Hugo Ekitike linked as a new week begins

Good morning.

A few Monday bits for you to kick off what I think might be a busy Arsenal week. It’s June 30th today, and that is the day player contracts typically expire. One of those contracts is Thomas Partey who, David Ornstein reports, will be leaving the club upon the expiration of his deal.

It’s no real surprise given the reported interest in, and expected arrival of, Christian Norgaard from Brentford. Having already signed Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad, Partey was earmarked for the Jorginho role next season, but some reports suggested he wanted a pay rise to play that part, and frankly that’s not a good or sensible use of resources. So, at the end of today he’ll be a free agent and can go wherever he wants. Which is absolutely fine by me.

Elsewhere, Johnny Here-We-Go reports that Arsenal have agreed personal terms with  defender Christhian Mosquera, and are now set to make a new bid to Valencia after an initial €14m bid was rejected. He just has one year left on his contract, so while I understand they want the best price possible for a 20 year old who has come through their Academy, it puts us in a decent position. I suspect this might be one where we find a middle ground on the fee, but include a sell-on clause that could end up being beneficial if, at some point down the line, he moves elsewhere.

Until then though, I think an addition to the right side of our defence makes sense, and much like the arrivals of Norgaard, and Kepa Arrizabalaga as the number two goalkeeper, this seems like a low-fuss way of sorting that out. There’s no question we need cover for William Saliba in particular, but the Frenchman is still going to play a lot for Arsenal next season, so it’s a complicated one. It’s like the Bukayo Saka back-up – you need it, but how do you convince someone to come and join to play second fiddle to one of your best players? You either go young, which is what we’ve done with Mosquera, or look at the other end of the age spectrum which is what we did with Raheem Sterling last season. Both have their risks, but usually the former has potentially more upside and that seems to be the way we’ve gone to bolster our defensive ranks.

The striker search continues and today we can eschew the G-word and the S-word and instead we can all take a big E – for Hugo Ekitike. Bild, which is a bit tabloid I know, report that Arsenal are ‘seriously considering’ the Eintracht Frankfurt forward as an alternative to the two names which are now synonymous with Arsenal and our quest to find a new number 9. Will the Frenchman be the crispy dove from above? Will he arrive at London Colney driving a new white Mitsubishi? Who knows?! But if Arteta decides he wants an E, then someone give him an E. It might loosen him up a bit.

He’s certainly an interesting player as we look to bolster our forward line for next season. 22 goals and 12 assists in 48 games last season puts him in a similar ball-park to Benjamin Sesko (21 goals and 6 assists for RB Leipzig), but sooner or later Arsenal are going to have to make a decision on one of these guys. At this point, it could well be any of them. My gut feeling is that Sesko is the one Arteta most desires, and if that’s the case, he usually gets what he wants, but let’s see how it all plays out in the very near future. Pre-season isn’t far away, and more than any other signing this is the one one you need to have settled and ready to go before the new campaign begins.

Right, I’ll leave it there for now. Tomorrow is July. Things will start happening then. All kinds of things. Perhaps even augmented with some stuff. And as everyone knows, when you have stuff and things, you’ve reached your peak. Stand by for an Arsecast Extra a bit later this morning. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.

Until then, have a great Monday.

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