DEADLINE DAY: ARSENAL WORKING THE PHONES

MIGHT WE DO A MADNESS? MAYBE...

It's Friday - Transfer Window Deadline Day. Grab a 6-pack of Peroni, put your work laptop in the fridge, and let's have a massive day of refreshing the feed every 6 seconds. SMASH THAT F5 KEY!

7 hours of screen time is the shift today. I'm hearing whispers that Arsenal are working the phones looking for deals. The Norwegian kid will have substantial offers on the table, but I think we might bring him over the line. Ollie Watkins will be making demands of his agent to free him from Unai Emery's reign. There could even be a surprise.

At this point, signing a forward feels unlikely, and if one does materialize, it's likely to be a foreign loan deal.

I wrote yesterday that I thought the £60m fee being touted for Ollie Watkins was extreme, and the number that was rejected is widely reported to be under £45m. One would imagine Arsenal heard about the Duran deal and offered Villa the option of selling their older striker to us so they could keep the younger one.

It's surprising that they chose to take the bigger fee for the younger striker, but I would also say that Duran going to Saudi at 21 speaks to his priorities and perhaps says something about his character, given that no other Premier League club moved for his services.

Watkins feels unlikely on January 30th. The only reason I could see them selling is if their financial issues are severe and they see it as opportunistic to cash out on an expensive, declining asset. However, they're still in contention for top 4 and have a chance at European success in the Champions League. Selling Ollie for £50m at this stage might look like self-sabotage.

Mathys Tel at Bayern Munich doesn't really sound like a good option. If he can't break into Bayern's team, why would he come to Arsenal and get the minutes he's looking for at 19 years old? If he was Premier League ready, he'd be starting over there. He's more suited to a United loan move, or someone Spurs or West Ham could pick up. Good player, no doubt, but the type of player that would move Arsenal forward? Not so sure.

Arsenal needs to sell some players and I’ll tell you this right now… £90m for Mitoma? Are you kidding? What is Jason Ayto doing here? Roll out the red carpet. Get the Sporting Directors of Saudi down to Colney and get the fancy Nespresso pods out... We have many fine wares. Zinchenko, Tierney, and Kiwior could all offer a LOT to the Kingdom of MBS. Get moving while the cash bags are SPICY.

If Arsenal don't sign anyone, we shouldn't be too worried. We have 4 games in February, one being against City on Sunday. So only three league games to worry about next month. We'll be adding players back into the lineup. We have Ethan who is scoring goals. Our forwards will get some rest and recovery. West Ham and Leicester aren't exactly formidable opposition.

We only have two league games scheduled for the whole of March, plus two Round of 16 Champions League games. By the time you get to the end of that phase, you'll have Bukayo, White, Tomi, and a team that has recovered from a rough patch. Thank goodness for finishing 3rd in the Champions League. Manchester City has 7 games in February!

I'm out of energy to continue discussing PGMOL, but Gary Neville coming late to the party, ready to victim-blame, just shows where he is at this stage of his career. It's not about analysis, it's entertainment. That's fine, just know what you're witnessing. Jacob said this on the podcast about Le Grove.

Anyway, done with PGMOL for this week. We won. Just remember that.

Ok, short one from me today. If you want a banger of a podcast, check out the latest AOP.

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