Mole | Lille | Midfield. Juventus want him |
| 28 | Djed Spence | Hard Tackle | Middlesbrough on loan at Forest | Full back |
| NEW | Dusan Vlahovic | F365 | Juventus | Serbian Striker |
| NEW | Cristian Zavala | Colo Colo | Player says “my dream transfer” | Midfielder, hasn’t actually played for Colo Colo yet! |
Leaving Arsenal
| No | Player | Source | Club | Notes |
| 1 | Dan Ballard | News at Den | Millwall | Loan |
| 2 | Hector Bellerin | Team Talk | Free Agent | |
| 3 | Mohamed Elneny | Free Agent | ||
| 4 | Matteo Guendouzi | Team Talk | Marseille | Loan made permanent |
| NEW | Rob Holding | Mirror | Open to offers | |
| 6 | Alex Lacazette | Free Agent | ||
| 7 | Bernd Leno | Team Talk | ||
| 8 | Ainsley Maitland-Niles | Team Talk | ||
| NEW | Pablo Mari | Team Talk | Leaving if Saliba joins first team | |
| NEW | Gabriel Martinelli | Sports Review | Liverpool | Klopp expressing admiration |
| 11 | Konstantinos Mavropanos | TeamTalk | Stuttgart | Loan made permanent |
| 12 | Eddie Nketiah | Evening Standard | Crystal Palace | Free Agent |
| 13 | Nicolas Pepe | Mirror | Club happy to lose him | |
| 14 | Alex Runarsson | Team Talk | ||
| 15 | William Saliba | Caught Offside | Marseille | Happy to stay at the club |
| 16 | Cedric Soares | Team Talk | ||
| 17 | Lucas Torreira | Team Talk | Fiorentina | |
| 18 | Auston Trusty | Team Talk | ||
| 19 | Granit Xhaka | Team Talk | Roma | But may stay |
There will be a further update to this list shortly, and all being well we’ll continue with it until the window shuts.
Meanwhile on the Arsenal History Society site today: 24 March 1951: Dave Bowen makes his first-team debut (and the ground with a stand named after him).
The freaking media. Why can’t they leave the arsenal alone?
Fred – the answer is that this is the cheapest journalism available. No research, no costs, can be written in 30 seconds, churn them out a dozen a day.
It’s so exciting, I can’t wait for the transfer window to open and we sign 100 players.