Happy Saturday.
It’s likely to be a pretty quiet weekend on the Arsenal front with the tour over, and players/staff taking a couple of days to settle back in at home, reconnect with their families etc. Kai Havertz’s dogs must be delighted. Monday is the day when it all kicks off again, and perhaps from then we might start to see some bits and pieces of news. I expect nothing much today or tomorrow, but you never know.
I wonder will being back in London, and having loosened his very expensive belt by helping to facilitate six incoming transfers, see Andrea Berta focus a bit on outgoings. When Mikel Arteta said in Singapore that we were short in terms of numbers, I was a bit confused. When you look at the official website now, we have a lot of players, some of whom have little chance of involvement for the season ahead. There are currently 27 players listed, and we can only name 25, and there might also be the need to make room for another addition.
It’s not all down to the new Sporting Director, in fairness. The players’ agents and representatives should be doing their bit too, but the Italian has garnered praise for what has been seen as a solidly efficient summer of incomings. If we do want to add one more to the squad though, that something a bit extra, generating a bit of revenue could make that more likely. We’ve spent close to £200m this summer, and brought in very little. I can’t say for sure that we must sell to buy again, but common sense tells you it’d be easier if we could offset some of the spending.
As an aside, it’s quite funny how quickly focus has shifted from striker to left-wing. For months, perhaps even longer, Arsenal signing a ‘9’ was seen as the missing piece of the puzzle. Now that we’ve got Viktor Gyokeres in, we’re still missing that piece – it’s just in a different position! We talked about this in some depth on the Arsecast yesterday, and it’s not an easy one.
What can we do get more out the players we already have? Would Gyokeres’ style, his direct running through those channels, have a positive impact on someone like Gabriel Martinelli, for example? Is there scope for Noni Madueke to give us something different on that side, due to the fact he’s left-footed and stylistically, at least, brings some qualities we don’t have in abundance?
Then, what can the market offer? Right now, there doesn’t seem to be one outstanding candidate. There’s no binary choice between Player X and Player Y as we saw in the Big Vik versus Big Ben situation. People continue to covet Rodrygo, but given how much he’d cost in terms of a fee and how much he’d want in wages, I don’t see that as even close to a sure thing. Which again brings us back to selling and bolstering the coffers.
To me it feels like this month will be all about how ready we are for an opportunity. The domino effect of other deals happening might well make a player available who isn’t right now. Most of what Arsenal have done this summer has been pretty strategic, adding depth and quality where we obviously need it. I’m 100% up for something different on the left, I think it is an area where we can improve, but quite what we do or who that player is, I just don’t know. Definitely one to keep an eye on, and I’m sure as the month progresses, the discourse around this position will become increasingly frenetic. Hold onto your hats.
Right, I’ll leave it there. For some extra reading, I did enjoy this Donald McRae interview with Neil Warnock. He was never my favourite, but there are some interesting bits about management, data influence over transfers, and Arsene Wenger.
Arsecast below, enjoy your Saturday folks.
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