Eddie Nketiah
We start off with some non-Eddie Nketiah news, but still related to his transfer to Marseille.
The French team were closing in on a deal with Borussia Dortmund’s Youssofa Moukoko, however the deal is on the verge of collapsing.
Marseille are reportedly prepared to walk away from the deal after being unable to agree a price with Dortmund. It i not too dissimilar to what happened with Nketiah.
Earlier this week, we reportedly turned down a £20m offer from Marseille for Nketiah. Our lowest asking price was £30m. This resulted in Marseille walking away from the deal and Edu getting criticism from some Arsenal fans for the deal falling through.
What the Moukoko deal has shown is that Marseille are not willing to negotiate for players. They will make an offer, and if a selling club do not agree to the offer they will walk away. They will struggle to sign any of their primary targets with this attitude.
I did find it laughable that Edu got criticized for the deal.
We moan about underselling players, for letting players leave to cheap, and then moan that we have not sold a player on the cheap – we are now in a world when Dominic Solanke has gone for £65m after one decent season in his 10-year career.
Now I am not saying that Nketiah should be going for what Solanke has gone for, but consider this:
Solanke – 27 years old – 29 Premier League goals in 134 games
Nketiah – 25 years old – 19 Premier League goals in 116 games
I feel we are justified in our Nketiah asking price considering what other player shave gone for.
And the same fans who are demanding that we undersell a player, whilst also moaning we undersell players, are also those that demanding we just “pay the asking price” for Declan Rice.
In their mind, it is only Arsenal that are not allowed negotiate. We must pay the asking price when buying a player, and we must accept the first offer when selling.
I dread to think how some of these people will react when they come to buying their first car or house…
And the ultimate irony is we may well be able to get even more than the £25m was asked for from Marseille if Bournemouth become desperate and look to splash the Solanke cash on someone who is not to different in terms of playing style and quality.
Rodrygo
Yesterday we were linked with Real Madrid forward Rodrygo. The Brazilian was also linked with Liverpool and Manchester City.
I think what is obvious is, following the signing of Kylian Mbappe and Endrick, Real Madrid have informed Rodrygo’s representatives that he can leave if they find a buyer.
The result is Rodrygo is being pimped around Europe, with his agents leaking links to every top club in the hope of generating interest.
I am not a fan of Rodrygo.
He is not physical enough to play upfront in the Premier League, and he is not better than any of our current wingers. At a reported £94m, he is massively overpriced and at best would be a squad player.
Wojciech Szczesny
Juventus and Wojciech Szczesny have reportedly reached a mutual agreement to terminate the ex-Arsenal mans contract with immediate effect.
Earlier this summer, we were linked with our form academy keeper.
At the time, it would have been likely that Arsenal were put off by Szczesny’s wage demands. He would have been asking for his Juventus money to be covered by any new club as a minimum to accept a move.
As part of the mutual termination, Szczesny is now inline for an “important pay-out fee” according to Fabrizio Romano. This could result in his wage demands being much lower than they were this summer.
We obviously still need get rid of Aaron Ramsdale. I can see the Englishmen heading out to Ajax on loan, with the Dutch outfit paying £5-6m in loan fee and covering his wages. Then in comes Szczesny on similar money as Ramsdale on a 2-year deal, happy to play second fiddle to David Raya.
In a years time, Ramsdale will still have 2-years left on his contract and, if he returns to form for Ajax, Arsenal cold expect to demand £30m+ again for him.
Mikel Merino and Martin Zubimendi
It always felt like in Mikel Merino that we were getting 2nd prize in the beauty contest.
Martin Zubimendi is the better player, but I could accept us moving for Merino as an alternative option if a deal could not be done.
I was therefore a bit disheartened earlier this week when it broke that Liverpool were in for Zubimendi. That doom was lifted when it was announced that he had decided to stay at Real Sociedad.
Clearly some months ago we had enquired about Zubimendi and got the message “he is not interested in leaving, but how about Merino?”. Liverpool, meanwhile, clearly ignored the message and this week made their pursuit public. And they have been publicly turned down.
A expect a deal for Merino to be completed shortly. Meanwhile Liverpool are stil lyet to sign a player of any note.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 