Tavares, Lokonga, Locatelli and More

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A deal has been reached to sign Nuno Tavares from Benfica.

Depending on which journalist you believe, the fee is between £6million and £9million.

Tavares will become Mikel Arteta’s first signing of the summer and will provide the first choice cover to Kieran Tierney at left back. His signing will hopefully be the first of many this summer.

We are also still heavily linked with Anderlecht midfielder Albert Sambi Lokonga.

Arsenal will be looking to add 2 central midfielders to the squad alongside Thomas Partey and Mo Elneny.

Lokonga’s signing goes into the “one for the future” box.

We should not expect the 21-year-old to go straight into the first team – he would more likely be the like for like cover for Partey.

That would leave Arsenal still in the market for a starting midfielder.

We have been linked with Brighton’s Yves Bissouma for a few months, but that trial seems to have gone cold.

In recent hours (literally) news has broken of an apparent bid for Sassuolo’s Manuel Locatelli.

The Italian midfielder is a fantastic player and would become not only Arsenal’s best midfielder but one of the best in the Premier League. But I am sceptical about the links.

News of the bid has come from Sassuolo’s Chief Executive Giovanni Carnevali.

A deal for Locatelli to Juventus looked pretty much done last week. Carnevali releasing the news that Arsenal had “bid” feels more like him trying to get the hurry up from Juventus ahead of meeting next week with them over the transfer.

By releasing the Arsenal bid – whether true or not – it makes it clear to Juventus that there are other parties interested and they had better hurry up and meet Sassuolo’s demands or risk missing out on the transfer.

And to throw another spanner in the works Juventus were linked to Granit Xhaka yesterday.

I hope I am wrong as Locatelli would be a fantastic signing.

Finally Ainsley Maitland-Niles flipped his car on the M25 yesterday morning.

If rumours are true, the incident will probably spell an end to his Arsenal career.

Keenos

Arsenal showing transfer policy shift with Taveres and Lokonga pursuit

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In recent years, Arsenal have wasted a lot of money on ageing former stars whose best days are behind them.

Stephan Lichtsteiner, Willian and David Luiz are the names that first spring to mind. Old players reaching the end of their career signed to plug a gap in the squad. But the policy of signing older players did not stop with free transfers.

Arsenal also signed the likes of Sokratis (30 years old when signing), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (29) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (29).

Signing players in their late 20s creates two issues for the future:

1) They are usually close to, our over the hill; meaning you end up with a highly paid player who is on the decline and are unable to sell them as no one else will match the wages

2) And if you can move them on, the transfer fee is usually minuscule meaning that you are basically “writing off” their original transfer fee knowing you will not get much back.

Of the 6 players above, only 2 (Willian and Aubameyang) are still at the club. None of the 4 who left generated a transfer fee.

It is short term fixes and, bar Aubameyang, none of them have really worked out.

So it is fresh to see Arsenal chasing the likes of Albert Sambi Lokonga and Nuno Tavares.

Lokonga is a 21-year-old Belgium central midfielder currently playing for Anderlecht. He is an all action midfielder that will add more pace and power into the middle of the park.

Also just 21 is Portuguese left back Tavares. If Arsenal get the deal across the line he will provide the cover for Kieran Tierney.

In years gone past, Arsenal would have gone for Ryan Bertrand or Patrick van Aanholt.

Whilst both would have been solid additions as free transfers to back up Tierney, old and cheap would have had a lot of fans think “here we go again”.

The advantage of signings the likes of Taveres and Lokonga is sell on value.

Both players will be tied down to 5-year deals. If they progress and fulfil their talent, Arsenal will look to make a huge profit on the pair financing further signings somewhere down the line.

If they do not quite reach the highest level, Arsenal would still look to make a profit on the pair in 2 or 3 or 4 years time.

Sell on value is so important to keep your squad fresh.

The pursuit of Brighton’s Ben White and Yves Bissouma is also exciting.

Whilst both are a little older – White 23 & Bissouma 24 – the pair still have youth on their side.

I have always thought that the likes of Arsenal, Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, etc operate best when buying players 24 & under. Recruiting the “next big thing” rather than just buying “ready made, off the shelf”.

Our transfer policy got a little lost post 2014 with the recruitment of Petr Cech.

And whilst the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil were fantastic signings, both were huge investments which we knew we would not get much return from when sold.

When you look at the current Arsenal squad, the likes of Gabriel, Tierney, Smith Rowe, Saka, Martinelli are all 24 and under. You add White, Bissouma, Taveres, Lokonga and that would be 9 players in that age range.

Hopefully the Taveres and Lokonga pursuit shows the club recognises that we have wasted too much money on senior players. That we need to be building for the future.

From Vieira to van Persie, Henry to Adebayor, Toure to Nasri, I could go on.

The equation is simple. Buy players U24, develop, sell and start again.

Keenos

Every player has his price…what is Emile Smith Rowe’s?

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At some point Aston Villa might make a high enough bid that Arsenal sit their and think “wow, we need to accept that”.

According to David Ornstein, Arsenal have rejected an offering in the region of £30million for Emile Smith Rowe.

That is already huge money for a lad who has started just 19 Premier League games.

What is clear is that Aston Villa are trying to get in replacements for Jack Grealish prior to selling him.

They have already spent big on Emi Buendia from Norwich, and their pursuit of Smith Rowe shows that they are looking to replace Grealish with 2 rather than one.

So how high will Villa be willing to go for Smith Rowe? And will it be high enough?

Smith Rowe was a breath of fresh air last season. His work rate, creativity and attitude, alongside Bukayo Saka, was one of the few positives from a tough season.

But what is also clear is that he is probably not yet ready to play week in week out as Arsenal’s 10.

We bought in Martin Odergaard in January and the pair shared the role. It is likely this summer we will make a permanent signing in that position.

You would expect whoever comes in to be first choice, with Smith Rowe becoming his understudy.

Smith Rowe will still get plenty of play time – and his versatility will be an asset; but at what point do those in charge of Arsenal think to themselves “that is too much money to turn down for a 2nd string player”.

Say Villa bid £40million for Smith Rowe. Arsenal could probably replace him with someone from Europe for half of that. And what if the bid reaches £50million? Or beyond?

That sort of money would finance a move for someone like Houssem Aouar, who is a level above Smith Rowe. We would get change out of the deals leaving us even more money to add further creativity.

To make it clear, I would not want us to sell Smith Rowe. But we would be crazy to turn down that sort of money for a bit-part player with potential.

Every player has his price; I wonder what Smith Rowe’s is…

Keenos