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The transfer ‘scheduled send’ because of this weird window

Suburban Gooners Logo Suburban Gooners Logo It’s a new week, the football is now all officially over for last season after the Champions League on Saturday night (I don’t consider the Club World Cup as football – it’s a FIFA money-spinning exercise) and the transfer window officially opened yesterday. It’s open only for the clubs who are part of the national associations with clubs playing in the competition, which is weird because we aren’t playing in it, but the window is open to us for this bizarre period of 10 days until 10th June. Then it is shut until 16tj June, just six days later, before it re-opens.

I mean, honestly, what is the point in having it closed for just six days? Why not just have it open the whole time? I’ve looked at the rules on Sky Sports and the Premier League and apparently it’s due to the fact that a transfer window is only supposed to be open for 12 weeks at a time. But honestly, these days, does that really even matter? Clubs still do deals and make announcements before and after that time, they just state in their press releases that “x player will join on 30th June as part of the regulated process” or something similar. It’s all a bit silly really because it’s just paperwork related. It means only that clubs can’t officially trigger release clauses like we are hoping to hear about soon re: Zubimendi, but all we’re really talking about these days is Arsenal having scheduled sends on their emails. The hard work, the negotiations, the contracts, the agents, the discussions between the clubs, have all been done before the window ‘officially’ opens anyway. So we’re basically talking about red tape here and it all feels a little pointless to me.

Anyway, Arsenal have another eight days to do a deal if they want to on that one, or the Sesko one, but I suspect that one will be a little longer in the process. The Zubi one feels like everyone knows the parameters of the sale and it’s just a case of working through that process, although the stupid and pointless Nations League match they play in on Thursday won’t help. It means he’ll be focused on that, but I guess the agents and two clubs can agree all they need to without him, so it shouldn’t be too much that he needs to do. I saw a comment from somebody from Real Sociedad suggesting that they have told him to go away with his national team, have a think, then come back with a ‘clear head’. After what happened last summer with him U-turning on Liverpool, we can’t completely rule out the possibility that the same happens again, but you’d think that if he did that again it would have quite an impact on him as an individual. He’d look like damaged goods a bit and whilst they have also said they don’t need to sell, the player himself must be thinking about moving on to advance his career. I’m not even looking at that through Arsenal-tinted lenses. They finished 11th, there will be no European football for them, Zubimendi has cemented his status with the fans by giving it one more season and I think most Sociedad fans would appreciate that. I think that’s what happened when Thierry left us. The speculation after the Champions League final was massive and I think he was probably ready to go, but Wenger told him to sign a new deal, give us one more season, which he did and then we sold him to Barcelona after that final season of his. I think most Arsenal fans acknowledged what Thierry had done and that’s why his exit was sad but it was something we accepted. My hope is that we see the same for Zubimendi, only this time we’re the beneficiaries.

There’s one more bit of gossip that I saw yesterday that I thought might be worth a word or two on, which is that Thomas Partey is apparently wanted by Barcelona. There are some comments about how we are on the verge of having him sign an extension, which is interesting given that it has been looking like the opposite for quite some time until recently, but given what’s happened (allegedly) in his private life, given his injury record, his age, the wages he has, etc – I’m kind of thinking we need to close this chapter. It would mean we’d have to go and get another central midfield number six I think, because Zubi and Rice as the only option puts a bit of pressure on them both to stay fit the whole season, especially given both will probably play a lot of games together with Rice as the eight. So it does feel like we might need a more experienced squad rotation player to come in and play as an acknowledged back up. A Jorginho-esque signing that doesn’t break the bank but is a clear back up for domestic cup games would have to be done if Partey leaves I think. But we’ll have to see how that one plays out. I have a sneaky suspicion that the club and player might end up doing another one or two year deal here.

And that’s about it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more musings based on whatever rumours start to circulate over the next 24 hours. You have yourself a good one.

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Gooner born in 1982 from Harlow, Essex, now living in Uxbridge. I say what I see - frequently wrong, but hey, it's just an opinion piece, right? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.