HOW TO BECOME A GYÖKERES SUPERFAN
What a crazy few days for Arsenal transfer chatter. The summer is shaping up, it’s moving fast, and I mostly quite like what I’m seeing for next season.
There’s a nagging feeling that Gyökeres is coming from a league that Opta says ranks lower than the Championship for quality.
That ranking doesn’t define a player. Scoring 54 goals in 52 games shows that you’re not just a little bit better than that league… you’re miles ahead. But it does show you why the Bundesliga places more of a premium on its players.
Portugal is a monstrous mixed bag when it comes to exports. Just look at the unbelievable wastage in the list of the top 10 exports. The 11–21 bracket isn’t that much better, if I’m honest.
There are so many misses. I can’t help but think about Fábio Vieira, who had better output numbers than Messi the season before he arrived at Arsenal. Nor have I missed Nico González, who moved to City in January and is now being shipped back out after they realised he’s a £60m miss.
We’ve just got to hope that the stunning amount of goals Gyökeres has racked up consistently over two seasons shows he’s more of a Radamel Falcao than a Jackson Martinez. Johnny was selling Gyokeres harder than Jordan Belfort with a bag of penny stocks yesterday. It was actually pretty inspirational if I’m honest.
• Falcao — 87 games, 72 goals for Porto → 91 games, 70 goals for Atlético
• Gyökeres — 102 games, 97 goals → Arsenal
Falcao was a fucking MONSTER of a player—absolutely lethal, one of the best to do it. If we’ve got talent ID like that, then we really are going to be in good shape next season.
The player isn’t going to get it as easy as he had it in Portugal. He’s not going to be able to power-run the length of the pitch on the break. 85% of Arsenal games are mid or deep blocks. Even the teams that like to play ball change their systems to stump us. That means you have to be more of a fox in the box, comfortable in tight spaces, and you really do have to work on the heading side of your game because set pieces will still be important.
But… I keep returning to the point: top scorer in Europe. If you halved Gyökeres’ goal total from last season, you’d land at the totality of Benjamin Šeško’s Bundesliga goals… ever.
If we’re going to move towards total “never liked her anyway” mode on Šeško, the biggest red flag for the Slovenian is that he had an opportunity to move to Arsenal last season and passed it up because he was scared of Kai Havertz. Gyökeres has dumped his girlfriend, he’s passing up a £2m bonus he’s owed, and I think he’d probably walk to London to ink the deal. Don’t tell me desire to be at a club isn’t an important factor.
Put down the spreadsheet and spend 16 minutes watching this:
Meanwhile, Šeško and his agent are leaking that Arsenal had not agreed personal terms (two years and they didn’t ask?), and there are rumors his people are trying to put a release clause in any Arsenal deal—you know, the one they forgot to put in his RB Leipzig extension last summer.
News is moving on the exit plans at Arsenal as well. Leo Trossard, who just changed his agency, has been attracting big interest from Fenerbahçe, who seem to have some good cash to burn and see a £25m deal to be done. I think the Belgian has been outrageous value—he’s worked hard and shown up with crucial goals consistently. If you’re going to sell Martinelli or Trossard, you sell Trossard because his exit won’t bite you, and Martinelli has more of the attributes we need to succeed.
That said, I’m not sure that raises the funds needed if the summer really is going to be Eze, Madueke, and Rodrygo. The Brazilian winger now has competition from PSG and Man City. That kind of puts us out of the running unless he’s into taking less money for the love of the shirt.
Noni Madueke news stories are extremely spicy right now. Arsenal want to pay £40m and Chelsea want £50m. I don’t want to get into “I wouldn’t take him for £10m more,” but I don’t think we should be paying over the odds for a player they need to move on because they have squad bloat and financial issues with UEFA.
As for the player, I have my reservations like everyone else, but reading some of the more analytical takes has me perking up a little. He’s second only to Doku in the league for one-vs-one actions. His wing play is varied, but he’s most comfortable going on the outside. He also massively improved his shot quality last season. If I were to be severely generous, I’d say it’s hard to judge a winger when he’s not playing with a great striker. Cole Palmer’s goals dried up last year, and Nico Jackson was injured or not playing. Madueke is extremely fast, has good levels of skill, and he’s mad enough to try and compete with Saka.
Eze is the deal I really want to see pushed over the line. It looks like he could be the biggest quality upgrade of the summer. He’s at the peak of his powers, and Steve Parish sounded like he wanted to deal last summer. I just hope we’re genuinely adding all of these bodies and it doesn’t end up with Madueke as a utility, our second-choice striker, and no Rodrygo. We have to go all in this summer and end it stacked.
Final amusing tidbit… Chelsea apparently asked for Max Dowman to be part of the Madueke deal. Arsenal refused out of hand. I’m not even sure you can do deals for 15-year-olds… and the final cherry on top? Dowman’s dad confirmed he’s an Arsenal guy. Love it.
Ok, that’s all I have today. x