My WORD Bukayo IS looking absolutely exceptional modelling for Queens brand Aimé Leon Dore. What I love about this brand is it is perfectly attainable for frumpy men in their late 30s that have creative hobby and enough money to spend $400 on a slightly altered hat. Bigger picture here… this brand is a cultural phenom, the fact they are using Bukayo in their work speaks to his growing profile off the pitch.

Back to Arsenal…

You can ALWAYS tell how Arsenal are going to play after about 2 minutes of a game. Can the same be said about a transfer window? Borussia Dortmund has made 7 signings and spent €60m… Arsenal? We’ve signed one player from Sau Paulo and we’re being sued by Wolves.

Spurs are making big-name signings, incredible to see them making moves, bringing in a 33-year-old from Inter Milan on a 2 year deal for £180k a week. What I love about these brand name moves is they mostly tank, but without fail, there is always a loyal army of people ready to call the move intelligent. The last two big moves of post-32-year-old players I can remember were Willian, who was fresh off the back of a very strong season at Chelsea… he tanked. But there were a lot of people saying he was a great signing. Then there was Cristiano last summer, who people were celebrating as a cherry-on-top title charge of a signing. He scored goals, but his declining ability to press cost United big time, and they had to drop out of the Champions League.

I’m struggling to think of many older players that drop into the Premier League from other territories that really bang? Thiago Silva is probably about the only one that is really registering? Even Lio Messi dropped a level when he moved away from a club specifically built around him. For that matter, Gini W moved there as well and didn’t really do much last season.

Spurs clearly going for the ‘blow it all on the last two seasons of a fit Harry Kane and Son’ strategy. I’m here for it. I hope it’s costly, painful, and lacking in fruit.

Another club that might be running into difficulties appears to be Liverpool. A top 3 side in the world, no doubt, but reality is this seasone they blew the fine margins in the two competitions that truly matter. Sadio Mane is moving to Germany because he has one year left on his deal and word on the rumour mill is that Mo Salah is being offered just a 15% raise on his current deal and he might exit next summer for free. Why does that matter? Well, one of their best players is leaving, and the other won’t committ. That is disruptive in any system. What makes it even better is they aren’t getting Coutinho money in to help keep the train moving when they’ve gone.

There are some fun stories about ‘nearly’ signings going around. Noa Lang, the exciting Dutch winger plying his trade at Brugge reckons we moved for him. That would indicate quite strongly that we are looking for additional output from wide positions, Lang managed 15 assists and 9 goals, he’s only 22 years old, would come at a decent price.

The biggest story about who we will be signing this summer still seems to be Gabriel Jesus, I think the Athletic say he’s the best pressing forward in the world. I understand that he is top talent, I understand that he’s won big things, I am just really worried that this move is one that you need a graph to prove out. I had people in the comments on this site saying he was actually really good in the air… listen, he scored 9 goals in 22 games as a centre forward for City this season, 4 of those came in one game, prior to that, he was trailing Lacazette for numbers. The season prior, he made 38 appearances as a centre forward and scored 12 goals.

What are the basics here?

He’s played a lot of a games as a centre forward

He hasn’t got a prolific scoring record at 25 and he regularly underperforms his xG

He’s exiting the best creative system in the world and coming to a very junior one

City has been trying to replace him for two season with: A BIG TALL STRIKER

Still, the summer is early, there are options on the market, let’s see where this goes and how we try and address our weaknesses.

Ok, before I go, Johnny Cochrane has pulled together a special piece of Patreon exclusive content. He’s talking about the top 25 Arsenal players of all time. He covers off 5. Jump in and enjoy.

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