hello everyone.
There’s no Euro 2024 to write about and little real news on Arsenal, but let’s see what pieces we can dig up.
Declan Rice is reportedly not training with the main group ahead of Sunday’s round of 16 clash with Slovakia, but is instead training according to an individual program to manage his workload. It’s yet to be seen how far England will go in this tournament, but hopefully he and Bukayo Saka will have invested in new technology once the tournament is over so they can go on a six-week holiday in just two weeks. Something like a microwave vacation.
Pre-season work has already begun for some players, with Ben White, Reiss Nelson, Fabio Vieira, Eddie Nketiah, Jurrien Timber and Emile Smith Rowe having been summoned to Marbella by Mikel Arteta for fitness training. Other players, including Martin Odegaard, are expected to join in the coming days and preparations for next season are in full swing.
Speaking of Smith Rowe, who I briefly mentioned on the new Arsecast (now available on all the usual podcasting sites), Sky Sports are linking him to Fulham and Crystal Palace. I’ve been on record many times about how much I like him as a player, but I don’t think we can ignore the reality of his situation. He could stay at Arsenal, but how much would he play? Not much, unless there’s an injury crisis, as he showed last season.
I think he, Eddie and Nelson all have to make decisions about their futures and careers. Even though the fans may see them as ‘expendable’, and Arsenal may see them as pure profit sales in the PSR era because they are academy graduates, each of them has to seriously consider what is best for them. Arsenal is a great place to be at the moment, especially if you grew up a Gooner. There’s a great manager, great players, a great atmosphere and connection with the fans, and good money, but footballers are supposed to play, not sit around enjoying the atmosphere like a spa or a showroom. I’m really interested to see what happens with these players and hope they continue to do well even when they leave. So let’s see what happens over the summer.
I saw that we were linked with a goalkeeper named Joan Garcia who is currently playing for Espanyol. I know very little about him, but one of the important measures of any new goalkeeper we bring in is how competent they are with the ball. There isn’t much data about it. FbrefPerhaps because Espanyol is currently in the Spanish second division. However, he seems to match up quite well with David Raya in terms of completing long/medium/short passes. I don’t know much more than that, but Ignaki Kana’s recommendations have been a bit weird while he’s been here, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
One of the rumors about the midfield is Real Sociedad’s Mikel Merino, a player with Premier League experience after a spell at Newcastle early in his career. He’s 28 years old (he turns 29 next year, but until then he’ll remain 28, because that’s how it goes), so he’s not exactly in the age range of the players they’re signing these days, but I looked at these stats and immediately noticed why Mikel Arteta might be interested. Yes. In the 2023-24 season, Merino won 326 possession duels, the most in Europe’s top leagues.
You can imagine Arteta sitting in his office, watching Merino win tackles and aerial balls with his homosexuals, then calling Edu and saying: “Bring him to me.” That would also make some sense. He’s a pretty big boy (6’2) so he’s another set-piece threat, and if talks about Saudi interest in Thomas Partey come to fruition (fingers crossed) he could fit well into that role. Declan Rice will likely be used more in the future.
Conversely, Albert Sambi Lokonga has been linked with a loan move to Sevilla again, which would be good for him, but Arsenal are likely to prefer a sale. Perhaps a binding deal could be part of the deal, and it’s understandable that the illusive Bayern Munich link (due to his past relationship with Vincent Kompany) has been removed.
okay. That’s your thing this morning. As I said, there is a new Arsecast below. There will be more here tomorrow.
