KEEPER FINALLY MOVES
JOAN GARCIA MAKES THE MOVE... TO CITY?
People, you gotta give me a few days to settle into summer transfer mode. I’ve been sitting on a Season Long Airways for 24 hours—now I need a lie down to find my bearings.
The women won the Champions League, which was magnificent. Watching them run rummage in The Tollington and have a damn fine time has been fun. Win the dog has absolutely no idea what’s going on in those celebration photos, but it looked iconic. What an incredible party the women had. I hope the men take note—it could be them if they get their act together next season.
The rumor mills are starting to fire up, though one player who looks likely to be heading to another club is Joan Garcia. I feel like we’ve been chatting this keeper up for three hours, bought house champagne and scampi fries to keep him happy, then we’ve popped off to the little boys’ room for, like, six seconds—and Man City have steamrollered in and snapped him up.
Do I care? No. Should we be putting a fee in for a backup keeper that was similar to the Raya fee? Also no. But… it does tell you something about getting deals done and doing them fast.
We are slow dealers. My hope is we missed out because we have a top-three keeper in the world. But… that’s a warning to everyone at the club. Don’t flap around—because there are much bigger dinosaurs lurking in the bushes, and they will eat given the chance.
Still, one deal that has been done early is the Zubimendi deal. The Spaniard has the second-most vertical passes in La Liga currently—not bad when you play for Sociedad. I am very much looking forward to seeing how he could open up our play next season. Let’s see if that wild fitness record he has can be preserved.
The story doing the rounds at the moment is from Gunnerblog, about Šeško being earmarked as a future best striker in the world. I’ve heard similar things about him… but the big question is whether Arteta’s push to bring in Berta was really about breaking the model that got us to where we are now.
Arteta wants to win the Champions League and Premier League now—he doesn’t want to be dealing in project players for the rest of his life.
I’m just not sure I like this approach for a striker when the alternative isn’t Alexander Isak.
I don’t want a player the analysts around Europe think could be the best striker in the world… especially when that player is in Portugal. It feels a little off to me. If you’re telling me to stick with Šeško because you want Alex Isak—a guy doing bits in the Premier League every week—then I’m with you. But spending the exact same amount on a player five years and four days younger, from a league that has deeper trust issues than Rebecca Vardy in a group chat… well, call me skeptical.
It reminds me of that period after Spurs made the Champions League final and decided to bin everything they were doing to "get it over the line"… and hired Mourinho.
When a system you’ve had in place for five years has taken you from 8th to 2nd… is the reason you’re not winning trophies the system? Probably not. The reason we failed last summer seems more about a weak budget handed down by ownership and misguided priorities on how to spend a smaller budget—driven by Arteta.
Maybe ownership has been persuaded to roll the dice on glory and say fuck it to the sustainable model they’ve been building. Maybe it’ll work. I just don’t like that we’re moving away from something that does work—and the risk we might take is still a massive gamble.
But there we go, that’s just me.
I’m also not saying Gyökeres will be a flop. I’m just saying that signing someone from that league scares me—and it feels quite weird to target a phase-five nine that doesn’t score many headers.
He’s banged in a lot of goals—so many that the league worries might not matter. I just get queasy about what we’ve bought into… because the skillset we’re bragging about is more vibes than I’m comfortable with.
Ok, I’m gonna stop talking now and take a beat to get my transfer beats perfectly on time.
On that note, I’ll bid you farewell. Me and Matt will be recording a members' podcast later this evening.
Speak soon. x
You know I was reading some comments the other day. Standard stuff. A couple of guys bashing Havertz and Rap justifying his attributes. And I think I understand the conflict. I feel the fact that this conflict exists is entirely due to Tets.
We acquired Kai Kavertz in the summer of 2023, the same summer when Xhaka departed. Xhaka leaving the club was well known. He hadn’t extended his contract and it was kind of public knowledge that we would be leaving the club. Thus the fan base was fairly confident, that given our serious lack of quality in midfield (TP - injury prone, Jorg - old, Sambi & Elneny - shit), we would be bolstering our midfield. In this environment, we bought it, for a club record fee of £65m and club record wages of £280k, Kai Havertz.
See when you acquire someone for your highest ever trasnfer fees and your highest ever wages, the fan base would naturally assume you’ve bought in someone of superb quality. They would assume the management has very specific and clear plans about their usage and how this club record transfer would add value to the team. But the signing of Kai Havertz did not provide the fan base with either of these things. He was coming off a wretched season from Chelsea. And there was very blatant confusion on whether he would be our 8, our 10 or 9. The fact that he started the season as an 8, spent a game that year for his national team as a LB and ended the season as a 9, clearly highlighted that the management team responsible for acquiring Kai Havertz, was equally unsure about his best case. And I feel that reeks of sloppiness. You don’t spend record fees and record wages when you don’t know how the player in question will be adding value to your team.
Kai Havertz is a wonderful footballer. He is a great enabler. But the club paid world class money and the fan base naturally developed expectations that for this, they will be getting a prime protagonist. Not just an enabler. Who would sometimes be an 8 and sometimes be a 9 and sometimes be a 10. Kai would really bang in a system if we manage to get Saka levels of quality on our left and our 10. But we often say the same about Ode, that he would bang with a world class 9.
I genuinely like Havertz. I think he’s a higher output player than Ode. But I understand the confusion and mistrust some of the fanbase l have for him.
I think beyond Kai Havertz, this sense of confusion when it comes to acquiring talent is very much an Arteta and Edu thing. We acquired Rice, now for a world record transfer fees, and have spent the better part of two seasons trying to understand whether he’s a 6 or an 8. We bought Merino for £32m - he has played as a 6, 8 and 9. Calafiori for £34m and we don’t know whether he’s LCB or LB.
Honestly, I think Arteta needs to get his galaxy brain head out of his Spanish arse. And the C-suite needs to have clear directions, demands and accountability from this manager, the next time they open their cheque book. This summer, the expectation is that there will be a serious outlay. Let’s get a striker, who is a striker. Not someone who is a part time stripper.
Henry says the truth. This is why Arsenal will never hire him in any capacity. He does not sugar coat anything. Its nothing new what he is saying, but the fact "he" is saying it magnifies the issues even more. Its a good thing. Killing hamstrings, not getting a striker is all on the club and Mikel. Just look at how Slot managed Pool without major injuries. The level of training needs to come down, more rest is needed for the players. You dont get much gain with training like the fucking military