Yeah, the internet has been so cruel to me over the last week. I can’t write opinions before I go to bed because something instantly counters them. Then people say mean things in the comments like, ‘broooo go cooooked.’ My fragile ego can’t handle it.
But the good news is, this summer has been so mad, some of the things people think I’ve been wrong about haven’t even been wrong for longer than 20 minutes.
Arsenal don’t have a fee agreed with Sporting for Gyökeres. They’re still flapping around, trying to work out how easy the add-ons will be to trigger, according to Fabrizio Romano. £55m out the door seemed a little too dreamy to be true, but let’s be honest, the going rate for BIG goals was always going to be closer to £70m. Not sure that would shock anyone. We’ll apparently see where the fee lands because Sporting has to publish it.
So let me do a quick breakdown for you on how we’ve operated this summer—because the thing I want you to deep, as the kids say, is this: Arsenal don’t have as much money available as you think. We’re trying to spread payment terms so we can spend as little as possible this summer. It’s all about amortization, bruv. Part of that process has been squeezing deals to make them work for that model.
We drilled Valencia down from £20m to £15m for Mosquera. A tremendous deal, you have to say, and totally ruthless.
We paid more than the release to get payment terms for Zubi—£65m over 3 payments vs. dropping the whole fee in one go like you normally have to for these types of deals.
We forced the agent of Gyökeres to waive his £6m fee which, I have to tell you, will come with a cost later down the line. No one is wealthy enough in the football agent world to gift like that. We’re also fighting over whether the add-on trigger is “Viktor made his 10,000 steps” or “Viktor scores 100 goals in his first season.”
We passed on Joan Garcia (£28m) to get Kepa (£5m).
Our back-up DM was £11m Nørgaard, not £23m Agoumé.
We spent £54m on Madueke—minimal add-ons, no special negotiations.
Why am I bringing this up? Because Sami Mokbel suggested on Latte Firm that Arsenal have legit interest in Rodrygo and Eze—but we need to sell before we buy.
Did Arsenal really take £48m and decide the better place to put it was on a back-up right winger—over getting Eze or Rodrygo in the building? Because the clubs would have you believe that’s exactly what happened. The only deal we didn’t screw into the dust was Madueke. Now the media is reporting that we’ll take the Eze deal down to the wire and hope they soften on the release clause. Why are we trying to bid down Palace on an objectively top tier player, but we didn’t do that for a player who has high potential, but has certainly been on the rocks the last 18 months?
Again, I might be mad here, but isn’t the deal you take down to the wire the one that isn’t as important and consequential to your success next season? Yes, Madueke has a lot of potential, his numbers look like Salah’s if you’re insane, he is in the top 3 for some stats… but if you’re looking at our problems last season and you see an obvious solve in Madueke, I’m not quite with you. He’s a project player who suffered the same issues as Arsenal… not enough final action output.
So we are driving toward one of two conclusions:
Berta was emotional and snapped at only one deal this summer—and it was Madueke.
The Madueke deal was so good it didn’t really impact our ability to move for other players.
Again, I’m going to support the club here, because the alternative is that they thought a back-up to Saka was more important than a creative midfielder who can play on the left and give you bang BANG. I’m also going to support what I see with Andrea Berta… he sees things holistically, he leaves no stone unturned, and he will wait out teams to get the best possible number.
Think about it: if Arsenal has the £55m for Madueke available, all they need is £12m to get to the release clause for Eze. You know what that could look like? Reiss Nelson—the player who wants to stay in London?
I’m not normally one for ORDER MATTERS, SEND THE 16-YEAR-OLD BACK TO SPAIN—but in this case, the order means we:
Arsenal don’t have Eze or Rodrygo ready for preseason wheels up in 4 days (lol, you know it’ll drop now)
Don’t have Madueke ready for at least 4 weeks
Why would you prioritize a player we didn’t need for a month (CWC recovery) over one that’ll be at preseason for Palace this week?
I’m sure all of this is an irrelevance. I think we’ll move enough players to make the final signing of the summer, but I am just refusing to go down with the ship that states the Madueke fee is what has been filtered into the ether. This is a Premier League deepstate deal for the ages, and I will, by the grace of God, ensure those files are exposed for all to see. There is no rational reason that we’d seemingly hamper our ability to move on more important players in a similar price range unless… all is not what it seems.
But let’s finish on a positive. We’ll most likely start preseason with all the component parts we needed to start the season. Probably more, if we’re honest. This is the longest preseason we’ll get in a while—maybe the last untouched preseason of all time if Infantino moves to a World Cup every two years.
Arteta can shape the minds of the new recruits, bake them into the culture, and have us playing an evolved type of football that retains control but offers a more expansive approach in the final third.
Signing lots of players isn’t the solve. Taste and talent ID plays a huge role in the success of these deals. Can Gyökeres port his talents back to a league where he failed? Can Madueke continue to level up his output and find peace and pride in his third London club shirt? Will Zubimendi hit the ground running with minimal integration issues? Do the back-up options hit the levels we need? Can Mosquera rotate? Can Nørgaard take his Brentford form into a side that might need him three times a week? Will Kepa be more competitive than Neto?
These are all important questions because teams like Liverpool, City, and Newcastle are all adding great additions to their squads. Berta has shown that he’s a serious player who is extremely aggressive with how he moves. But that’s not job done. Job done is making sure those players bang. Job done is making sure Arteta has the ‘chat’ on load management and rotation. We won’t know if the job has been done until the end of the season. But one thing seems for sure… Arsenal won’t go into the season short for the first time I can remember in 30 years. That’s a HUGE win for me.
Just get Eze or Rodrygo done, and we’ve had an all-timer of a summer.
This last paragraph is for the Le Grove commenter sickos.
I’ve seen some bad behavior going off in the comments. I can’t have it. If you want to say mean things about people, offer to fight people outside Arsenal station, or threaten to light yourself on fire because you wanted Isak—you will get a warning, then you’ll be disappeared without a trace.
The whole point of the comments section is it’s a space to rant, have fun, and chat Arsenal. Free from politics, free from war talk, free from some weirdo calling you a cat molester. Freedom of speech does not count in the comments of a private blog. It’s freedom to agree with my tinhat conspiracies and freedom to treat everyone nicely. This is the blog of love—behave yourself, or pay a brutal consequence more dire than full asking price for a Todd Boehly squad player.
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