MONDAY ROUND-UP
Well team, I’m at that point in a footballer’s career where I’m having to lie about my age to get a new deal. The only Technical Director in the world willing to give me a three-year contract is Edu, and he’s been told to be on his best behaviour this summer. It’s a sad time in a man’s life when the only people your age in the professional game are in Serie A or China. Even sadder that every 3 weeks, someone I used to play football with tells me they blew their ankle out taking a panenka penalty at the park.
If you are young, bless those quick recovery legs you have, it won’t last, then all you’ll have is pickleball and fast walks around the park for exercise.
Still, with age, comes wisdom and better writing… so here we go.
Where are my damn signings?
The sluggish pace of this window is painful viewing BECAUSE I NEED INFORMATION TO SUSTAIN MY WORLD. The deal that sounds the closest is Sambi Lokonga. Apparently, the player wants a move to London, so the late interest from Sevilla and Atalanta means little. The final price looks like it’ll be around 20m euros. An absolute steal if he can do all the things he’s doing in Belgium over here.
I can’t work out exactly who he’s coming in for, because he’s such a blend of midfield disciplines. He moves the ball from deep like Granit, but he’s also nimble over short distances. Is he the upgraded Xhaka? Vision with an athletic profile? Or is he the replacement for Dani Ceballos, who could move the ball nicely, but had zero pace.
Who knows, but I like the idea behind him. It feels clever and I like being a fast-mover on talent.
The left-back back-up situation is all over the place. YOUNG > OLD > YOUNG > OLD. This week, we’re being linked with Holland starter, Patrick van Aanholt. He’s 30 years old, super solid, and surely interested in a last hurrah at a bigger club. This is a bit like the signing of Ryan Bertrand we all went to hell over. Is it a progressive move? No. But if you accept that your best left-back is 24 years old and likely to be a stalwart in that role over the duration of his 5-year deal, you probably don’t want cover that’s too ambitious… because how good would you have to be to displace Tierney?
This signing wouldn’t thrill on any level, but when did back-up left-back ever do that?
Duncan Castles is linking Arsenal to the signing of Andre Silva. The 25-year-old Portuguese striker was one of the most prolific marksmen in Europe last season. He scored 29 goals and dropped 10 assists for a Frankfurt that rocked to 5th last season. The story is that we’ll sell Lacazette to make room for him. Honestly, this would be a very, very weird signing to make. Sure, it makes sense, because we lack that sort of specimen in our forward line… but I’m struggling to see how this would map to a priority and I’m also wondering how you marry a big move like that with the reality that you spent £350k a week on Auba who is still our captain? You don’t sign 30 goal strikers to sit on the bench… I’m also not sure we re-signed Flo Balogun to be 93rd in the pecking order next season.
There are a number of Italian outlets pushing Aaron Ramsey our way. I love the player, I love the man, I could easily be swayed into believing he’s coming home to win the league with Arsenal… but the reality is we’ve been here before. Bringing players back to Arsenal almost never works. We know what his weakness is: He’s rarely fit. He’s dropping £300k a week over there, he’s managed 6 goals and 6 assists in 2 seasons at Juve, what would we be buying outside a nice feeling?
NEW KIT ALERT.
I’m on the struggle bus with this one. It doesn’t feel grounded in anything. Maybe it looks better on the players? But it feels like a weird deviation from where the kits have been and though I am always game for something new, it has to have some anchor in club. This feels like one that didn’t make it to the final cut for Ajax.
What do you think?
SEE YOU IN THE COMMENTS x