This, however, does not mean that Arsenal have some sort of special link with Chelsea, but as we showed in the recent article, Chelsea just keep on spending more than other clubs. Their transfer model is to buy the players, and then see who they have got and how they are settling in, and then sell on some of the ones they have bought that don’t seem to fit. Not because they are not good enough, but because they’ve got more than they can put in their 25.
It’s a curiously disjointed system, but not against the rules, and it is one way of finding a team that can end up higher than third, which they have not managed to do for the last eight seasons. Indeed, it must be a bit gruelling for Chelsea to find that Arsenal keep coming second while apparently taking Chelsea cast-offs.
To try and make something newsworthy out of the story of “Yet another Chelsea player” the media have been talking up a petition against the signing of Madueke, as they always love “Arsenal fans are revolting” tales. Although I rather suspect in this case some people (including journalists) have confused, “No to” with the player’s first name Noni.
Or maybe they are getting confused with the PSG right back Nordi Mukiele who it was alleged we were trying to sign in January 2024. But we must feel some sympathy for these journalists; it is difficult when these players insist on having foreign names. (Or perhaps it is just the fact that as a youth player he was registered with Tottenham Hots).
It is worrying though, this setting up of “don’t sign him” posts, which are of course encouraged by supporters (and quite possibly the management) of other clubs, along with the media that run the stories. There is probably no better way to make a player feel unwelcome than to have a campaign against signing him. Indeed, it is also a very good way of persuading the club’s manager that maybe, he too, should be somewhere else.
There is also a story doing the rounds that Chelsea have made a profit on Mukiele although I am not sure that is true when you include the salary they have paid him. To counteract that we have tales thatFenerbahce are interested in signing Trossard.