I leave England for a few years and Liam Gallagher in #1? What is going on? Did he sing ‘You can’t always get what you want?’? No? Was that the Stones?

Well, that’s how I am feeling right now.

The winds of Ornstein seem to be blowing very hard in the direction of Arsenal making moves on Gabriel Jesus.

So come in close and listen up…

…I will delete every piece of smallman slander I ever penned about the Brazilian if he joins and you will never, ever, hold me accountable to a single word of it.

Are we clear?

Good.

Gabriel Jesus is a winner, he’s great in tight spaces, he can create out of nothing, he’s electric, and he’s still young.

Do I think we’re missing a trick not having a single striker at the club over 6ft tall? Absolutely. This feels a little bit like the years when Wenger was very insistent that you didn’t need tall centre backs when we were leaking from setpieces. Or the time he filled our midfield with eighteen #10 talents.

But, does a Gabriel like player help you break the deadlock in more games next season? I’d say so.

This is one of those moments when we have to accept that the best way to scout a player is probably to spend 3 years coaching them every day. Arteta knows the talent, he knows the potential, he might know what’s missing from Gabriel’s game, and he knows the character.

Let’s see where the story goes, but the winds of inevitability seem to be moving his ship south at the moment.

That said… Italian publication Repubblica reckons we’re properly in love with Scamacca, we’re offering 35m euros, the Italian club wants 50m. The negotiations are entering a ‘hot phase.’

Arsenal insist on Scamacca: the blue striker has been in the crosshairs of technician Arteta for months and contacts with Sassuolo have become frantic. Inter likes Scamacca very much – with whom they have an economic agreement – but the situations related to Lukaku and Dybala have put the negotiation with the Emilian club on standby. Especially since the demand is very high. The 1999 class really appeals to the London-based company, ready to invest in the 35 million euros. Sassuolo continues to ask for 50 and the negotiation, in the coming days, will enter the hot phase. Arsenal is also very interested in Osimhen, but the 100 million requested by De Laurentiis (Newcastlar alone has come close to this figure) are deemed excessive by the Gunners, which do not exceed 60 million euros.

I don’t ever trust these stories because Italians travel worse than McDonald’s with Uber Eats. But if I was to be sexy and suggestive here, I would say that this chap is a very good Tier 2 option after we’ve missed out on more fancy targets.

Clubs will have tiered options when they go into a window and they’ll be negotiating multiple options at the same time.

Here’s an example of some tiers.

Tier 1: Vlahovic, Tammy, Oshimen

Tier 2: Scamacca, DCL, Alex Isak

Tier 3: Hlozek, Mitrovic

Tier 1 strikers will come at greater expense, with more guarantees, but they’ll have competition for their signatures.

Tier 2 strikers will have profiles that look very similar to Tier 1, but they either don’t have a long enough track record to know if they are top class, or form players… or they are much younger. Scamacca has 3 seasons of first-team football, 2 at the highest level in Italy, and he’s gone from 8 goals to 16 in a season. He looks like Vlahovic and Tammy, but he’s higher risk.

Maybe we’re dropping into tier two this summer because Arteta would rather spread the goals load across more players. We take a hit on a tier 2 striker with a high ceiling and over-invest in a tier 1 winger.

Ben White was a tier 1 centre back for his age, Tomiyasu and Lokonga would have been tier 2 players. Ben White and Tomiyasu had very good seasons, Lokonga had a middling one. Nuno Tavares was a tier 3 left back and he’ll be out on loan next season. There are no guarantees with transfers, but the more money you have, the more you can derisk the chance the of failure by picking from Tier 1.

William Saliba, according to the oddballs in French media, is going to go on TV to talk about his future. This feels like the time LeBron James did a piece called DECISION over his future. Except it’s for a player that finished 2nd in Ligue 1. Like, mate, just get on with it and stop creating so much drama.

There are some DRAMA stories going off in the media, one of them is that Arsenal will only sign three players this summer because we don’t have Champions League.

Firstly, that wouldn’t be a disaster. The difference between finishing on 76 points this season and 69 was not having sufficient coverage in 3 positions: Striker, midfield, full back. We don’t need 7 players. Though we might end up with 6-7 new faces this summer anyway.

William Saliba should be added to the defence.

Ainsley might be given a chance at right-back coverage.

We’ve signed Matt Turner as back-up keeper already.

We also have a host of young players that are knocking on the door like Sambi Lokonga. Those players will get minutes next season. Don’t rule out one of them making the jump or there being a surprise package next season because more minutes are being shared out.

From there, if you added Tielemans, Gabriel Jesus, a back-up left-back we would have 10 extra points on last season.

I don’t think we’ll leave it at 3 players because I think we’ll move on names.  I don’t expect to see Nico Pepe here next season and I think there will be a move on a wide forward. There’s always a chance Kieran Tierney might move to another club if there’s a mega offer. There’s always a chance someone might come back for Granit Xhaka who isn’t getting any younger.

It’s really weird for anyone to write what Arsenal definitely will or won’t do when we’re working in a market that has a wild variance of possibilities.

No one knows the full plan yet, not even those at the club, because the market is ALWAYS unpredictable.

Right, here I am selling content again.

Matt and Pedro got together last night to do a piece called TRANSFER WINDOW NOSTALGIA SESSION – SZN 1997-98. Subscribe, these evergreen pieces are good for the soul and they are staying on Patreon for the foreseeable. Also share any ideas of non-news content YOU would like to see. Big love to those that have signed up. x

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