Here. We. Go.

Arsenal are the prime target for all the hot goss this window because Mikel Arteta broke all his Ikea crockery and DEMANDED we go shopping at John Lewis.

The Dusan Vlahovic story seems hot online, I have no idea what the real deal is, but as expected, the fees that were being spoken about yesterday are now starting to come into line with something a little more realistic. Italian Sky reporting Fiorentina would like a shit ton of money, but they’d deal at 55m Euros plus Lucas Torreira. That’s quite the climb down from 69m euros yesterday.

Mikel Arteta once again reiterated in his press conference that every player he speaks to wants to join the club.

‘Historically, this club has been targeting the best players in the world and the best players in the world were always interested to come here’

… so let’s be real here if we are talking to Dusan, we’re not begging for his services. Edu and Arteta rarely miss and seem to do their homework, if the deal is progressing, it’s because they know the player wants a piece of it.

My suspicions are not very insightful.

• Dusan Vlahovic wants a good deal.
• Fiorentina wants a good deal.
• There is only one club that will deal in January, which is Arsenal.
• If another club comes in, the money goes up for all parties.

Johnny made a good analogy in the podcast about trying to do your pulling business before the lights go up. I think Vlahovic’s team is doing a last scan around the bar before making the decision to leave with the only offer.

Quick Spurs interlude. Matt Law reckons Barca couldn’t believe any club would pay the fee Spurs dropped for Emerson Royal. Lol, remember Arsenal fans losing their shit that we’d signed Tomi over him? I do.

The next deal the transfer accounts are talking about is Arthur Melo of Brazil. He’s a #8, 25 yrs old, he’s capped, he’s at Juve, played at Barca, was part of a mad swap deal massively overvalued him and Pjanic. He sound look like a good boy, there have been behavior issues with booze in the past, but he certainly has a lot of talent, finesse, and raw power. He was savaged for being a bit of a boring safe player to watch at Barca; without meaning to be rude, he sounds quite Xhaka-ish. Secure, not particularly adventurous, but I guess that’s what Arteta needs in that role. It’s a weird signing, but I guess we have to keep reminding ourselves… this is an emergency cover option, not the future of our midfield.

News on outgoing players is: BALOGUN HAS LEFT THE BUILDING.

He’s moved to Boro as they chase promotion under the excellent coaching of Chris Wilder.

I like this move for many reasons.

1. Balogun is a mature adult. No sulking. He’s just cracking on with his future and he’ll go to the most northern parts of England to fulfill his potential.  This is his Huddersfield moment, we all know he can go to the top, now he needs to use this time to sharpen, grow bully boy teeth, and get some confidence.
2. Chris Wilder is a great coach. What he did with Sheffield United was nothing short of a miracle. He’s progressive, he likes young players, he will make Balogun a star.
3. Wilder has long had a football crush on Balogun. He likes the players, tried to signing him at Sheff U, which means this move isn’t a panic… it’s strategic. When a coach likes a player, they play them.

Arteta said Eddie is staying at the club, we’ll see there. If Palace comes in with a fee, it’d be hard to say no to it. The player wants big dollar, close to £100k a week, I’m not sure Palace are going to offer that. So his best bet if it’s about money, will be to wait and see who is there with a signing on bonus this summer. Rumours are French and German clubs want a piece of the action.

Talking football…

Arteta is going to seriously need to consider more rotation as we head into the back half of the season. Sambi Lokonga is a top player, but like any player, if he doesn’t get minutes, he’ll struggle when called upon. Arsenal played him on a long stretch of games until November the 27th, then we didn’t really see him until Nottingham Forest last week. The best managers in the league make everyone feel involved. I know we don’t have the depth of other sides, but come on, we have to be fair to Lokonga, he was part of that winning run, dropping him for 6 weeks wasn’t smart. There’s a lot on the line this season, but we’ll be better equipped to deal with bad moments if more players are trusted to take on minutes.

Nuno Tavares apparently reacted very well to the early sub. Arteta said he didn’t complain and that moments like this make the best people stronger. I really hope that’s the case, we won’t find out until we need him, because KT will need a rest at some point. Hopefully Nuno can come back fighting and play as well as he did at the start of the season.

Right, that’s me done. Have fun in the comments. x