WELL GOOD MORNING TO YOU!

It’s FriYAY and we’re having a pretty decent week as far as Arsenal goes.

We signed Fabio Vieira. We’ve tied down Eddie. Matt Turner left New England Revs. But there are still things to do but I think it’s becoming a lot clearer where this window is trying to land.

Raphinha now reads like a priority, it doesn’t seem like Barca are coming with the cash, and it seems likely it’ll be a straight shootout between Arsenal and Spurs.

Gabriel Jesus wants Arsenal, Arsenal want Jesus, a deal is going to be struck there. He’ll be our striker. We’re gonna make him top boy and in return, he’s going to score at least 35 goals next season.

Youri Tielemans talk is dying down a little bit, but don’t fear, I really don’t think we’ll be letting the window pass without going hard for the player. He’s been on the agenda for a while, I suspect there’s been some backchannelling, and I do wonder if the player has stated he just wants Arsenal and that COULD be a hard pill for the Leicester board to swallow.

There are likely going to be a few exits but it’s still not very clear where they are coming from. Leno, Torreira, Bellerin, maybe Holding, maybe Xhaka, certainly Pablo Mari, and hopefully Nico Pepe for an actual fee.

Then the big one, that no one is talking about… Bukayo Saka needs to sign a big fat new deal with Arsenal. His deal is up in 2 years. The beastly vultures of Europe will be circling. He needs to be earning the fat dollars because he is 100% our main man.

Was I a little worried about our obsession with Raphinha because he plays in the same space as Bukayo? Maybe.

My hope here is that Saka is young, he’s grounded, he’s the king at Arsenal, and he might peak at what is going on at City with 27-year-old Jack Grealish and not fancy that level of competition this early in his rocket ship career.

Needless to say, it doesn’t matter how much good work you do transfer-wise, it could all taste a little salty if the chips aren’t sauced with a Bukayo 17 year deal.

There’s also a very, very big backroom signing we need to take care of… we need a new head of performance to replace Shad Forsythe.

For the OG Le Grovers, one of my first iconic campaigns against Wenger’s regressive behaviors was tackling his complete blindness to how injuries in sports worked.

Here’s the topline gist: Every November and February, Arsenal would have a massive pile-up of injuries.

Wenger would blame the weather, he’d blame luck, he’d blame hair pills, he even had some weird chiropractor witch doctor like guy head down to the training ground to help with the problems.

What was really going on was this: Wenger had a PE teacher looking after the fitness of the players, totally unqualified to look after the strength and conditioning needs of the team, but he was also working off a busted theory. Wenger would train players to match level during the week so they’d be extra fit in games, ready to kill off teams in the last 10 minutes. That worked in 1998 when half the league were pub teams. When everyone developed the same fitness standards, the benefits of overtraining started to collapse in on themselves because players would fatigue and pick up soft tissue injuries.

Once Wenger understood he was causing injuries because of the lack of technical nous at the club, they hired Shad Forsythe. His job, in a nutshell, is to keep players on the pitch, and make sure when they get to game day, they’re not under cooked, or overcooked. At a club like Arsenal, where fitness is so key at every level, the position is arguably one of the most important. No one notices when everyone is fit, but when things go off the rails, like they did at Leeds under Bielsa, everyone pays attention.

Who will Arsenal hire?

Will Arteta hire more 14 year olds to cover off the vast experience of Shad? Or will they go out and find the best possible man/woman for the job and ensure his good work is continued?

I do not know. But we will find out soon enough. That position needs to be filled by June 28th.

Ok, short post today. I’m off to come to terms with the reality that I live in a place that loosens gun laws after kids get massacred in schools, and my baby is coming into a world where she’ll have less rights than her mum. Sad times.

Become a Patron!