by Sir Hardly Anyone
- How spending a fortune on transfers is not always a good idea.
- The significant success of Arsenal’s recent signings recognised
We’ve been keeping tabs on the various players (48 of them in fact) who have been tipped as being on the move to Arsenal in January.
In total we have found 240 separate stories published in blogs and in newspapers about such players, and of course, this being the media, there’s been a fair bit of cheating going on since 48 of the stories are in fact repeats of tales that the same site has already run.
Three particular tales stand out as being singularly popular with the media… these being the alleged transfers of Mykhaylo Mudryk (reported on 40 different occasions). Memphis Depay (15 separate reports), and Youri Tielemans (14 reports).
What we have also found this December is that individual websites are taking to repeating the story about specific players, each report being justified by either a minor development in the story or by a comment made by another journalist! The most repeated tale is that of Mudruk, with the website TBR winning the repeats award thus far with six different articles on the transfer.
At the other end of the scale we have a group of 11 players whose transfer to Arsenal has only been mentioned by one website….
- Jonathan David (TBR)
- Ilkay Gundogan (Football London)
- Piero Hincapie (Football London)
- Mohammed Kudus (TBR)
- Cesar Montes (Football London)
- Robert Renan (Arsenal station)
- Theo Sander (AAB)
- Danilo dos Santos (Caught offside)
- Carolos Solar (Daily Canon)
- Djibril Sow (Arsenal Station)
- Leandro Trossard (Sussex Express)
Once the window “slams shut” as they always say in the media we will then undertake a final summary of which websites got it right and which ones spun us all a load of old baloney.
Here’s the full list of men said to be on the move to Arsenal. The Number column (“No”) indicates the number of separate reports we have found, and the “Rpt” column shows the number of times a publisher has repeated its own story.
| Player | Position | Current club | Source | No | Rpt | |
| 1 | Tammy Abraham | Forward | Roma | TBR Caught Offside HITC Hammers News | 4 | |
| 2 | Marco Asensio | Winger | Real Madrid | Daily Canon TBR Caught Offside | 3 | |
| 3 | Ibrahima Bamba | Midfield | Vitoria Guimaraes | TBR Just Arsenal Football Talk TBR (2) | 4 | 1 |
| 4 | Rodrigo Becao | Defender | Udinese | Arsenal Station, Caught Offside TBR (1) And TBR (2) | 4 | 1 |
| 5 | Jude Bellingham | Midfield | Borussia Dortmund | Metro, FoLo, FoLo (2), Team Talk Express FoLo (3) HITC | 7 | 2 |
| Update | Ismael Bennacer | Midfield | AC Milan (ex AFC) | Just Arsenal Mirror HITC Football 365 | 4 | |
| 7 | Moises Caicedo | Midfield | Brighton | FoLo FoLo (2) | 2 | 1 |
| 8 | Fares Chaibi | Winger | Toulouse | TBR, Hard Tackle | 2 | |
| 9 | Samuel Chukwueze | Winger | Villarreal | Liverpool Echo, Caught Offside KopTimes | 3 | |
| Update | Matheus Cunha | Forward | Atletico Madrid | HITC FootballLondon Football Fancast TBR Arsenal Station | 5 | |
| Update | Danilo | Midfield | Aston Villa (he’s Brazillian, hence media excitement) | Caught offside, Give me sport Sport Bible, HammerNews, COffside (2) Express, HITC Arsenal Station Caught Offside (3) HITC (2) Mirror – he’s not signing Football Fancast 90 Min | 13 | 3 |
| 12 | Jonathan David | Striker | Lille | Football London | 1 | |
| 13 | Memphis Depay | Forward | Barcelona | Sport Bible, TeamTalk Team Talk (2) TBR – just £1.7m Express Boot Room Goonertalk TeamTalk (3) Football Talk TBR 2 TeamTalk (4) TBR (3) FoLo HITC Hammers News Mirror HITC (2) | 15 | 6 |
| 14 | Denzel Dumfries. | Right back | Inter Milan | Chelsea News FoLo HITC HITC (again) | 4 | 1 |
| 15 | Endrick Felipe | Striker | Palmeiras | TBR and here (2). HITC | 3 | 1 |
| Update | Joao Felix | Striker | Atletico Madrid | Football London Football London (2) FoLo (3) Into the Caldron Givemesport The Boot Room Sport Bible Mirror Goonertalk TBR (2) Sport Witness | 10 | 2 |
| 17 | Ivan Fresneda | Right back | Real Valladolid | Hard Tackle Top Flight FootballFancast | 3 | |
| 18 | Cody Gakpo | Striker | PSV | TBR, Express, TBR (2) HITC HITC (2) TBR (3) HITC (3) TBR (4) FoLo TeamTalk FoLo (2) | 12 | 4 |
| 19 | Alejandro Garnacho. | Winger | Man U | TBR, Sport Bible TBR (2) | 3 | 1 |
| 20 | Ilkay Gundogan | Winger | Man C | FoLo | 1 | |
| 21 | Josko Gvardiol | Fo Lo FoLo (2) | 2 | 1 | ||
| 22 | Piero Hincapie | Centre Back | Bayer Leverkusen | Fo Lo | 1 | |
| 23 | N’Golo Kante | Midfield | Chelsea | Football Fancast Just Football HITC (going to Barca) | 3 | |
| 24 | Mohammed Kudus | Attack | Ajaz | TBR | 1 | |
| 25 | Joakim Maehle | Full back | Atalanta | FoLo | 1 | |
| Update | Milinkovic-Savic | Midfield | Lazio | HITC, Caught Offside The Laziali Goonertalk SportWitness Sport Witness (2) Football Fancast | 7 | 1 |
| 27 | Cesar Montes | Full back | CF Monterrey | Fo Lo | 1 | |
| Update | Mykhaylo Mudryk | Winger | Shakhtar Donetsk | TBR; FoLo , Newcastle World Mailonline. Shields Gazette Caught Offside, Mirror HITC London World FoLo (2) Team Talk HITC (2) Caught Offside (2) TBR (3) Arsenal Station Football Fancast Hard Tackle HITC (3) Caught Offside (3) Hammers News Metro Mirror (2) TBR (4) Daily Canon Hard Tacikle Daily Canon HITC (4) TBR (5) TBR (6) SportWitness Mail Football Talk TBR (7) Arsenal Station (2) Football Talk Caught Offside (4) Woolwich 1886 Bootroom Standard HITC (5) | 40 | 15 |
| Update | Evan Ndicka | Defender | Eintracht Frankfurt | SheWore London World FoLo He’s signed – 442 Mirror | 5 | |
| 30 | Noah Okafor | Forward | RB Salzburg | FoLo; Sport Witness, Hammers News, HITC Mirror FoLo (2) | 6 | 1 |
| 31 | Pepe* | Winger | Porto | HITC FoLO | 2 | |
| 32 | Christian Pulisic | Attacking midfield | Chelsea | Teamtalk Express FoLo HITC Goal | 5 | |
| 33 | Adrien Rabiot | Midfield | Juventus | FoLo Football Fancast TBR HITC F365 TBR (2) | 6 | 1 |
| 34 | Goncalo Ramos. | Centre forward / No 10 | Benfica | TBR HITC FoLo | 3 | |
| 35 | Robert Renan | Defender | Corinthians | Arsenal Station | 1 | |
| 36 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Forward | Man U | Express, Football 365 | 2 | |
| 37 | Theo Sander | Goal keeper | AaB (Denmark) | Caught Offside | 1 | |
| NEW | Danilo dos Santos | Midfield | Palmeiras | Caught Offside | 1 | |
| 39 | Leroy Sané | Winger | Bayern | Football Fancast Football London | 2 | |
| 40 | Milan Skriniar | Centre back | Inter | Football Talk, FoLo, HITC | 3 | |
| 41 | Carolos Solar | Midfield | PSG | Daily Canon | 1 | |
| 42 | Djibril Sow | Midfield | Eintracht Frankfurt | Arsenal Station | 1 | |
| 43 | Mehdi Taremi | Forward | Porto | Tasnim News GoonerTalk FoLo | 3 | |
| Update | Marcus Thuram | Goalscoring forward | Borussia Monchengladbach | Caughtoffside,,TBR Sportwitness SportBible. TBR (2), Give me Sport Newcastle World FoLo Sport Bible (2) Football Talk | 10 | 2 |
| Update | Youri Tielemans | Midfield | Leicester | FoLo, PG Sport Gooner Talk FoLo (2) FoLo (3) He’s joined (Hammers News) He’s joined (Caught offside) Team Talk Caught Offside (he hasn’t joined) Football Fan Cast Football 365. Hammers News (deal done) HITC TeamTalk | 14 | 3 |
| 45 | Facundo Torres | Wing | Orlando City | Express, Caught Offside Mirror | 3 | |
| 46 | Leandro Trossard | Winger | Brighton | Sussex Express | 1 | |
| Update | Dusan Vlahovic | Striker | Juventus | JuveFC.com; 442 Football Fancast, TBR Football Fancast (2) HITC Man U News | 7 | ` |
| Update | Zaniolo | Midfield | Roma | Football365, FoLo Caughtoffside FoLo (2) Mirror | 5 | 1 |
- How much have Arsenal spent on transfers in recent years?
- How much does a club have to spend on transfers to get a trophy?
When they are correct more than 1% of the time I might pay attention.