Good people of Le Grove, it is a Saturday, I am at the hospital, it’s hour 12, and I’m writing a blog.

Am I sure of the rules around this sort of thing? No.

I will pay a price for this with divorce papers at some point, but listen, your insatiable appetite for transfer stories, or my need for attention, greatly weighs on me right now.

So what do we have to talk about?

Arsenal and Manchester City have now reached verbal agreement in principle for Oleksandr Zinchenko, fee around £30m. Personal terms are still discussed. ⚪️🔴 #AFC

Salary and length of contract, in negotiation – key step to complete the agreement. pic.twitter.com/QJYrwdqJH1

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 16, 2022

Arsenal is closing in on Zinchenko and I am absolutely OVER the damn moon about it.

He’s a bit of a ‘woah’ signing for me, mainly because we stopped making moves like this a while ago. Experienced, a winner, in the prime of their career… it’s quite sad I think like that, but that’s how low the standards have sunk over the last 8 years.

I loved the strategy of last summer, I knew we’d go for more complete players this window, but I didn’t think they’d come with Premier League pedigree. I was expecting us to live in the world of Paqueta types. Top talent owning their league. This move on players that are already doing it in the league, but looking to break out, feels very Liverpool when they signed VVD, Mane, and Wijnaldum (stole that from @DanielZeqiri).

These two charts really paint a picture of what we have with Zinchenko.

Firstly, this is how he compares at left back to Tierney and Tavares.

Now, context-wise, accept he plays at a higher level with better players. But what I love about his data is this is a player who had an extremely choppy season with next to no minutes until December when he landed 5 Premier League starts in a row (5 wins and a draw). Then he found the bench and didn’t get a good run until the end of the season when he picked up 7 starts, landing 6 wins. That is extreme mental strength.

Remember, Tavares played great at the start of the season, got benched when Tierney returned, came back a mess against Nottingham Forest. Never recovered.

Regardless, Zinchenko’s left-back numbers are OUTRAGEOUS.

… but there is more.

These are his midfield numbers. When stacked against Granit Xhaka. More passes, more accuracy, better defending.

Then look at the fee. United is paying £50m for a 5ft9 centre-back we wanted to play at left-back. We’re getting a 4 times Premier League winner for £30m.

That is outrageous.

Again, I’m gonna go at the folk that called Arteta the cone boy. Do those people want to sit here and tell me that Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus are coming to Arsenal under any other circumstance other than Arteta at the controls? Do you think they’re coming to Arsenal in their prime to play for a coach that doesn’t know his onions? These are the benefits of having a coach that is a top-tier thinker. It also shows you that despite some of the noise, top players can see this project is about to bang.

There are only two more jobs to be done if we get this deal over the line.

We need to sign Tielemans in central midfield, another top Premier League talent that will find new heights in our system.

We need to sign a winger with outrageous production. There are quite a lot of strong rumours linking us to Leroy Sane. He’s world-class for me, he’d represent a real hero signing, and I’d prefer him over Raphinha any day of the week. Seems like an insane move because of where he is in his career, his price tag of £60m, and his salary of £300k a week, but damn, that would be a statement piece. He’s only 26.

I’m not quite sure we’re going there, but again, if you can, and the player is willing, do it.

I want to keep our best young players at the club. Bukayo Saka needs to see where this project is heading. I’m pretty sure he’d be thrilled to see someone at Sane’s level joining the party.

There’s a rumor about Edmond Tapsoba doing the rounds again. The 50m euro centre back is 22, he’s being linked by a new site that is dedicated to transfer rumours, which is a bad business model unless you peddle 80% guff. Regardless, it’s important to remember that ground zero for Arteta last season was Newcastle. We lacked bravery to break the press and didn’t deliver on the plan. Old Arsenal might have let that slide, new Arsenal will chop out players if there’s an opportunity. Whilst I have my doubts we’ll do anything mental, don’t be shocked if a Gabriel-like name is moved if we can ship in someone else. Big clubs make hard decisions. Ben White and Gabriel dipped hard in H2 last season. I’m not giving credence to the rumour, but look, those Juve rumours won’t die. If he leaves, we are purchasing.

Strong rumours William Saliba is making his rebirth debut against Everton tomorrow. It’ll be interesting to see whether we begin to jettison some of the expendable players now the tour has taken on more seriousness.

Ok, before I go. I have TWO pieces of information.

We signed a podcast deal with BlueWire. So if there’s disruption to your podcast things, let us know, but it should be fairly straightforward. Does this deal make us professional podcasters?

If I speak…

Secondly, thank you to all the generous folk that have contributed to our Patreon subscription. You are a special bunch. We’re trying to work out what the deal is in totality. Here’s where I think we’ll land for 2022 podcast-wise.

• On The Whistle – Premier League – free to air.
• Before the whistle + Europa League review – Patreon
• Special Features – Patreon

We dropped a Patreon BANGER last night. I made slides. Johnny showed up and left it all on the pitch. We talked Saliba, Zinchenko, Sane, and the shape of our summer so far. All good vibes.

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