I’m swimming, in a small bucket, with the same three transfer rumour crabs, and it feels like we’re never exiting. The only one that escaped was the one I least wanted.
The latest ‘progress’ is that Newcastle have leaked to their Telegraph ITK top dog that Arsenal have been misled by intermediaries on the deal, because actually, £50m is unlikely, and… they want £100m.
Well, they’re not getting £100m from anyone, are they? We have to take all of this with a grain of kosher sea salt. You know, the thick crunchy stuff they put on tomatoes in nice restaurants. Why? Because I’d be hard pressed to believe that a Sporting Director of Andrea Berta’s experience would be in a conversation with an agent nodding along with fantasy prices when he could just pick up the phone to the big dogs at Newcastle and ask what the price is. Also, not to pretend I am some big dog at valuations, but did anyone really feel good that Newcastle would let Bruno go for £50m? Not really a good price, is it?
Am I missing something? Does letting agents chum the water with nonsense make a club more likely to deal with you? I’m not in the game, so I don’t really get this. Intermediaries are there to help gauge interest from the player, to figure out the number, and feel out whether it’s worth having an official chat so the player can speak to the manager.
If we’re getting the agent to broker the fee, I fear we are lost… but again, this isn’t 2017, we’re a serious club now, so one would hope if Bruno is the target, we’d know the cost. I really wouldn’t want to see us acting the title-winning big bollocks by spending £100m on a player who is 29 this year. In the Premier League? Big dopey move.
The danger of milling around carefree while telling every player in Europe you are interested is that other clubs just nip in and buy them. Or worse, slink in and start the bidding war. I am pretty sure Arsenal could have picked up Eze for a cheaper deal last summer if we’d moved early, vs going for a late gazump when Spurs had all but agreed terms with the player. If we’d moved in May, my hunch is Spurs wouldn’t have even bid.
The other byproduct of messing around is the second-order consequences. Spurs just lost their minds and spent £100m on Tonali. That means Newcastle aren’t worried about financial fair play like they were, and one suspects they are more than willing to play hardball on Bruno because now they have leverage.
The final benefit of not playing the ‘let’s tell everyone they’re sexy’ game is that if you just make your moves early, everyone can be there for pre-season and there are no mad surprises. There is nothing that gums up a season worse than late-arriving BIG signings.
Oh, one more benefit of moving early… You don’t have to watch Newcastle lose out on a centre midfielder they really like to Aston Villa, thus reducing the chances of letting Bruno go easily.
We should forgive Arsenal for their transfer tardiness, not sure many teams, outside the mad spenders have made moves that have changed the game. Even Elliot Anderson's spending doesn’t really have me worried - good player, but not sure that’s quite doing what Declan did for Arsenal. Did you see Haaland scoffing at his fee after being pushed in the England game? Very amusing.
Still, we must be patient. Plenty of movement will happen this summer. We also have to remember that not many players can improve us… which is why our first signing was a carefully thought-out move to bring in Leeds ' third-choice keeper, who they let leave on a free because no one would buy him. Sorry, I’m still not over it.
Julián, Bradley, Morgan, even Tzolis would heal the wounds. And deep wounds they are… because I am a weak-minded Arsenal fan with no patience for process.
Beşiktaş has agreed a deal with Trossard; he’ll be on a three-year deal, which was probably not on the table with Arsenal. Good luck to him, I wish him all the success. Will he be the first of many exits? Possibly. There are rumours that Norgaard has been attracting Saudi interest. A cool £89m transfer deal is being mooted, but really, I’d take the £12m we bought him for. Not a lot of news on other hot exit names… Martinelli hype is quiet. Nothing on Ben White. Nothing on Gyokeres or Kai Havertz.
I’m told Arsenal have to sell this summer… we’ve seen Berta can spend money, but can he break the duck of Sporting Director flops we’ve had when it comes to selling? We shall see… I literally don’t have the answers. But I swear down, if I see Reiss at pre-season give the thumbs up and get the news that ‘JESUS IS HAVING THE PRESEASON OF A LIFETIME ’, I’m going to be fuming.
Ok, that’s me done. Podcasts resume today. Hope you’re having a wonderful day. SEE YOU TOMORROW FELLOW FIENDS x