THREE STEP SUMMER TRANSFER PLAN

WEEKEND THOUGHTS FOR YOU. X

It's Saturday.

Not one transfer at Arsenal.

I am… FURIOUS.

Just kidding, I'm not furious… I'm anxious. I can't stop looking at twitter.com. Where is David Ornstein to soothe me with some exciting tidbits?

Nowhere.

I now have abandonment issues.

This is a terrible week.

Or is it?

It might not be. It might be a very positive week that might be giving us clues to the balance of the summer.

Let's be honest, even if there aren't clues, I'm stuck writing 800 words to you right now, so I'm going to piece something together to help you grapple with what you're seeing.

Contracts are the most important order of business

As they say in the midwest, 'ain't no point building a roof, if you can't keep your bricks in order.'

Truly, they don't say that. I made it up to sound quaint. Regardless, the point holds true. This Arsenal project has taken a long time to build. The foundations of the house are strong, the last thing we need is someone knocking through our walls. The biggest job this summer is tying our talent down to 2030 so we can have an unencumbered run at the big trophies with our young players committed for at least three years before we have to consider a painful sale.

Big Gabs looks like the first one to give in to the charms of North London. The big leakers are saying he's staying on until 2030. That's monstrous. He is, without doubt, our de facto defensive leader, and our best defender by a margin.

Sheath your swords, Saliba Ultras. The Frenchman hasn't been able to hold a candle to his beastly Brazilian partner and that is absolutely fine. Those two together are perfect, they are mostly fit, they have great chemistry, they have yin to yang strengths and weaknesses… and they are the best central defensive pairing in world football right now.

I'm expecting new deals for Saliba, Saka, and Thomas Partey. MLS and Ethan will sign bumper new deals, the video for that has already been shot, they'll go out as a pair which will be a nice touch. Then we'll be locked.

Data is king…

The work that young group of analysts and recruitment folk have done behind the scenes seems to be the direction the club is velocitating towards (is that a word?). Who knows where the deals will land, but my understanding of both Gyokeres AND Sesko is those deals can be done very fast. Sporting and Leipzig want the money, they have agreements with the players, so there will be no holdup if the price is met. I really, really, really hope that we sign Sesko.

I've seen a lot of 'he's not the finished product' commentary doing the rounds… and yes, this is true, he's 21. No 21 year old is the finished product. But, if we're completely honest, there's no finished product out there in our orbit of get-ability unless we 1) Want to drop £150m on Alex Isak which is way, way, way out of our price range (noting that Hirst is commanding £130m) 2) We go for a player like Watkins who is very good, but in his prime, and at that age where things can crash physically VERY fast.

I saw this crazy video earlier where a young woman who is a Leipzig follower basically said 'we shouldn't go near this guy. Yes, he's tall. Yes, he's a physical beast. Yes he's clinical, but…'

No buts my friend, that's what we want. I want Arsenal to grow the next Isak, because we can't afford him if we want to fill seven slots this summer.

I can't say I'm a religious watcher of the player, but I have tracked him on here since he was at Salzburg. The first game I really paid attention to was Leipzig vs Madrid last year. He didn't score, but he absolutely terrorized them at their place for 90 minutes. It was incredible to watch. If we can channel his energy and complete him with Arteta's coaching, my word, we'll have a machine on our hands.

Zubimendi is also another good job from the data guys. Kind of feel it's like that meme where people say 'Liverpool unearth gem no one knew about from Brighton.' The whole of Europe knew about this #6, but all that matters is we got the deal done.

I'm VERY interested to see what we do from a winger perspective. Some in the know are suggesting we might not add anyone. I would be VERY surprised if Arteta looks at that left hand side and thinks what has happened there this season is satisfactory. It would be NEGLECT to not bring in someone with power, pace, bang BANG, and deep block unlocking talents at Ocean's Eleven levels. Trossard and Martinelli blow more hot and cold than MARVEL. I need Premier League spicy sauce… like Semenyo… or I need the big dog, Rodrygo from Madrid. We need to be dropping pound NOTES here. No reason to caps NOTES there, just need you to know I'm excited writing this.

Veterans Summer Moves

After my Pedro-Sporting-Director-clear-out of the squad this summer, we have 16 squad places filled. That leaves 9 gaps. My unbusinesslike view here is we need to go into the season with TOO MANY PLAYERS vs trying to nickel and dime our squad and leaving gaps that always get exposed.

That means Andrea Berta is going to have to do something he's very good at… signing golden oldies. Arteta also loved the old boys in his squad before he was brutally assaulted by the aura of Willian. I love the sustainable model we've had at Arsenal, but also wouldn't be totally against some hardened veterans that could add some quality for Champions League games and the rough bottom half of the table games. Would Andrea Berta have let Asensio slip through the net in January? I doubt it. He was offered to Arsenal. We passed. That was probably a mistake.

We've been linked heavily with Leroy Sané. The idea of another veteran City winger in our system makes me want to puke, but I don't dismiss the need to have experienced game changers in the mix. We don't have a KDB coming off the bench… or a Dennis Bergkamp-like figure. Old guys have got a bad rep on this very blog, but maybe if we're shipping out Jorginho, we could indulge a couple?

Loan Moves

This section is a total trick… because the one thing we've not spoken about at all this year is how incredibly poor our loan approach was last year. We had all summer to stock our squad, we botched it, then panic moved on a back-up keeper, and a winger with less spice than a pot of spam.

Loan moves are get-out-of-jail cards. You do NOT pull them in the summer transfer window. You keep them in the pocket with the dry powder and you use them if things are looking ropey in January.

NOT LOANS.

Ok, that takes me to the end of the podcast. If you want the Latte Firm x Le Grove crossover podcast I recorded with FK, that'll be in your normal podcast feeds. If you want access to Jacob Hawley and the latest therapy session, then you'll have to become a member for access… and just to note. Johnny Cochrane is dropping his end-of-season, very special, SEASON RATINGS podcast. Should be phenomenal. x