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Morning all.
Long before the season came to a close, Leicester City, Southampton and Ipswich knew their time in the Premier League was coming to an end. All three clubs were relegated and must now fear their better players will be targeted by other clubs. For the clubs, PSR could be a concern too but I’m just guessing as I’ve no idea what their financial situation is.
Back in May, Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Wolves were linked with Leicester City player Bilal El Khannouss, a Moroccan international who plays in midfield. The fee Leicester City are asking for their player is reported to be €26m (£22.1m) which is pretty much what they paid for him a year ago.
Another Championship player who is attracting interest from Premier League clubs is Hayden Hackney who right now, is representing England at the Under 21’s Euro Championship although he was on the bench for their opening match against the Czech Republic. As was Tom Fellows, another player tipped to make a move to the Premier League. Fellows plays as a forward, attacking midfielder or winger for EFL Championship club West Bromwich Albion.
A winger is a position Arsenal are hopefully looking at this summer because our current options are pretty drab. In fact I’d say the only “proper” winger we have in the first team squad is Gabriel Martinelli and at a push, Gabriel Jesus. No, of course I’m not knocking Bukayo Saka, or any of the others who play out wide but I wouldn’t describe them as wingers.
Another youngster tipped for a good future is Southampton’s young midfielder Tyler Dibling. The 17 year old came through the academy at Southampton before moving to Chelsea in 2022. He didn’t settle in West London and soon after, returned to the south coast club in 2022.
The Championship is rich with talent yet it so often seems that overseas talent is more attractive than Englands homegrown or youngsters already in England albeit in a lower League. I’ve never really understood why.
A good example, or rather a bad one, is Fabio Vieira who Arsenal paid around £30 million for a couple of years ago. Fancy footwork he might have but the physicality of the Premier League proved to be something he struggled with. Now it looks like he’ll be sold for less what Arsenal paid for him yet he’s still just 25 years old.
Mike Biereth, born in London and signed from Fulham, Ayden Heaven, born in Islington, signed from West Ham when he was just 14 years old yet neither are still with the club because I guess they believed their pathway into the first team wasn’t there. Why? Because in Hayden’s case, we had both Jakub Kiwior and latterly, Riccardo Calafiori at the club and in the case of Biereth, Mikel Arteta played any player up front other than the only proper striker we had at the club. (Not counting Eddie Nketiah, or Chido Obi for that matter.)
I’m not silly enough to think that every young player or Championship player is good enough for the Premier League or more importantly, Arsenal, but there has to be a number of players who are. Or young players who are already showing signs of becoming a great player whilst playing the odd game for their current clubs first team.
Mikel Arteta said we as a club need more players but if those aren’t coming from our own academy then surely, it’s worth looking at the Championship this summer. After all, any spare cash after signing the key players needed this summer, will go a lot further, heck, we might even make a profit on them in years to come. You can bet your bottom dollar that clubs will make a profit on a few of the players Arsenal let slip through their fingers.
I’m off to get my tin hat…..