Saturday 14 January: After weeks of a very noisy, public pursuit of Mykhailo Mudryk, it is announced is set to join Chelsea.
Thursday 19 January (mid morning): Arsenal linked with Leandro Trossard. Thursday 19 January (late afternoon): Deal for Trossard agreed.
Friday 20 January: Arsenal agree deal for Jakub Kiwior with zero speculation.
Moral of the story: Do not panic, ignore the noise, and let Edu and his team get what is needed done.
I hate public pursuits of players.
A play of mine always says “if there is a lot of noise about, it probably means Arsenal will not sign the player”, and usually that is true.
Arsenal work quietly. Most buying clubs do.
The noise usually comes from the selling club who want to make details of the offers public in the hope of generating interest elsewhere. Or from agents who publically link their player to a club (who often have minimal interest) in an attempt to get their potential availability in the paper.
Mudryk is a good example of why we should ignore the noise.
Details of the deal were being continually leaked from the Ukranian clubs side. Senior members of the clubs hierachy, including chief executive Sergei Palkin, were informing every media outlet that would listen details of the deal. Palkin would appear a few times on Sky Sports News to share updates on the deal with Arsenal.
It was all very unprofessional, unsavory, and dragged out negotiations.
The aim of Shakhtar was to drive up the price. Increase what Arsenal were offering. Or encourage another team to swoop in and pay them what they wanted.
And they will argue their tactics worked as Chelsea paid them a crazy amount for a lad who has not even played 30 league games for them.
Arsenal, and Edu, kept their counsel. Kept their composure. And silently began working on Plan B.
The first we heard of Arsenal being in for Trossard was when it broke that we were in “advanced talks” with Brighton.
So advanced were the talks that everything had basically been agreed. It was only the t’s that needed crossing and the i’s dotted. Less than 24 hours after the first report, Trossard was in London Colney completing a medical.
And just as we were all waiting for that deal to be confirmed, another deal was dropped. Jakub Kiwior.
Now I know nothing about the Polish central defender. I doubt anyone reading this had ever heard of him.
No media outlet linked us to him. No Twitter ITK had mentioned him. Nothing. Arsenal got the deal done in silence.
And that is how it should be done. How we like to operate.
In future, when the selling side are making as much noise as Shakhtar did with Mudryk, we should probably just walk away earlier.
Silence worries some fans.
They think that if there is no news about Arsenal signing anyone, then we are not working on any deals. But transfer speculation has long been a key revenue stream for media outlets. and pretending to be ITK is a way sad indivuals build a Twitter following.
In an ideal world, everything would happen behind closed doors, and be kept that way until the deal was announced. But that is not in the interest of many parties.
And we now have journalists on the payroll of clubs and agents. Getting kick backs to link assets to sides, or leak details of the deal. All with the aim of increasing the price. They are useful idiots.
Some will criticise the way we conduct our transfer business, usually on YouTube channels. To generate hits earn that $1 per 1,000 views to pay their bedsit rent. They just add to the noise and thrive off criticism.
The Trossard and Kiwior deals show why it is important to ignore the noise. To not cry when a noisy deal “takes a long time only to fall threw”. And to just trust those running the club.
Now I’m not one to get carried away with optimism where Arsenal are concerned. During the Brighton game when we went 4-1 up I allowed myself a brief thought that we might win the league this season, only for the last 25 minutes of the game to bring me back to my senses. But all of a sudden I am now believing that this season we could actually do it, and the way in which Tottenham were swatted aside in the first half on Sunday was the final thing I needed to convince me.
In terms of a footballing weekend it couldn’t have gone much better for The Arsenal. I’d have probably preferred a draw in the game at Old Trafford, but probably better a United win than City (and I say that in the full knowledge that United could be the ones closest to us come Sunday night), and Newcastle dropping points would have made it absolutely perfect. Liverpool losing, and Spurs on the receiving end from Arsenal, should mean we can concentrate on actually winning the Title instead of looking over our shoulders at 5th place. If Arsenal blow the top 4 positions (about which I care not one bit) then there’ll have only themselves to blame.
I’m not the first to say it, but there is a real feeling of togetherness about Arsenal right now, and I don’t just mean the players. Arteta has tapped in to what makes us all tick. He’s understood the “Arsenal against the World” mentality that had always been our way until the last 10-15 years of relative mediocrity – I use the word “relatively” as we’ve still been in the business of winning trophies during that time, something others can only dream of. I’m in my mid-40’s this year, and that makes me old enough to remember the way George Graham positively engineered situations that fed inspiration to his teams via the media hatred of our club. The recent joke FA charges against the club are exactly the sort of thing George put to good use, famously after the Old Trafford brawl in 1990. Arteta seems of a similar ilk, and has even cleared the squad of overpaid underachievers as George did back in the late 1980’s, bringing in young and hungry and heavily talented footballers.
Sunday actually started as a very sad day for us Dover Gooners as we got the news that one of our founder members, Bill Browning, had sadly passed away. Bill had phoned me just before Christmas to congratulate me on a piece I wrote on this here website last March about my Dad, and I’m delighted to have that one last memory and one last chat with him. Bill was a great friend to all of us over the last 30+ years, and we travelled all over watching Arsenal as a group of family and friends. He’s been missed the past few years as his health got the better of him, and it’s with a heavy heart that I pay tribute to a dear old friend here. I like to think that what Arsenal did at Tottenham on Sunday was for Bill, and that him, Frank and John (who’ve also left us in recent years) had a few beers at the great pub in the sky on Sunday night to celebrate. Let’s hope we’re celebrating with them come May. With the way this team is playing, if they can have a little luck with injuries, and not get shafted by the authorities, I believe we just might do it.
Since he took for control of operations, he has not really put a foot wrong.
The Brazilian did an excellent job over 18 months dumping the old egos and replacing them with young, hungry, talented footballers. We are top of the league as a result.
Around Wednesday lunch, the media suggested that we were interested. By 4pm Thursday it had been announced had been agreed.
It came out of nowhere and was completed quickly. Edu had a back-up plan.
On a side note, this deal shows we can complete deals quickly. All transfer take a different amount of time, a different ammount of negotiating. Some will take weeks and break down. Others will happen within 24 hours. Often it depends how far about on valuations the two parties are, and whether there is a “transfer chain”. It is a bit like buying a house.
Long-term readers of our blog will know I am not a fan buying a player for the sake of it.
You go too far down the list and you end up spending a lot of money on someone you do not really want. Within 6 months you are looking to replace them, but they are on a 5-year deal. Think Lucas Perez.
So is Trossard a Perfect Plan B or a Panic B that we will come to regret?
Some have argued for an out and out striker (Ivan Toney-type), then there was the out and out winger (Mikhaylo Mudryk) and finally there was the hybrid – someone whocould cover both flanls and also do a job upfront behind Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah.
Trossard is the hybrid option.
Predominately a left winger, he has recently been playing through the middle for Brighton. Trossard has also played behind the striker and wide right.
He covers a lot of positions and also gives Mikel Arteta a few different attacking options when coming off the bench – including providing an extra central attacking midfield option.
Back up dancer
I think we can’t underestimate how the progress of Gabriel Martinelli has changed our transfer plans.
Last summer, many of us spoke about us “signing a top class left winger” who would come in ahead of the young Brazilian.
Martinelli’s form in the first half of the season saw him force his way into the Brazil World Cup squad, selected alongside the likes of Neymar, Vinicius Jr and Gabriel Jesus, as well as Richarlison, Antony and Raphinha.
Four of those on the list joined new clubs in the summer for fees ranging from £45m to £100m.
Just 21 and with 7 Premier League goals in 18, how much would he go for in the current market? £50m+? He has become the superstar left winger we wanted in the summer.
That means that the incoming midfielder could be someone who could cover Martinelli rather than replace him. And that needed to be reflected in the price.
Mudryk at £70m+ always made me feel uncomfortable. He would not walk into the team ahead of Martinelli and was therefore a big price for a back up player.
Trossard is much more reasonably priced.
Good fee
£21million rising to £26m looks a good deal when compared to what Chelsea have recently paid for players.
They are paying £29m on Noni Madueke. – 20-year-old Englishman from PSV who has started just two league games this season for the Dutch outfit.
Tottenham paid £50m for Richarlison; the Brazilian does a similar job at Tottenham (cover in all 3 attacking position) as Trossard will do for Arsenal.
£21m for a squad player with his experience fees reasonable.
And a good contract
One worry I had when it was announced was how much we were tying up in wages and contract length.
4 and a half years would have been a big deal to give someone who is 28-years-old. It would have given us very little wiggle room if we wanted to upgrade on him in 18 months time.
The 3 and a half year contract feels more comfortable.
Wages have still not come out, but a 3 and a half year deal will mean we are not investing too much into him. He is, afterall, a back up player. No need to give him a 7 and a half year deal!
Premier League experience
We are in a title race.
Mudryk would unlikely have made an instant impact. It is going to take him time to settle into a new country, playing for a new team in a new league.
Trossard has played 122 times for Brighton in England. He knows the league.
Brighton – especially under Graham Potter – play a primarily possession based game. It will not be too hard for him to transition from Brighton to Arsenal.
One of the big reasons I wanted Wilfried Zaha was because he could make an instant impact. Trossard will hopefully do just that.
Trossard is expected to be on the bench against Manchester United tomorrow.
The Belgian is also capable of a high press. He is 4th in the Premier League for winning posession in the final 3rd. That makes him both an attacking and defensive substitution.
Panic Buy
One good spell
Trossard’s stats since joining Brighton have not exactly screamed “top class player”.
18 goals in 100 Premier League games before this season did not exactly lead to too many rivals knocking on the door last summer.
This season he has scored 7 in 16 – although 3 of those came in a single game. 4 in the other 15.
That form and his contract situation led to some clubs taking an interest in January.
He has also not performed particularly great for Belgium. Is he just an average player who has had a good spell?
Attitude problem
And that good spell led to issues within Brighton which could highlight an attitude problem.
Since the World Cup, he has gone missing for his club – reportedly walking off the training pitch claiming he was injured, and later storming out of the training ground when not selected to play.
This behaviour led to a war of words between Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi and Trossard’s agent which resulted in him beind dropped for disciplinary reasons.
“Leandro isn’t in the list of players for tomorrow,” De Zerbi said before the Liverpool game
“He left the session without saying anything to me. And it’s not good. I spoke with him and I explained this attitude, this behavior, I don’t like.”
It all pointed to a player who was trying to make his position at the club untenable and trying to force through a move in January – at the time probably to Tottenham!
Brighton had a year long extension. Had they triggered it they could have kept Trossard until the summer and then cashed in on him. But Trossard’s behaviour basically made him unselectable and forced Brighton’s hand.
He does not have a documented history of issues, and has previously worked with AirPod Albert when at Genk.
His behaviour in the last few months is a concern. Especially with our squad so united.
Saying that, Mikel Arteta has often spoken about players needing the right attitude, and surely would not have sanction a move if he was worried.
Not the superstar
Trossard is not the superstar we perhaps wanted.
When we were linked with Joao Felix and Mudryk, it does feel we have dropped down a few levels to sign Trossard.
How many players were between Mudryk (who was clearly top of the list) and Trossard?
In the last month we have been linked with Mudryk, Felix and, more recently, Moussa Diaby.
How many other players did we enquire about whilst negotiating for Mudryk before we got to Trossard? We may never know.
He might have been 3rd or 4th on the list. He might have been 10th.
There is always some trepidation when we miss out on a first choice target.
But then again, we walked away from Dusan Vlahovic, Lisandro Martínez and Emi Buendia and signed Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Martin Odegaard.
When Edu does have a Plan B, it always seems to be someone of quality and not a panic buy.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 