By Sir Hardly Anyone
It really is the most extraordinary of proposals: Arsenal are seriously engaged in seven out of the top 11 big summer transfers, at least according to the Telegraph website today.
If the club fails to sign any of them (which is quite possible if Arsenal were not seriously interested in the first place) it will be called a catastrophe and a disaster for the club, as the media does its usual thing of instructing the fans to be annoyed. Beyond doubt there won’t be an investigation by the Telegraph or any other media into whether Arsenal were actually interested or why the proposed deals didn’t happen. It will just be a case of Arsenal’s fault.
The story in the Telegraph gives us 21 transfers in all, carefully numbered in order of… well, actually they don’t get around to telling us, since it is not in alphabetical order, nor order of price, nor actually any other order we can make out. But I am sure they know what they are doing, so we will stick with their ordering and numbering.
That however doesn’t give the tale any more sense, but then, the tale doesn’t make any sense, unless the sense is, “let’s set up an Arsenal list and then come the end of the window on 1 September we can run ‘Arsenal in meltdown after series of chaotic failures and administrative bungles in transfer window’.”
So off we go…
2. Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City)
- Also interested: Tottenham Hotspur
- Position: Forward
- Last season: 28 league games, 8 goals
- Estimated cost: £35m-45m
Any player with a history with Manchester City is seemingly considered fair game since it allows the journalist to run the phrase “reuniting the player with Mikel Arteta.” Jesus has one year remaining on his current contract and of course money means nothing to Manchester City since they have more than enough to buy anyone and everyone and Uefa has shown its incompetence in handling FFP. The only thing that restricts them is the 25 player rule.
3. Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton)
- Also Interested: Newcastle United, West Ham United.
- Position: Forward
- Last season: 17 league games, 5 goals (in the previous season it was 33 games and 16 goals)
- Estimated cost: £40m-50m
An injury-prone forward who scored five goals – is that really right for Arsenal?
4: Tammy Abraham (Roma)
- Interested: Arsenal
- Position: Forward
- Last season: 37 league games, 17 goals in Italy (previous season, 22 games 6 goals with Chelsea)
- Estimated cost: £55m-65m
Roma came sixth last season in Italy and so qualified for Europe having won the Conference League under Mourinho last season. Will they really sell their top scorer?
6. Victor Osimhen (Napoli)
- Interested: Arsenal
- Position: Forward
- Last season: 27 league games, 14 goals
- Estimated cost: £65m-75m
Napoli came third last season, with Osimhen as their top scorer. Selling their top man would hardly please the fans (an important factor in Napoli’s case) and would seem to make no sense after having climbed back into the Champions League.
7. Youri Tielemans (Leicester City)
- Interested: Arsenal
- Estimated cost: £25m-35m (one year left on contract)
- Position: Holding midfield, or attacking midfield
- Last season: 32 games, 6 goals
The Arsenal midfield last season incorporated Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard and Smith Rowe: four class players to fit into three positions. So why on earth would we buy another one?
8. Oleksandr Zinchenko (Manchester City)
- Interested: Arsenal
- Estimated cost: £30m-40m
- Position: Left back or defensive midfield, or left wing
- Last season: 15 games, 0 goals.
Left back is deemed to be a problem because Tierney got injured and Tavares seemed to lose his way somewhat. But then if we sold every player who lost his way for a few games and every player who got injured we wouldn’t have that many left. The media’s remorseless attack on Tavares including such appalling gibberish as the Mirror’s “Nuno Tavares “doesn’t fully understand” role of a left-back” made his life difficult and he may well decide he’s had enough of the English media. But if he does stay he will undoubtedly regain his form and the media will find someone else to pillory.
11. Aaron Hickey (Bologna)
- Interested: Brentford, Arsenal
- Estimated cost: £10m-20m
- Position: Left back
- Last season: 36 games, 5 goals.
Another left-back emphasising the points made above regarding Zinchenko. When the media get it in their heads that Arsenal need a new player in a particular position they won’t stop until they have terrorised the incumbent out of the club.
The fact is that Tierney is a brilliant full-back who has had a bad run of injuries, but that does not mean the injuries will continue.
Conclusion: No other team on the list has been given this much involvement in transfers. It will be amusing to see how many come off, and then how the media react to Arsenal not signing them. Expect a considerable amount of use of the phrase “too slow”.
If reports from various news fabrication outlets are to be believed we are going to have at least six strikers on our books next season all competing with Eddie Nketiah for the one strikers starting place.
It is 100% certain they cannot all be right and also probably 100% certain they will all be wrong!
The one player theyre not including so far is Tony Adams , its up to us to say how well the heart, lung and leg transplants are doing along with the bionic right arm. Say it long and loud enough some journos out there will latch on to it just to show they’re in front of the game.
Thank you Untold Arsenal for being one of the very few blogs that present evidence for any subject you go in to.
Well, there is another perspective to this….if Arsenal are and in the end do no, well the other clubs will have had to spend more…so it depletes their cash….even if it is limitless, still, it’s money and shows up on balance sheets, in FFP, etc and adds up…
So let Arsenal raise the stakes !
I would add that Elneny and Sambi are also valued midfield players, (as well as emerging younger talents)
A Newcastle fan on Twitter was upset that Yasir Al-Rumayyan was asked a question about sportswashing by the BBC (which he evaded).
awkward
The Newcastle fan claimed that the golfers playing in the PIF tournament and Anthony Joshua (who has fought in Riyadh), weren’t asked to justify their participation. It turns out that the golfers were asked but wouldn’t answer based on the fact that the question was “hypothetical”.
Joshua was also asked, and did at least try to answer, although not in an entirely convincing manner.
The Newcastle fan has so far failed to delete his tweet😂
Doesn’t the window officially open today (10th) – it’s just so exciting that I can hardly stay awake.
In other news the manager of Mexico U20’s will refrain from selecting Marcelo Flores this summer to allow him to stay and develop at Arsenal in pre-season and thus help him to hopefully make a mark with Arteta and establish himself on the fringes of the senior squad with possible exposure in League Cup and Europa ties in mind.