SELLING, IN THIS ECONOMY?
Arsenal has been very slow at selling players this summer. What can we draw from this banger of an observation? A great insight. There’s not really much of a market for Arsenal deadwood. We’ve been in this exact same position for the last 10 years. We’re the Romford Market of second-hand jewelry. Liverpool are Hatton Garden. Why is that? No one knows. If I came back from Hatton Garden and proposed with a Rhian Brewster ring, best believe there would be a very negative Yelp review that would destroy the reputation of the whole area.
I wonder if the issue here is just that… reputation.
We are bad sellers, our exit products usually have limp reputations, and people know they can get an outrageously good deal. We also don’t have many examples of players who leave us and go on to bigger and better things. Emile wasn’t great, Reiss Nelson’s loan was injury-hit, Fabio didn’t blow up when he went out on loan, and Sambi spent most of his time in Spain injured.
The wares we’re rolling out onto the pavement outside Arsenal tube station don’t look legit this summer either. Reiss Nelson landing a long deal was always an insane move, especially on the money he landed because we did the deal late. Fulham will likely get him on another loan, because they know the market for his services is small. Zinchenko is a bang-up player who makes most teams better, but he earns primo money and has paper calf muscles. Fabio is older than you think and the market is small. There are rumors we’re looking for 30 million euros, which would be incredible, but also… come on guys, really? Gabi Jesus will at best be a loan move. Kiwior seems to be staying. I’ve gone from promising we’ll shift £100 million of talent this summer (like I do every summer) to thinking we’ll be lucky to get £60 million (still high).
Someone is going to have to exit on the left and I suspect that is Leo, but again, we can’t even get a market for a player who has similar G&As to Díaz over three years… and boasts great fitness levels and output.
Still, I do have a deep belief based on nothing that Arsenal will bring Eze to the club. You have player desire, a selling club that needs bodies, and Logan’s Run time limit on the valuation of a player who is at his peak. Bring that man to Arsenal and I will have had a very, very good summer. Did I get the striker I wanted? No, but I got goals. I do not think the Madueke deal was on the cards at the start of the summer, which is why I can move past the nonsense fee and state that I actually don’t think we could have hoped for a better profile to rotate with Saka. I thought we’d be getting a Trossard for the right. Instead, we have picked up a player who is heading into a season of his Premier League journey after getting all the learning f*ck-ups out of his system on Chelsea’s dime. Zubimendi is a sleeper hit. He’ll be integral to our season. Then you have solid squad players in Nørgaard, Mosquera, and Kepa… and the real surprise? Max Dowman. He’s good. Way gooder than I expected. He could be the goodest signing of the summer and guess what? We didn’t sign him. He was already here. He is him, as the kids said in the summer of 2022.
Finally, how about the new kit? I love the originals lines that are popping all over Europe and this one is very, very glorious. I think of Cesc when I think of this kit. It’s clean, the materials are premium, I love the color palette, and it feels like the sort of kit you win things in. The trio of kits we have on offer this season are the best in a long time… winning kits. Iconic. Memorable. The perfect blend of fresh and traditional.
Ok, that’s me done. If you emailed me over the past few days, I have seen them. I’ll respond this evening.
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