THURSDAY DEBRIEF

Well, good morning, my darlings. I’m under the weather—not the good 72 and sunny type. So, let’s see where we go.

England is still a bit rubbish.

I had no real interest before the Euros, and I’m still struggling for it three games in. We’re living in the structured phase of football, and it would appear that even wildly talented individuals struggle to express themselves in a terrible tactical setup.

People are calling Jude Bellingham “Smellingham,” Foden is getting flogged, and Saka is being asked to play left back so Cole Palmer can get a sniff at some first-team action.

This isn’t old England; the players aren’t overrated. We just have an extremely bland manager who fell up the stairs into charge of a genuinely golden generation of players. England should have put Potter in when they had the chance; at least he could speak the same football language as 75% of the players.

Chelsea continue to blaze a trail in the transfer window. When they’re not horse-trading baby players, they’re asking Fabrizio Romano to tell the world they’re interested in big names—a bit like the rich version of Fenerbahçe when an old Premier League hack is in the last year of their deal.

So far, we’ve seen them put their hands up for Olise and Williams—both deemed too rich for their PSE situation. Yesterday morning, they had Alex Isak in their sights. By the end of the day, Fabrizio had confirmed what we all knew: Isak was far too rich for their situation.

The more you watch them operate this window, the more convinced you become that half the games they play are just about being in the media news cycle every 48 hours. Very Elon Musk-ish.

Arsenal news has ground to a halt. There are some links to the Espanyol keeper in the Spanish media. I think it was said on a stream that Joan Garcia is all but an Arsenal player. Some sleuths have worked out that the attraction seems to be that he’s incredible at claiming crosses, his shot save percentage is Raya-level, and he’s very brave in his positioning. This signing isn’t going to keep me up all night banging F5, but it looks fairly decent and quite data-driven.

I don’t really know why the transfer news has been so slow. Part of it is likely because we’re not really in desperate need of players. Another part of the issue is that the rest of the market is paralyzed as big-spending clubs try to make cuts, and smaller clubs are probably looking to see if they can hustle some bargains. Arsenal will have to sell some players this summer if we want to have a banger of a window, and there’s not a lot of smoke right now.

People are up in arms that the club has put a £50m price tag on Eddie. I get it; the figure seems unfathomable. But firstly, this is just a media starting price, and secondly, teams are flogging homegrown players for £20m price tags. Those kids are not going to push teams up the table—Eddie, Reiss, Ramsdale, ESR, and even Sambi are going to add some now POWER to most teams outside the top six.

There’s also the impact of the Euros and Copa America running at the same time. Players can’t do medicals, and it’s probably not wise for them to be caught chatting to clubs, so I’d imagine that’s adding to the logjam.

Arsenal training starts July 16th, so we still have three weeks to get some bodies over the line. Quite often, clubs will have deals readied in secret, waiting for the medicals to go through. I’d hope Edu isn’t wolfing down BBQ three times a day. The man needs to get on that phone. I would say, the best attribute Edu boasts (outside of looking great in a crisp white shirt) is that he really loves to spend money.

I read one of the rumor rags stating Arsenal has not received any contact from PIF (Saudi) about Thomas Partey. It’s lazy stuff, chaps… Edu and Jason Ayto literally jumped on a plane to hear what they had to say. If there’s a deal on the table, the club knows about it. The big question over any Saudi move is going to be about the player. Thomas likes to, ehm… Partey. Does Saudi align with his lifestyle? Or is London more his thing? Plenty of players to call about it. My money is on him staying until his contract expires next summer. But we’ll see… his exit really would be a massive bonus if we could replace him with someone six years younger.

The one winger link that did perk me up was Johan Bakayoko of PSV. Why? Well, he’s actually a right-sided winger, he’s played well against Arsenal, and I’d imagine the fee and the wages would be much more in line with what Arsenal wants to pay for a young player. The 21-year-old scored 14 goals and landed 14 assists last season. That’s a pretty decent return. His game reminds me a little of Saka’s, but he might just have a little more in the tank pace-wise. Clearly not the level of Bukayo, but no one is… I think explosive and direct is what the club will look for this summer, and Johan could be that guy.

Recording a Thursday Therapy session this morning! x