Hard to grasp what exactly is going on with the Arsenal transfer window, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it’s going as well as one would expect it to, given the nature of our challenges and how clear they are.

I shouldn’t get too heated; the grace we can give all clubs around the globe is that the massive international tournament that just dropped genuinely clogged up business for everyone. There aren’t many teams you can point to who have smashed it out of the park. World Cup years are a shambles. I don’t even understand why, not like every player is there, but it seems to turn into that dead period between Christmas and New Year… all the sporting execs are at Congo vs Portugal watch parties, getting wasted no doubt, and they all give up on business; no one is capable of Zoom calls or texts.

Arsenal have come back to reality on a bit of a losing streak… Morgan Rogers was gazumped in a special owner-to-owner deal, Vini THE TRAITOR Jnr used our fearsome name to land a mega deal of his own… and that has left us with only two deals so far this summer.

Yeah, just the best centre midfielder in the league… and only the most productive winger outside the big clubs in Europe… pretty rough to look at both those deals too positively because that NEW-CHINNED WONDER said no and signed for Madrid. But really, when you peel the curtain back, we have two pretty good players who will elevate our abilities next season.

What my tiny lizard brain needs to understand is two things…

The second thing you need to remember is that Arsenal won the Premier League under crazy circumstances last season. The system was king, not really individuals. We played with a back-up striker who wouldn’t look out of place at Fulham, our captain managed about 1,000 minutes, none of our ceiling-raiser signings really blew it out the park, bar Zubimendi who faded HARD in the back end of the season, we lost Mikel Merino at the crunch end of the season, Saka was unfit all season, and Timber missed 3 months. Let me reframe this… we had one of the worst records for individual injuries last season, and still won the league.

It is astonishing that we won. This season, we’re channeling the LIKE A NEW SIGNING mantra because Arsenal have a lot of very good players who will be available from the get-go. That changes the shape of how we play and gives us so many new and exciting options.

Now, you have to counter all of that against Mikel Arteta’s tendencies to do things like convince all the players that the Community Shield is the most important game of the month, but getting all the players back from holidays early, getting them pumped up, and throwing them into the team a week early when they should be resting. It is my fear that all the table-banging like ‘I SAW MAGIC IN DECLAN’S EYES WHEN HE TOLD ME HE DOESN’T FEEL FATIGUE’ combined with literally seeing players turning up at friendlies unannounced to be with the team will bite us in ways you cannot imagine. But that’s a story for another day.

One story I do want to address is the Myles Lewis-Skelly one. Apparently he's been offered to United as a left back for £75m… a 19-year-old Hale Ender that started the Champions League final is apparently being moved to recoup some of the £75m we spent on a soon-to-be-29-year-old we bought from Newcastle. It is the most diabolical sacrifice I can imagine. 'Pure profit' cannot be the rationale. Sell the training ground, Win the dog's image rights, The Armory, do a crypto rug pull… do anything before you entertain self-immolation like this. Selling him as a LEFT BACK. Man made it to centre midfield against PSG in a CL final, and we’re shoving him off to play under Carrick? I’m feeling sick. Gotta put the keyboard down and take five over this. GRIM.

The only cope I can give here is that we have a deeply clogged midfield. If we move on Ethan and Myles, bring in a world-class winger, ship out Gyokeres, and sign Alvarez… we’d be happy. A lot of ifs there. A LOT.

Ok, back to it.

There are four clear objectives between now and the end of the window.

1. Arsenal have to sell a lot of players.

2. Arsenal need a left winger of difference-making proportions.

3. Arsenal need a back-up centre back, who can play right back, with experience (most important given White/Mosquera/Timber issues).

4. Arsenal probably need to think about a right back of sorts.

2-4 becomes very difficult if you don’t sell players. Sure, there’s money for a banner signing like Vini Jnr, but reports from The Athletic today seem to allude to Arsenal needing to sell before they buy on the left wing. That is either an admission that Vini Jnr was a special-circumstances signing… or that they are struggling to find a player with better numbers than Martinelli in the market right now for a good fee.

I’ve done a little bit of a deep dive on one player that has caught a lot of Le Grove readers’ eyes because of his sparkly nature… Kenan Yıldız. As part of the premium writing package, you get access to scouting reports and the slide shows I create off the back of them. I have a special offer going on memberships; get one now before the season starts.

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🧤 Hottest of Takes: Pete argues the goalkeeper situation is genuinely dire, with Kepa and Mellier sharing the same maddening flaw despite the talent in the frame

⚡ Solis First Impressions: big shoes to fill after Trossard’s numbers last season, why the fitness levels and end product already stand out, and whether he starts more than expected

😤 The Pedro Neto Fear: Arteta’s two known addictions (fullbacks and Chelsea reclamation projects) rear their head again, and why Pete wants nowhere near this one

🛡️ Romero Reaction: the centre back rumour that had Pete recoiling, the Mascarell comparison, and why the average age of incoming targets keeps climbing

📊 The Yıldız Scout Report: the promised slide deck arrives, with Champions League quality of action rankings stacking him against Martinelli, Saka and Trossard, plus the honest verdict on his pace

🏆 Community Shield Predictions: score calls for Como and the weekend showdown with City, plus what’s left on the schedule before the season proper kicks off

Remember, there’s a sexy deal and a members deck if you sign up right now. Lock in for the year, feel like a hero. That’s the pitch! x

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🔥 Hottest of Takes: Pete makes the case for why Arsenal’s attack looks strangely toothless right now, and why there might only be one name left who can fix it

😬 Zubimendi’s Exit: Chelsea and Javi Alonso circling, the London Stadium moment Arteta hasn’t forgiven, and the João Pedro fantasy swap deal Pete can’t let go of

🥅 Dortmund Despair: back to back preseason losses, Saliba and Timber both missing, and whether the defensive wobbles are actually a genuine cause for concern

🏆 Community Shield Litmus Test: why Pete wants Ethan Nwaneri, Max Dowman and Myles Lewis-Skelly properly tested against City, not just a preseason trophy

🏥 Timber Setback & Marli Salmon: the minor surgery timeline, the Halloween deadline for Liverpool, and the 16 year old defender making a real case for right back cover

Part one is ad free. Part two, including a full Yıldız scout report and slide deck, is members only!

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It’s really hard to write about pre-season because it doesn’t mean anything… ever. The only time you can weigh in is if there are clear cultural issues. Players fighting or horrible rumblings of disunity. We don’t have those issues, we’ve just witnessed two pretty average results over two very rusty games. It’s unpleasant, no doubt, but it’s a part of the process no one remembers… bar all the fans that went to The Emirates expecting a Mexican wave and did not get to partake in such an activity. Imagine that?

This post will cover off the good, the bad and the ugly. If you want some of the primo writing action, get subbed up, there’s a special pre-season deal going off right now that you might fancy. All the pods, all the writing, all the discord, all the joy of knowing you support independent writing. x

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Here’s what’s inside:

🔥 Hottest of Takes — Johnny’s take is about Max Dowman becoming Arsenal’s number ten hub — and it’s more profound than it first sounds. The Henri right wing comparison, the contrast with Ethan, and why this might be the most important positional evolution at the club in years. Pete has received ITK intel from training camp that he can’t fully verify and absolutely cannot stop talking about

👶 Max Dowman — Number Ten In The Making? — Johnny makes the case that what we saw at Girona wasn’t a winger doing winger things — it was a playmaker finding his natural home. Pete and Johnny debate whether this changes the Ethan calculus permanently

🏥 Kroupi — Buy Or Walk? — Johnny goes all-in on the Frenchman.

📊 Zubimendi — The Quiet Theory — Pete has a theory about where Zubimendi fits this season that nobody is talking about. It involves Bruno, Rice, and what happens when the full squad is finally fit at the same time

🏆 The Title Race — Who’s Actually Coming For Us? — Man City without Rodri and Bernardo, Chelsea in transition, Liverpool finding their feet. Pete and Johnny go through every rival and land somewhere optimistic — with one significant caveat about United that Pete refuses to take seriously

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FINALLY, Bruno G has landed at Arsenal.

And we are ready to be fans of your warrior-like tendencies. Just a group of medieval wives, watching our guy go off to battle. Here for support. We’ll pack the sandwiches. We’ll never betray your honour.

The Brazilian landed to another very awesome launch video.

These still remind me a touch of Raheem Sterling, but I’ll get over that with time. Andrea Berta, who is getting a little beaten up this summer by the mean people online, had this to say.

“Bruno is a player with a great mentality and great quality, who will bring strong leadership to our squad.

“With Bruno joining us, we are further strengthening the heart of our team. As we have all seen, Bruno can play as a defensive midfielder and as a box-to-box player. He combines quality with quantity, and has provided goals and assists for his team every year.

“Bruno will allow Mikel to further develop our playing style and will also increase our internal competitiveness, which is essential for maintaining the standards required when we are aiming to win major trophies.”

The main part that stands out here is the ‘development of our style’ line. Despite winning the Premier League last season, it was clear that our ability to deal with deep blocks actually declined last year. Sure, we were on the side of better fine margins, but it didn’t feel like there were as many tools in our attacking Arsenal as there had been in prior seasons. Some of that was down to injuries, some of it down to one-dimensional players, some of that was down to Carlos Cuesta leaving for Parma… but some of it was down to not having enough variety in our play.

Bruno really is the most Roy of the Rovers player in the Premier League. He can play as a 6, an 8, or a 10. He’s extremely progressive in the way he shapes his passing, always looking to find strikers, always moving the ball forward, driving teams on with relentless positivity.

This will work well for our wide player, who he’ll be able to find earlier with sharp long balls; think back to how good Granit Xhaka was for Martinelli. This will work well for Gyokeres/Kai who will have a partner who might be able to find his darting runs (Swede’s speed might be a problem). This should work well for a team struggling in a mid to deep block because he has bravery and accuracy.

Newcastle laid out the one negative of the deal… this is the most expensive midfield deal, ever, for a 28-year-old in the Premier League in that position. We have 3 good seasons out of this player. This is very much a now-type of signing. I’m not a massive fan of Berta and Arteta and the desire to keep loading up with players 26 and older. This can lead the team to a crash in 4 years’ time when all of a sudden, you look old, players are broken all the time, and you’re facing up to a massive rebuild the funds might not be able to support. But look, this is someone who the club have clearly said, f*ck it, we don’t care about resale, we care about preserving our ability to fight in midfield while we rest players.

Great signing. Love the player. We can all see the vision. This is going to be fun.

This isn’t a fun tweet. Romero being open to joining Arsenal is both not a surprise and very worrying. This is the sort of thing Arsenal were doing under Raul Sanllehí. I can’t for the life of me understand how anyone has looked at the player’s performances, his body language, his public statements, his red cards, or how he treated Spurs last season and thought… yes, this is a name I want to push to the centre of the table.

Someone said Spurs won’t sell to us? Are you sure? No one hates the club more than their captain. I’m sure they’d send him our way in a heartbeat. This is worse than the Willian deal because at least the Brazilian was a top professional revered by team-mates and coaches alike. I have no interest in the captain of Spurs. You should be able to make a move like that and have Spurs fans crying about it… not celebrating, begging for the £38m that would come from Arsenal that they could spend on a new air conditioning unit that’d do more for the team than him.

The only way I could love this signing is if they’re putting the rumour out to soften the blow of Ezri Konsa. You know, like when a doctor tells you that you have something terminal just to soften the blow that you’ll need to take pills for a few weeks. Oh, your doctor doesn’t do that? Hmmm…

Kenan Yıldız is attracting attention in the rumour mill. The story is that we’re making him a target for a £100m bid this summer. This feels like a Houssem Aouar type story. I like the player from an aesthetic perspective. He has a bit of the Rayan Cherki about him in terms of magic and occasional crazy output in terms of wonder goals, but I’m just not having it that anyone from Serie A is carrying a price tag that extreme. Especially a player who was so dismally underwhelming at the World Cup against some very average teams. 10 goals, 6 assists, in Serie A last season. 1 goal, 2 assists in the Champions League. Honestly, it’s just not a deal that moves the needle for me. What problem are you solving at this point? He’s not the next level and he’s not better than Martinelli.

I am very firmly in the camp of ‘don’t spend without guarantees’ and you might say there are no guarantees in football. Sure, but there are players who everyone can agree are level raisers, and there are players who need a season at Chelsea, Newcastle, or Bournemouth to see if they’re going to fly. Too many players Arsenal are being linked with have NOW prices, for high-ceiling potential. Our high-ceiling potential on the left is Tzolis, the biggest output merchant in Europe last season. Martinelli is a top player, if he has to stay, no problem for me.

Anyway, plenty of window to go. Arsenal adding Bruno to the midfield is really something. I’m pretty happy with Tzolis. Now we have to move on a centre back and see if we can do something sexy on the left… we also have to sell some players. Just hoping we don’t cut into some of my favourites. Let’s see what Berta has for us!

P.S. I have an apology to make about something I said in the podcast. I read that Kroupi had a 5th metatarsal injury. I read it as his 5th injury of the same metatarsal, not the injury of the singular bone called the fifth metatarsal. Damn, I am dumb as a rock. I’m still not signing a player with a broken foot regardless.

Oh, why not sign up to the podcast of a person who gets things like that wrong? Yeah, it’s good fun. Get onboard before the start of the season. Members pod dropping later today. x

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Here’s what’s inside:

🔥 Hottest of Takes — Johnny makes the case that the Vinicius saga was never really about Vinicius — it was about the Martinelli question we’ve been avoiding all summer. Pete’s take reframes the entire window: the system is still the star, and a tweet from a fan account called Josephine of Arsenal might actually be the most rational thing said about this whole saga

😅 Moving On From Vinicius — a tweet doing the rounds makes the case that Madrid panicking and keeping Vinicius has cost them Rodri, handed City a weakness, and set a wage precedent that will haunt their dressing room. Pete and Johnny take the copium and run

🛡️ Ezri Konsa — Not Bowled Over, But Fine — Pete admits he’s not jumping up and down. Johnny makes the Xhaka under Emery comparison and makes a genuinely compelling case for why Arteta might make a man out of him. Both agree: if he does well, this podcast gets deleted

💸 Last Summer’s Signings — The Honest Verdict — were Gyökeres, Eze and Madüeke successes? Johnny says the system raised the floor when fans thought it was raising the ceiling. Pete defends every purchase. Eze’s Bergkamp goal at Newcastle alone changed the title race

📺 FPL Picks — Members Only — Johnny is pretty good at FPL. He’s putting his picks out. You’re not getting them unless you’re on Patreon (NEXT EPISODE)

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The dream ended in a cold sweat, Vini Jnr, signing a deal until 2032, worth a lot of cash money.

It was fun while it lasted.

My personal view is this story has done a lot for the reputation of Arsenal. To be a stalking horse with Vini Jnr is quite simply a space we’ve never occupied. Call it cope, call me a weak melt, say what you like… it is just an unfathomable position for us to be in when you think back to 5 years ago when we were put in a similar position with… Vlahović.

What have we learned?

Big dawg moves are competitive: There’s a section of the fan base that struggles with the idea of competition for signatures. Signing footballers at the high end of the game takes time, it requires patience, and quite often it involves a large slathering of disappointment. You have to be in the mix, you have to be serious, and you have to have the finances… we’ve never had all three of those things… now we do.

Stalking Madrid: I’m not sure how much of a lesson this is, but I’d certainly question stalking Madrid players. Not because the talent isn’t outrageous, but their culture is very questionable. Players do as they please, they are treated like royalty, and they tend to love where they are. Vini Jnr, if he signed, would have been fabulous… but, we can’t discount the feeling we all had in the pit of our stomachs here. This was NOT an Arteta player. Vini Jnr had a huge role in downing Alonso — and quite simply, he had not been coached properly in 8 years. He’s raw, unadulterated talent… but how far does that go in the Premier League? A place that requires hard work, a tactical aptitude that is higher than most other leagues, and a desire to share the load.

Move Quick: The thing I liked about this whole bag of nonsense is the club sprang out of nowhere to make the offer, and we landed the resolution really fast. This didn’t drag.

Moving forward, there are some things I’m watching out for… my biggest concern? That we sign someone to sign someone. We did that last year. The club powered through and won the league… but I think when you look at overall value, we didn’t get a lot out of the signings. Like, be honest here, how many players would Arsenal get a return on right now? Eze… no chance. Madueke? Give me a break. Gyokeres? Almost certainly no. We overspent and we put money down on players that weren’t really totally suited to the club. Now, we’re lumped with them.

The danger now is you sign a left winger for the sake of it and you overspend again. Iliman Ndiaye for £70m would feel like that sort of signing. 15 goals in 67 appearances. Like, why would we do that? What problem are we solving here?

Look at this chart here! The whole point about restoring the left was that we’d bring in players who are output machines… and the output machine on our list is Martinelli? Those numbers haven’t been adjusted for league difficulty either. We’re really thinking about getting rid of Martinelli to take a chance that one of the above players can IMPROVE their output in the hardest league in the world, for a team that faces the lowest deep block over the course of a season? Get out of here…

It’s better to do nothing than spend £100m on someone who isn’t right. Remember, we’re the Premier League champions, we made the Champions League final, we did that without a whole group of excellent players. We are not Spurs dropping £100m on Tonali here. We can be cute with our cash.

The player I want to see at Arsenal is Julián Álvarez. He’s world class, can occupy the left, can play in the hole, he makes everyone around him better, and the combo of him and Kai Havertz working together could be truly mesmeric. My one concern? This boy wants Barcelona. That won’t stop him being effective for Arsenal, I’m just not sure I want to go into battle for a player who has Arsenal firmly as our second choice. Or maybe I’m just being a wet lettuce here and I need to remember the first rule of football… you go where the money is and where you can get the move. After all, these guys are top professionals. That said, Miguel Delaney, friend of the pod, reckons the player is more likely to stay at Atleti than exit… that stalls any exchange for Viktor as well, which makes me REAL sad.

Álvarez comes with less risk for me. He’s played under two psycho managers, he’s done it in the Premier League, and he has the technical capabilities we love… extremely hard-working, and just incredibly efficient creatively. The numbers weren’t great last season, but nor were Atleti. The thing I like about Álvarez is he’s a big game player. He scored that screamer in the World Cup when Argentina had nothing… and he scored that wild free kick against Barca in the Champions League. He’s a ‘give me the ball and watch’ kind of attacker that’ll give us a different type of edge. But overall… he’s just incredible in all aspects of his game.

One rumour I find deeply disturbing, mostly because it comes from Gunnerblog, is that we’re interested in Romero. There are two ways of looking at this rumour.

1. We are declaring interest to spark interest. Villa are looking for a centre back with the hope of maybe shifting Konsa who I suspect wants out to Arsenal. Villa are a stepping-stone club, Emery is a stepping-stone manager, it’s good for the project to sell players to Arsenal because it makes it easier to bring in top talent that might go to more glamorous places. Arsenal declaring interest in a player like Romero creates a market of interest.

2. This is a Heinze nudge. One of the most influential coaches at the club is the Argentine, who is friends on and off the pitch with Arteta. He is Argentinian and the only way I would ever imagine Arsenal considering a signing that is this toxic is if there were personal assurances in some capacity.

I find the whole idea deeply troubling. It’s a banter era link. It makes no sense against any of the values Arsenal has as a modern club. He’s not a winner, he’s toxic to the dressing room, his public spats are cringe, his lack of discipline nearly relegated Spurs last season… and remember, to cap it off, the captain of Spurs had to be persuaded to be in London for the final relegation battle of the season because he wanted to go and see his hometown club play.

Why would we go there? Even my Spurs mates were messaging me laughing at that story. The caveat of ‘Spurs wouldn’t sell’ is so funny to me. Of course they would sell to Arsenal. They’d sell to anyone with money. He’s not a protected player. This isn’t like we’d be signing Sol Campbell. This would be like inviting a Trojan horse to the door… and inside, is just a sludge of stale milk. I’m not having it. A crime of a link if ever there was one. This is worse than Raul trying to get Vítor Pereira in to replace Unai Emery.

Player exits are anything but hot right now. Not only are we stumbling on signings, we’re also doing a pretty average job on exits. The only story with a hint of spice to it is centered around Jesus, who has attracted a bid from Napoli. Kind of perfect really, great club, competitive, and at a level that suits the player. It’ll be a league that is softer on his body and I suspect his tekkers will serve him well there. I’d take any number. Just get him off our books and fast.

Beyond that… I hear we’re hawking players around Europe in a variety of roles, and we’ll have to wait and see how it all pans out.

One last thing… Man City have lost Rodri to Barcelona. The rumor is Maresca is targeting Enzo to right the ship there. Good player, but the sort of player Pep G would have nowhere near Man City. So I like the move. I also like that he’s targeting Pedro Neto as well. The slow diminishment of excellence is a good thing.

So… it’s starting to look like an unkind window for Arsenal. I don’t think the club needed a huge amount this window, but I certainly hoped that we’d have more options on the table and that we might have had more of our business wrapped up at this point. But the key here might be that there isn’t a lot to be done this summer and we wait. Fans won’t like it, but honestly, it’s better than loading up on more 26+ players that are filler vs thriller.

Plenty of time to go… let’s see how Friday plays out. x

P.S. Get subbed up for the season right now… it’ll be a big one. 200+ podcasts. 2 premium articles a week. Access to the Discord. Members specials on data. Feel good factor OFF THE SCALE. Get involved. x

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Here’s what’s inside:

🔥 Hottest of Takes — Johnny’s take is a hot pre-season defence: it’s not about the result, it’s about the pattern. And one pattern is worrying him. Pete’s take is about Hector Bellerin’s haircut and why he has irrevocably fallen out of love with the man. Calafiori and Myles are his new style icons

😤 Big Vik — His Own Section — Pete and Johnny give Gyökeres the space he deserves. Dropped balls, a stinker of a game, and a frank conversation about whether this is just a blip or something that needs addressing before Coventry

🧤 Kepa — Still In The Crapper — a look back at Palace, a look at Betis, and a consistent pattern of errors that neither of them can explain away

👶 The Academy Kids — the ones who caught the eye, the ones who didn’t, and Pete’s very specific admiration for a teenage defensive midfielder who’s making everyone’s head turn

💸 The Bargain Bucket Problem — Fabio Vieira, Reiss Nelson and Gabriel Jesus all got minutes. Pete is furious. Johnny explains the Arteta logic. Arsenal still can’t sell anyone and Oxlade-Chamberlain remains the most expensive player they’ve ever sold. It’s crazy

😬 The Squad Clog — Who Actually Goes? — Pete and Johnny go through the names. The surprising one is Eze — Johnny raises the possibility that if the right bid came in, the club might listen. Ethan is likely gone. Martinelli triggers the domino. And Berta is apparently sending out a brochure

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Pete and Johnny. It’s Thursday. The Vinicius deal is dead. Pete needs a wellness check on Johnny. And there is a lot to get through.

Here’s what’s inside:

🔥 Hottest of Takes — Johnny delivers a nuanced defence of Arsenal’s pursuit: Vinicius wasn’t choosing another club over Arsenal, he was choosing to stay put. That’s a completely different thing. Pete’s take is the hotter one — Arsenal might have dodged a bullet. The Özil parallels. The pressing demands. The cuckold behaviour. Pete is processing

😤 Vinicius — The Full Debrief — what actually happened, what it says about Arsenal as a global force, and why the fact that Florentino Pérez panicked and wrote a new contract says more than anything else about where this club now sits. Johnny invokes Apple vs Samsung. Pete invokes Anelka to Madrid in 1999

🎵 Bruno Guimaraes — Give Him His Flowers — he deserves more airtime than he’s been getting this week. Pete and Johnny go through what he offers, what the midfield combinations now look like, and why Zubimendi’s future suddenly looks more complicated

🔮 Could Zubimendi Go To Madrid? — an unexpected twist. Rodri’s gone. Madrid have space. And there are whispers. Johnny has a very specific and quite brilliant strategy for how Arsenal should handle any approach

🌟 Who Plugs The Vini Gap? — Barcola is back in the frame, and Pete makes the case for why both clubs flirting with other targets means there’s common ground to find. Kvarascalia is also discussed. The window is not closed

📅 What Happens Now? — 17 days to the season. One more winger needed. A squad clogged with players who need to move. Pete and Johnny map out what the rest of August looks like and why they’re still excited

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Arsenal were hammered by Real Betis in the second pre-season friendly in Ireland. The gap in quality led me to believe that someone in the Arsenal camp had introduced the fresh-off-the-boat immigrants to Guinness in a bid to pilfer their pink boots. It was a leggy showing against a team that maybe took the game a little too seriously… making just a single change by the 73rd minute.

This blog will have some thoughts on the players, the Vini Jnr mess, rumblings on exits, and some chatter on who is smashing it up in training, enjoy!

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My word, these daily mini-drops of Bruno G progress… It’s floating on a Texas river in summer with an average light beer in hand… no, it’s like going to one of those beauty salons in Thailand, with the little fish that clean up your disgusting feet… NO, it’s like a wet razor to the back of your neck after a fine haircut at a Turkish barbers in north London.

‘What do you think boss?’

I love it, I truly love it; no one has ever shaved that part of my neck so well.

That is me to David Ornstein’s tweets, in private. Simply, I love it… I’m applauding my laptop in a coffee shop, a little misty-eyed; I’m inviting the patrons to look at the content, to share in the moment; I’m whooping and slapping backsides with people I don’t know because we’re all sharing in this beautiful historic timestamp, together, as friends. I might even give the Americans a bone here and shout ‘LET’S GO BRUNO’ because Americans love saying that phrase for literally any reason.

Ok, so I’m no longer in that coffee shop writing the blog. But I am having a good time. I wrote this the day after we were robbed of the Morgan Rogers deal.

I have heard there are strong feelings of positivity that Arsenal will get the Bruno deal over the line in the coming weeks. The fee will not be £100m, Newcastle have to sell him, I have my doubts that United would go to £100m in a gazump move. I also have faith that this player does actually want Arsenal, and so does his agent (I know what I said earlier). A deal is there to be done and there are absolutely no doubts about his ability to impact the club. For me, Bruno would be a better signing for our needs than Rogers ever could be, even with the age issue.

My overall thesis of the summer was that Arsenal were going to stick to valuations — and the valuation Arsenal didn’t want to go over was £75m and that is what the deal has been set at. It’s a spicy number for someone who is 28 years old, but it’s still within the realm of universal reality. There was a big concern a month ago that Premier League player valuations were going through the roof and the starting number for anyone good would be £100m. Well, I think we are starting to see that this sort of viewpoint is tainted.

There is the traditional view of market value, which is… the value is what the market will pay. But I don’t think we can accept that as how it is. We’re not buying a 2 up, 2 down in Newham here. We’re buying fine art. Art values are in the eye of the beholder, or more often than not, who you are buying against… and sometimes you’re buying against a madman.

Man City do not represent the market, they are a nation state unencumbered by reality (when they want it to be that way, we mustn’t forget that prior to the last 2 years, they generally stuck to valuations and often walked from deals). Elliot Anderson isn’t a £116m player, but they’re in a rush for some reason, and they just went there with that number.

Chelsea are also manipulators of the traditional view of the market. They signed Morgan Rogers to much hoopla. £117m was, in fact, a trap. They signed the deal, then Aston Villa used that money to overspend on Garnacho, which brought the net of that deal down to about £72m… a number we can all agree looked far more appropriate for Morgan.

The rest of the league is mostly doing deals that look pretty normal. When it’s club-to-club and there’s nothing weird going on, you can get some value in the market.

Talking of weird, it has not gone unnoticed that Fulham ownership is very close to Madrid ownership and their dealings this summer have looked very weird. Arbeloa was an odd hire as were the two Madrid benchwarmers they added.

Back to Arsenal…

What I am worried about is that Arsenal seem to be quite incapable of getting value for their own players. Reiss, Jesus, and Ethan are all still here… and it would seem that the most likely exit of them all is going to be the English teenager who is attracting interest from serial flipper… RB Leipzig.

Vidal reckons the fee will be €40m with a buyback option.

I’m sorry… what?

This is a kid who scored 9 goals in his breakout Premier League season. Leipzig are collecting €120m for Yan Diomandé. How have we landed with a lower fee than we picked up for Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2017? How can the fee be about the same as the Balogun one 3 years ago? This is a crown jewel in a market that overspends on teenagers. I feel affronted… there just doesn’t seem to be a premium on Arsenal players. Jamie Gittens moved to Chelsea for £52m last summer! We can only get £35m for Ethan? Crazy… just crazy.

The only positive I can take from this deal is that we basically have a regret clause in it. My view is that Ethan is going to get a very good education at a club well known for turning raw talent into the exceptional. Klopp has given the bland out-of-possession football the heave-ho, so he’ll be learning a better game out there… this was a snippet David Raum, their fullback, on the changes at Leipzig.

"With the ball, we play a little bit different,"

"A different formation but we play with clear wingers now and this helps us as fullbacks because we have very, very good wingers, good one-v-one players and if we can bring them into the game, it's very hard for every opponent and last season we played more with a [No.] 8 and wingers, they played more from the middle so I had the full line as a fullback and this season, it's more different because I have one in front of me and we can play with double wings. A little bit different but I like it."

Sounds good for Ethan, depending on where he plays… and my view is he’ll smash it in Germany and be a hot prospect for the Premier League in 18 months’ time. He just needs minutes.

Finally, we should start to hear rumblings today about whether our summer BIG signing is going to happen. Vini Jnr had his people in with Florentino. The discussion was about getting his pay up to Mbappé levels. If the President agrees, then Vini stays, if he doesn’t, they will push Arsenal to pay €140m to bring him to London. I find that a little rich for a player with one year left on their deal, but honestly, it’s not my cash to worry about. Vini would represent a significant shift in how Arsenal are viewed globally and if we can make it work, then we should make it work.

Arsenal face off against Real Betis this evening. I’m reading the club won’t have it on the website behind a paywall, but they should have it on YouTube later. I think. I can’t find much on the .com. Quite a messy site if we’re honest.

Anyway, I’m off to read that Bruno story one more time… also, check out the latest podcast with me and Johnny!

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Here’s what’s inside:

🔥 Hottest of Takes — Johnny has changed his mind on Ethan Nwaneri after watching the Girona game and he’s brave enough to say so out loud. Pete’s tak…

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I was always fascinated as a young man by public personas and their lack of apologies when it came to owning their errors.

‘Why not just say sorry, is it that hard?’

Then I became a hardened adult and realized that apologies actually seem to do nothing in this ridiculous culture of ours, just as changing your mind is oddly seen as a sign of weakness, versus being an enlightened viewpoint. Apologizing is perceived as weak; the admittance of guilt makes you more likely to be canceled; it’s almost never worth it.

Oh, you thought I was gearing up for an apology of my own? No, my friends, you’ll not be hearing a more nuanced view from me on Vik, nor shall I apologize for my crusade against his touch. I was here to talk about Arsene Wenger and his response to the FIFA debacle.

The recent events at FIFA deserve some clarity from my side.

At FIFA, I am the Chief of Global Football Development.

Together with my team, I oversee the data analysis of the game, the FIFA online training centre, the development of youth education through 60 academies across 60 countries where they are most needed, and youth competitions around the world.

In addition, I am a technical adviser to IFAB. I was not involved in this strategic plan and first became aware of the project through media reports.

The decision to withdraw the project was absolutely necessary and beyond question, because I firmly believe in an independent FIFA that serves our game with commitment, transparency, and integrity.

This is where I become part of the unenlightened… the statement we all wanted isn’t good enough, is it? Coming in, on your white horse, to a battlefield strewn with bodies, to declare moral clarity over something his very reputation was at least partially used for to create moral cloud cover is… meek leadership.

You could say that it is not normal for folk to go against their boss, but my response would be that Wenger isn’t in a normal job. He’s not living pay cheque to pay cheque. I am going to go out on a limb here… he’s not the most qualified person to perform that role. He’s there because he is famous, and the optics of him there are a credibility cleanser.

I just don’t understand how legacy isn’t the most important thing for him right now. He’s well into his seventies, has £50m sitting in the bank, and he’s spent much of his career railing against the damage money has done to the purity of the game… how does he not recognize he has an obligation to speak out? Arsene waited until the coast was clear, put out the bare minimum, absolved himself of any involvement, and… didn’t resign like some of the others at FIFA. Even the Goldman guy showed more backbone…

‘Yeah, it was a bit shit lads. As you were, I’ve got an offside rule to butcher, and a wonderful dinner planned with JP Morgan’

Arsene Wenger’s statement was so slow, we actually heard from Gianni Infantino first. It’s like offering your endorsement to a mayor after the election. Nice, but really, timing was everything here. FIFA uses star power as a heat shield for the things they get up to. This was not good enough from someone we kind of expected more from, especially considering the last 15 years of his career were spent complaining about unfairness and a lack of transparency in the game.

Vini Jnr has Arsenal fans in all sorts of emotional mess. I couldn’t believe that people in the comments section here were complaining that we were competing for his signature… just in case he said no. Online cowardice! This is NOT the way. We are jungle cats, at the top of our game, and we are now the hunters… the dinosaurs are gone, we are the apex predator. Trust the process until the process can be trusted no longer.

Top players always have competition for their signatures. But when it comes down to it, the one thing that usually sways deals… is money. It’s always money. Kids giving their careers to Man City over Arsenal are doing it for… money. Doesn’t matter if they’ll be at Celtic in 2 years; money is the driving force for 99% of deals. Vini might learn to love Arsenal, but what he’ll love more is a massive signing-on bonus and a pay package that will make him feel like a king. I don’t need to see Thierry posters on the wall; I don’t care about his old tweets not containing content supporting Lacazette as a number 10 due to his lack of speed and ability to press defenders, I care who wears the Arsenal shirt at the start of the season… and we are in the mixer for Vini Jnr, and no serious person in the world should be complaining that it might not go our way. This is sport; give me a club that will fight in the ring versus an exec team that cowers from the competitive nature of the game.

My view is that the deal Arsenal have sent Vini Jnr’s way was not used as a bluff, it was used as a way to show Madrid that another club could love him, and he will run towards the love. The aggression from his camp is to get a yes or a no from Madrid. He doesn’t want to do one more year on the bench getting booed when he goes to Mercadona for leche; he wants to play, unencumbered, in a place that makes him feel like a king. If the deal rests with Perez, we’ll see what happens, but I think he might have to think about future deals, and Vini might be in for a shock.

A lot of hope there, but hey, if we listened to the wisdom of the crowd, we’d have signed Maddison over Odegaard, because the Norwegian was boring. Arsenal SHOULD be in for Vini Jnr; this is where we want to be as a club; this is the future: be in for headline-grabbing players and grab headlines in the biggest games. What a move this could be…

Arsenal only went and did the damn deal for Bruno G. What a signing. Magnificent. I am at ease, finally.

There is now, however, a desire among all parties to bring the situation to a close and a deal is on course for completion. Guimaraes is awaiting permission to undergo a medical and seal a move to north London.

There has been a lot of spleen venting from Newcastle media over this deal, mainly, I think, because it represents a total end to their current project. The club, owned by PIF, has given up on a generation of stars who were about to enter their peak, instead, opting to go young with top foreign talent. Must feel kind of rank if you stood outside St. James park wrapped in a Saudi flag to see this happen to your team. They’re now a budget Brighton.

Arsenal have returned to what they know best… signing top-tier Premier League talent to help them retain their first in 22 years. This signing is about leadership; it’s about aura, bit, aggression, and relentless dedication to moving the ball forward with incisive passing and bold shot-taking.

You just can’t knock a signing this bold. Readymade, all the way. I am extremely excited what he’ll do for the mood of the club and what he’ll do for our likability. We’re a box office hate watch of the highest order. Magnificent.

Also, a couple of things I wanted to address for any new readers. I try to write this blog daily during the season. I started this article at 5am. Sometimes I write during the day. The evenings are good to me, but that’s harder when I’m out of the country. I also manage the podcast; I mostly write the topics, edit the show, manage the transcripts, and make the silly graphics. It’s a lot. I don’t tell you this for sympathy; I mostly like doing it, but in 2026, I am fully admitting to you, so you are under no illusions: I use AI to support me. I know some people have made it part of their personality to hate on AI. For me, it’s the only way I can be present with my family, whilst servicing my online best friends (you) with disgusting amounts of content about the etam we love.

Two reasons I tell you this:

1) I move at speed and make mistakes (NO APOLOGIES FOR THAT), like leaving AI prompts in posts sometimes. It happens. But if you saw my one earlier in the week, it’s to auto-correct my spelling and grammar.

I don’t use AI to write, I use it to make sure there are no dumb mistakes, it’s basically my editor, but just for typos.

All ideas are mine, and you know they are because AI would steer me away from writing about raspberries and the fineries of craft ice. My tools are Grammarly (spelling plugin), Claude (post editing, research, financial data synthesis, transcript conversion to pod descriptions), Midjourney (little graphics), Opus (social clips), and Adobe (thumbnails). Everything is about speed with this site; there’s no world where I’m taking jobs from people, because there’s no way I could afford to hire people to do jobs that don’t really offer that much heft to the blog. My needs for a good experience are quite basic… the site needs to look pretty, my words need to be error-lite, content needs to land fast.

2) If, for some reason, you wanted to check the veracity of my statements, there’s a tool built into Substack called Pangram that allows you to see how much of my work is written by me. Could you imagine LinkedIn if they did the same? I don’t think you need it, but if you want to police me with AI, here’s how.

Ok, podcast coming out later with Johnny; until then, get in the comments section and battle with the naysayers on Vini Jnr. x

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I think the American equivalent of the World Cup food odyssey so many Europeans went on is a bunch of Midwest soccer fans going to Sainsbury’s and experiencing the fresh produce aisle. America is being ravaged here by a berry scene so bland, it might need an investigation. They don’t know what is happening in the UK berry farms. They are not prepared for what £3.25 can buy you. Their strawberries should be indicted on fraud charges for crimes against taste… I have been spoiled, truly, by Sainsbury’s.

Don’t even get me started on the innovations I’m seeing at M&S. It’s too unfair for me to write those things on a global blog. It’d be like introducing a Nokia 3210 user to an iPhone 17. We just can’t be taking responsibility for the outcry this would cause, so I’ll save it for another day.

Final point about London. The lady from The Economist, telling the guy that never goes to London that he didn’t know what he was talking about when it comes to London burning narratives, was so, so right. I just can’t quite grasp how so many people in America ask me about how dangerous London is because a bunch of nerds on Twitter say it’s like Baghdad 25 years ago. I spent 4 days walking the city with my kids, all over the place, and the only complaint I had was the heat. London, without doubt, is one of the greatest cities on the planet, and the pleasantness of just walking it can’t really be matched by many others (personal bias, but walking New York doesn’t measure up to walking London).

I’m also blown away by how much newness there is everywhere and the diversity of what they are building - everything connects, the design language is varied but seamless, and so much care goes into the important things. You are so blessed in big cities to have the range of things to do, at any price point, and have so much of it be at such an outrageously high quality. If you live in the city, you are truly blessed, and I might actually be jealous of you… and if we meet, maybe I try and bring you down in other ways that aren’t immediately clear… but trust me, it’s related to the jealousy, not your t-shirt looking a little frumpy.

Talking of things that make me happy… how about the journalist from The Telegraph finally coming to the table with the reality of what is happening to Bruno?

I love this brand of ‘yeah, but I was right hactually’… but the deeper point here, outside this all being quite amusing, is that the Bruno story is going to culminate in a closure of sorts very soon, just as so many have said for weeks.

I don’t need to keep saying the same things here, you know my view, I think this could quite possibly be the most important signing of the summer. It’s one of those unassuming deals that gives Arsenal a quality injection that will feel totally seamless when we need it most. Bruno represents a pressure release valve in midfield for the concentration of minutes that led to dead games last season… and he also gives us an injection of quality attributes that we maybe lack. He’s very good going forward, he’s progressive in his thinking, and he gives us shot action threat that we kind of have… but it’s underutilized.

The Vini Jnr story hasn’t had any notable updates. It seems pretty set. The player has an Arsenal offer that is very rich. He’ll take a lesser deal from Madrid, but they have to budge on the loyalty bonus. Arsenal think they have the funds to pull him out of there if the player decides he wants to be a global superstar at the bigger club.

Do I have that right? Of course I do. I’ve been fuelling my brain with Sainsbury’s raspberries; I think I know what I’m talking about.

Being an Arsenal fan, I do have to protect my feelings, and think about the worst case… because I’m not sure what that is right now. Nothing will feel like a Vini transfer, but we do have some problems to solve on the left if that’s the case. Will we pressure Atlético for Álvarez? Will Barcola be an option? I also have questions about the budget, because one senses there isn’t a set pool of money dedicated to anyone on the left. What I mean by that is this: if we miss out on Vini, I don’t think there’s £400k a week and £140m for Bradley Barcola. Again, could be totally wrong here, but this whole mega push by Arsenal isn’t a deal that has been on a whim… it feels like the club has been working on it for a while, and everyone is in lockstep on doing a madness because it’s Vini Jnr, he’s a big f*cking deal, and he comes with far more guarantees than anyone else on the market on the left (I include Kvara, who had quite poor numbers last season, and has played in slow leagues).

You know what else I have my eye on? The 6 or so players we should be shifting this summer to bring in some cash money. I’m not sure I read too much into Arteta saying Gyok is staying, anything can change in football. I think there are plenty of names that could exit if bids came our way… I’m just not entirely sure there seem to be too many bids at the moment. Martinelli is the most shocking of them all, because he’s an objectively top talent, who stays fit, and does big things in big games. How can no one be at our door with a begging bowl, but they’ll be ready with an £80m bid for Kroupi?

I just can’t get myself excited about £15m for Vieira or £7m for Norgaard. Get me some proper cash. I want to see big numbers. I can’t have Ox as the biggest sale ever. How am I reading £35m for Nwaneri yet Man City paid €31.20m for Oscar Bobb last season? Are Arsenal being discriminated against for sale? Have we been blackballed for saying something unsavoury at a Premier League meeting of the minds? Did someone cook fish in the office microwave at the Sporting Directors Selling conference? I need to know, because the lack of deals is fishy. BAD fishy, if you get what I’m saying.

I’m not too dialled into everyone else’s pre-season games yet, but it was interesting to see Chelsea lose to Spurs, and concede 4 against Western Sydney. You’d best believe I was dialled into Leeds walloping Liverpool 4-2, with Iraola’s players having a little bust-up. I also had to listen to Enzo Maresca say that Man City have to try and win the Premier League, or at least fight until the end, but he feels it’s too early… staggering. How does chatter like that go down in a dressing room that I’d imagine might need convincing on Maresca as the heir apparent to the greatest winner of all time? Badly, is my hope.

Ok, I’m at the end of my post, I’m back at home this week, so the good blogs will flow like wine, and the podcasts will get back on track.

Just a quick 1300 word post from me today as I am traveling out of Great Britain back to the sandy shores of Missouri.

This is a little mix of a Girona breakdown, some Vini chatter, and a roundup of some transfer rumors bubbling (one horrible one as a trigger warning)… sign up for a membership and be free to get all the content you need this season! I’ll get back to all those who requested comps for the season when I’m back home. x

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Expect serious Vini discussion, Brazil vs Brits, the fight for 7 and hope for outgoings.

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Late evening post from me because the news hitting the feeds is that personal terms have been agreed by Vini Jnr.

🚨 EXCL: Arsenal Football Club have personal terms agreed in principle with Vinícius Júnior. Roc Nation will go armed into negotiations with Real Madrid with a monstrous offer from the English Champions……. over to you Vinícius Júnior.

The streets said Hand of Arsenal was finished, but his resurrection this summer has hit harder than Jesus at Easter.

Just think back 7 years, when Arsenal were in the death throes of the banter era… now imagine someone told you then that in 2026 Arsenal would be loading up the best left winger in the world with a massive offer they were going to use to bully Real Madrid.

Quite extraordinary. We have no idea what the reaction will be, whether Madrid can compete for it, whether they even want this to happen… but we do know we’re in the mixer.

What would be interesting to know is how much of this deal is predicated on image rights vs the base pay. Vini, as it stands, takes 50% of his image rights, but the rumblings are that those image rights are so rich, the part that Madrid owns covers the entire Vini Jnr salary.

Arsenal offering Vini 100% of his image rights is quite the kickback.

His base salary varies depending on where you look. Some say £410k a week, others put it at about £280k a week, I’m guessing that it’s closer to the lower number. If he moves to Arsenal, are we going to put him on the same salary as Saka to keep him in our pay structure, but give him the extra £17m to £25m a year in image rights?

Or… are we also going to smash our pay structure and make him a true mega star of the league. I can’t quite work out what the plan is there. If Arsenal reflect a £20m pay rise, that’s quite a lot, but unless we’re going mega on the salary, we’re opening ourselves up to competition for his signature… even though I have looked at that and can’t see many openings in the league that would suit his brand.

Man City? They already bought Monga.

Not sure Vini Jnr feels like a Liverpool player.

Chelsea aren’t at the level.

Not really anyone else, is there?

The whole thing is delicious, but we do have to remember, this is still very much a play to flush out the intentions of Real Madrid.

It’s a ‘do you really love me’ move… and we know Vini Jnr loves Madrid. The question is, do Madrid want to break their pay structure and their image rights approach for someone that might cost them Haaland and Olise next summer?

I have a feeling Madrid might just… sell him. This is unprecedented behaviour for a Madrid superstar. This is disruptive. It is precedent-setting. It has made the Spanish club look like they are not controlling the narrative. They have their ‘look at how ungrateful this guy is’ story… and deep down, they know Haaland will feel newer and fresher. The nuclear option is rarely the right move… even in business, when someone comes with a mega offer to me, I usually let them go, because their head is already in another job and when you renew, that’s never the end of the story. It rarely lasts longer than a year, then everyone else in the workforce knows they can bully you.

Madrid sit at the top of the food chain, no one bullies them.

The potency of optics and their lust for the new could work in our favour… but as you know, I gaslight myself on subjects like these, and I am naturally toxic positive.

This story is so dominant right now, it’s had me ignoring the Bruno G story. Well, the French press is now reporting that a fee of about £70m has been agreed or will be agreed, and the Brazilian monster will be an Arsenal player before the start of the season. Quite the coup. You really have to feel for the Telegraph journalist who self-immolated on the timeline, insisting that Newcastle, a club that sells all its stars, would absolutely not sell this star… I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a sports writer take a transfer so personally… good online entertainment though.

Final piece: it became very clear why Infantino invented a Peace Prize and spent extraordinary amounts of time with the President of the United States. He was leaning into his family ties to sell off parts of the World Cup’s commercial rights.

The gist: put FIFA’s commercial business into a $20 billion entity, then sell 20% to Thrive Capital (Kushner aligned), to raise $4.2 billion for FIFA. He then went to bribe all 211 FIFA nations with $40m each to back the plan. All kinds of ghastly, but mostly ridiculous, because FIFA doesn’t need the money.

The Arsenal interest here is that Arsene Wenger works for FIFA, and he’s not spoken out about it or resigned. Quite incredible that a man who built his legacy on integrity to a fault hasn’t had a look at this and wondered if his reputation might be tarnished by standing by something more toxic than the Super League.

The good news is UEFA has all its nations whipped into agreeing they’d boycott this disgusting plan, and they’ve now formally voted on it, not just threatened it. Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker who was advising Infantino, has bounced, saying he had no involvement in the proposal and opposes it unequivocally. CONCACAF has also said they won’t go along with the plan. At this point it’s dead on arrival, and I cannot imagine Infantino survives this flaming bonfire of a scandal. Quite tough to sink to levels so grim you lose your job at an organization that kind of bakes a little corruption into the job.

Hopefully the bigger associations put pressure on him to resign, and after he goes, there’s a proper restructure and a rethink on how things are done. I really don’t care that much about international football, so apologies for not having something a little more full-throated. I’m just too hyped on Vini to care.

Anyway, good times for Arsenal, right? See you in the comments. I’m having fun. x

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The Vini Jnr story, despite Gary Cotterill’s insistence, appears to be very much on the cards…

It’s hard to pinpoint a central point of truth right now — and I suspect that’s the same for Arsenal folk who are at the centre of the saga.

Some things to note that give me hope that something could happen…

The big advantage Arsenal have with regards to finances is that we can offer Vini Jnr 100% of his image rights. A player of his pedigree would be doing much better if his agency, Roc Nation, could put more of those deals into his pocket.

Another thing no one wants to talk about is that Arsenal are probably a bigger club right now from a cultural perspective. New Yorkers won’t spill out onto the streets for yet another Real Madrid formality trophy. Sure, they are a spectacle, but they’re the bell of the ball in a league that is struggling badly for eyeballs. The Premier League has 3.2 billion viewers, to their 600 million. Why do I mention this? Commercial deals are more potent if you are playing in a league that is popular in markets that have people with bigger wallets. I’ve been in America for 10 years, I’ve rarely met an avid Real Madrid fan. I’ve never seen a Madrid pub. They are just a brand that exists in the ether because of their history… for current relevancy? Arsenal are the rocketship.

Vini is also not the big man at Madrid and he never will be. There’s always something new on the block. The Spanish side are actively pursuing Olise and Haaland for next season. They will need capital to do that. If they give Vini what he wants, they’ll have to give Jude the same; that’ll leave them very little room to spend on next season’s Galácticos. They’ve spent heavily already this summer without many exits to speak of… one would imagine, at some point, someone is going to have to go. Especially as Madrid have taken the free transfer route more often than not to get big players in the door, with a stadium debt of €1.1 billion to service. If they want to keep adding big names, they have to pay attention to growing wages… giving Vini all that he wants might be an impediment to bigger deals next year.

If Vini moves to Arsenal, he will be the face of the organisation. They will make him king. He will be the star on every poster, billboard, and TV commercial. He’ll be forever cemented in our history as the guy who made us a Champions League contending team. That will come with ego perks he’ll never get at Madrid and I suspect that deep down, he knows that, and so do his people.

There’s also the close ties Ben Winston has with Roc Nation, the Vini Jnr agency, through his work on the Grammys and other such projects over the years. I’m not saying that’s a dealmaker, but football is a small community, and having someone trusted at the club your client is interested in going to, at that level of prestige, will certainly count for something.

I’m shifting to a 55% feeling this transfer now… long way to go, but the smoke smells good, and it looks like there’s fire.

In other shocking news… Eddie Howe is out at Newcastle after rejoining for just one game of pre-season. The English cup winner saw what was coming and tapped out before he was tarred with a relegation scrap brush. This is smart work from him, his stock is high, no one would give him flack for leaving an uninterested club… and he’ll have the pick of the Premier League jobs when people start getting sacked in 2 months’ time.

What does this mean for Bruno? That Eddie knew he was going to lose his captain, and the smoke Newcastle’s press have been denying, has choked them out, and now they have to abandon the ‘Bruno is staying’ hut and watch it burn to the ground.

This, without doubt, is a game-changing signing on so many levels. He’ll raise the dressing room, he’ll have the fans doing cartwheels, this is what we wanted this summer. It takes pressure off our midfield and means we can look forward to a more technically gifted midfield next season.

Finally, there’s some concern about the Timber return to the UK. After surgery, I believe it’s common practice to go and see a specialist. Very much doubt he’s broken again. Still, a bit of warning that it’s far from over with regard to his problems.

Ok, I don’t have much more to give to this post… so I’ll say goodbye and ask that you listen to the latest early bird podcast I ran with Jacob. x

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• We talk about his defensive numbers

• Why Arsenal are the bigger club in 2026

• Why image rights are so important

• What the secret ingredient to the players greatness is

• How important the signing is to the future of Arsenal!

We hope you enjoy this early bird segment! x

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