Morning!
Declan Rice will captain England tonight on the day of his 50th cap. Having played the full 90 minutes on Saturday, you would have thought Gareth Southgate would have given him the match off. Win his 50th cap another day.
Southgate has seen Bukayo Saka, Harry Kane, Harry Maguire, Kyle Walker and Sam Johnstone all withdraw through “injury”. You would have thought by now he would realise that if he wants his best players to be available, he should do deals with clubs and manage their playing time.
Jordan Pickford, John Stones, Rice, Phil Foden and Ollie Watkins all played the full 90 on Saturday. I wonder how many Southgate will pick tonight.
In terms of other Arsenal news, Ashley Cole was inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame yesterday.
I actually have no issue with Cole and what happened with Chelsea.
Yes, at the time I was fuming. He joined a direct rival and the stories about he nearly crashed his car after only being offered £55,000 a week felt crass. But as I grew up and matured, I realised Arsenal, and David Dein, were in the wrong.
Cole had agreed a £60,000 a week contract with the Arsenal hierarchy. He was happy to sign on the dotted line. Then when the offer came through it was for £55k a week. It was an underhand move by Dein, alienating a boyhood fan, academy graduate and future captain.
Whenever I see people saying “Arsenal would be in a much better position if Dein had remained involved in the club”, I think about the Cole situation and how his decision forced a potential Arsenal legend out of the club.
It was also Dein, remember, who encouraged other board members to sell their shares to Stan Kroenke, before he sold his own to Alisher Usmanov which created the ownership split and led to our decade long stagnation. It is not a surprise how far Arsenal have moved forward on and off the pitch since Kroenke became 100% owner.
I might never consider Ashley Cole an Arsenal legend, but he is our best ever left-back.
The big transfer rumour is that we are looking to “match Chelsea'” and bid £60m for Ousmane Diomande.
Whilst Diomande is clearly a bright young talent, I can not see us spending £60m on a central defender unless either Gabriel or William Saliba leave. This very much feels like a story inserted by an agent to generate interest in his client.
Likewise, I also can not see us triggering the £103m release clause for Diomande’s teammate Viktor Gyokeres.
£103m is a huge fee for someone who turns 26 soon, and has only had a decent 18 months in the Championship and 1 good season in Portugal.
I have issue paying top dollar for top players (as the Declan Rice deal proves). But this would be a huge chunk of our summer spending on someone who would not be guaranteed a start.
I expect us to spend around £160m this summer, depending on sales.
£27m is already committed to David Raya, and another £10-ish million will need to be spent on an Aaron Ramsdale replacement. That wil lleave us with around £130m left to make additional improvemnts.
We need a central midfielder and a striker. That is not up for debate. We also potentially need another winger.
Our first option is to buy a truly top striker that will be guaranteed to start ahead of Gabriel Jesus, and then Jesus is the back up striker and the cover to Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka. I do not feel Gyokeres is that man.
The alternative is to buy someone who can compete with Jesus, and potentially grow into a superstar in the future. To further add to the squad, we then go out and buy another winger so that Jesus can continue to be utilised primarily up top.
Whilst Gyokeres could be this “alternative option to Jesus”, his proposed transfer fee would mean we would then not have enough in the pot to buy another winger.
If we are spending around £130m, I would rather Arsenal trigger the release clauses of Benjamin Sesko, Nico Williams and Martin Zubimendi (total – £138m), then spend £103m on Gyokeres and only have £30m left to try and recruit a midfielder.
Remember to grab your Bayern Munich tickets if you have not already done so!
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 