For some reason, the stupid season of transfer rumors went from 0 to 60 today and there’s no shortage of Arsenal links. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the 2019-20 men’s season ended yesterday and Bayern Munich beat PSG 1-0 in the Champions League final.
If I wrote a separate post for each link, the site would be flooded with a bunch of posts that aren’t much. I would run out of ways to say the same thing. And I would probably go insane trying to keep up. Instead, I’ll start a regular collective post to cover more rumors in one place. Here we go.
Current Arsenal players
Hector Bellerin aside, I wouldn’t be too upset if any of the players linked to a move from the Emirates on this window left. Arsenal have to rebuild the squad and part of that comes from people who don’t fit with Mikel Arteta’s system. And remember, every player has a price.
- Matteo Guendouzi: It is almost certain that he will leave Arsenal this summer and should generate a decent amount of money for the club to invest again. It has reportedly been offered to a number of different clubs, including Atletico Madrid and Lyon, as part of cash + player swap deals. So far, however, these approaches have been rejected. He has also been linked with a move to PSG.
- Lucas Torreria: Reportedly interested in the context of a move to Italy with AC Milan and Turin. Torreira dropped the pecking order under Mikel Arteta, likely because he’s not good enough on the ball to play Arteta. This is not a blow to Torreira, mind you. It’s a very good # 6, but Arteta’s system requires two # 6 / # 8 hybrids.
- Mesut Ozil: Everything is calm on the Ozil front. He had been briefly linked with relocating to Turkey, but his exorbitant weekly salary remains a stumbling block to any move, be it a loan or a sale. Personally, I hope that his expulsion from the Arsenal side during the reboot was somehow tied to orders from Raul Sanllehi and that once Ozil is gone, he may no longer be a persona non grata.
- Alexandre Lacazette: One of the players Arsenal could sell could be selling for sizeable money to fund other transfers in this window. He is associated with Atletico Madrid and Juventus.
- Ainsley Maitland-Niles: appears to be going to Wolves for £ 20m.
- Hector Bellerin: PSG was “offered”, but it is not clear whether the offer came from its agent Arsenal or was invented.
- Sead Kolasinac: combined with a return to Schalke, possibly on loan. But the German side reportedly doesn’t want to pay more than £ 50,000 a week, which is a problem because Kolasinac makes more than three times that. Arsenal would likely have to subsidize their weekly wages for a loan to work.
- Sokratis: associated with Italian associations, including Roma and Napoli. Arsenal are likely to move from a centerback (or two) this summer and he’s the guy I least want to lose. It would be something if Arsenal Napoli pipped for Gabriel Magalhaes, then turned around and sold them Sokratis.
Calum Chambers: Linked to a £ 12 million move to Fulham. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of Chambers or Holding moved that window. Their native status and British make them valuable to smaller Premier League clubs.
Rob Holding: affiliated with Leeds. See Chambers, Calum.
- Shkodran Mustafi: Some interesting whispers from Napoli, but with his injury, Arteta’s praise for his game and his improvement under the new manager, I doubt he’ll move.
- Emi Martinez: Said he wanted more playing time at Arsenal or a transfer. With Bernd Leno’s injury status still unclear, I doubt Martinez is going anywhere.
According to rumors, transfer targets
As always with transfer links, take them with a grain of salt. Except for Gabriel, who seems safe at this point, and Partey, who is David Ornstein everywhere, I would cover everything from a sufficiently worthy source in his own post. There’s not much more to most of these, either, other than “Arsenal Interested” which is, okay, great. Without further information, it’s next to impossible to separate the actual links from the clubs / agents their media peers call to generate buzz and raise prices. The Gunners don’t have a lot of money to spend without selling players, so most of these don’t happen.
- Gabriel Magalhães: The 22-year-old Brazilian centerback completed an Arsenal medical degree today. So it’s just a question of when he’ll get the pen down on paper. Arsenal is paying Lille € 26m + € 4m in add-ons for the move. It’s good business for the Gunners.
- Thiago Alcantara: Mikel reportedly called Arteta the central midfielder of Bayern Munich today. He was heavily linked to Liverpool but it looks like Arsenal will be late for the race for his service. Bayern reportedly want £ 23m for him. He is 2 years older than Thomas Partey, but much cheaper. For a man who needs two or three seasons to hold the club during a remodel, it may make more sense.
- Dani Ceballos: A new loan or permanent move for the Real Madrid midfielder remains high on Arsenal’s priority list in this window. The Spanish giants recently made a noise that he should finish a preseason with the club before making a decision, but I think that was more of a negotiating tactic to raise the price. AC Milan are apparently trying to whistle the Gunners on Ceballos but I think this one will be done for Arsenal.
- Thomas Partey: He’s still Arsenal’s number 1 target, according to David Ornstein, but Atletico Madrid are sticking to their demand that the Gunners pay in full their £ 45million release clause upfront. Without additional sales, the Gunners have no such cash on hand. Selling Ainsley Maitland Niles and some of the other guys discussed above could get the Gunners there.
- Houssem Aouar: Arsenal reportedly had a Matteo Guendouzi + cash offer that Lyon rejected for their Talisman midfielder. You pitched him a price of over 50 million euros. Depending on the report, he prefers either Juventus or Liverpool Arsenal anyway. I don’t think this will happen.
- Malang Sarr: He is a 21 year old centerback who is available for free and has 119 first team appearances in Nice. Arsenal would be insane not to at least kick him off, which they supposedly did. He’s met with interest across Europe and who knows what impact Gabriel’s signing will have on his desire to join Arsenal. But the Gunners should definitely try! Maybe his former coach Patrick Vieira could bring in a good word.
Philippe Coutinho: The enthusiasm for Arsenal move has waned recently and new Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman is set to keep him at Camp Nou for the next season. However, I’ll admit that I’m higher with him after seeing him (admittedly in the garbage time) for Bayern in the Champions League.
- Boubakary Soumare
I’m sure I missed some because everyone with a blue tick on Twitter (and a lot of people without them, to be honest) are spreading transfer rumors this time of year. Feel free to delete others you saw in the comments!
