Happy friday to everyone.
I said I’d look at some of the transfers today, but first let’s start by sending good wishes to striker Vivianne Miedema, who suffered what looked like a serious knee injury in last night’s 1-0 Champions League loss to Lyon. After Beth Mead’s ACL tear last month, it’s a huge blow to the team, but even more so to Viv herself.
Fingers crossed, it’s not what it seems. As always, for the latest and greatest from women’s gear, Tim and the team at Arseblog News have you covered.
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Now transfer stuff, and I guess we should start with the obvious, Mykhaylo Mudryk. I wrote about him the other day after David Orstein reported that he was the priority target during the January window, and Arsenal and Shakhtar Donetsk have since reportedly opened talks. Of course, that does not guarantee that something will happen, but it is a positive development.
The problem will be the rate. Shakhtar will point to a deal like Man Utd paying over €80m for Antony as a guide to Mudryk’s market value, while Arsenal will rightly insist that the stupidity of someone else’s range is not the correct way to measure a player’s fee. Just because they overpaid by a significant amount doesn’t mean we should. That’s not how it works.
Clearly this is a player that Arsenal have identified as someone who can come into this team and add something, but it’s fascinating to consider how. Gabriel Jesus’ injury makes an attacking addition important, but Mudryk mainly plays on the left, where Gabriel Martinelli has been one of our best players this season. Talk of moving him to the center to provide cover as a center forward makes sense when you think about our internal solutions, but let’s not forget that Martinelli has, more than once, talked about the winger position being his favourite.
Then you add Emile Smith Rowe into the mix, and his best football for us has come when he rolls out on the left. Now, I think he is more than capable of playing more centrally, or even on the right side if need be, but it’s another thing to consider when deciding whether or not to pull the trigger on a deal for a left-sided attack. player.
What I would say is that in recent windows Mikel Arteta and Edu have signed players with a certain versatility. The likes of Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Fabio Vieira and even Oleksandr Zinchenko (when he’s in shape) aren’t locked into one position, so perhaps they see something in Mudryk we haven’t considered yet. Definitely one to keep an eye on in the coming days/weeks.
The availability of Joao Félix in this window has inevitably made us mention in the offices, but without wanting to be too cynical, I think that they could be using us here. Everyone knows we need attacking depth after Jesus’ injury, and his ability to play on the front line adds credibility to these stories. However, given what Atlético Madrid paid for him and how much of that they would want to get back, plus the kind of salary he would receive, I’m not convinced there’s anything substantial to this.
Elsewhere, links to Dusan Vlahovic have been downplayed, and frankly, I think that ship has sailed. Even if we tried it last January, I think most people would say that Jesus is a better fit for the type of football this team is trying to play. Who knows what could happen to Juventus players after this latest investigation into dodgy player ratings, but I think this is nonsense. And I would also put links to Sergej Milinkovic Savic in the same support. He is almost 28 years old, I know we need some experience in the team, but our recent transfer policy suggests this is not the kind of deal we do. Not to mention, Mikel Arteta probably doesn’t want to have to deal with Granit Xhaka grabbing his new teammate’s balls every training session.
Links to defensive midfielder Ibrahima Bamba arrive from Portugal. He is 22 years old, was born in Italy but plays for Vitoria. That sounds a bit more like the type of player we could pick, but to be honest, I don’t know anything about him. However, he can probably speak Portuguese well enough for Edu to seriously think about it.
Finally, there is talk of an external agreement with Fulham interested in signing Cedric. He has barely featured for us this season, and if he wants to play regular football, it seems obvious that he needs to go. Only an injury crisis would open the door for him at this stage, and if Fulham could get his salary off the books, that money could potentially be redistributed to new signings.
After Sunday’s World Cup final, all attention will once again be on the Premier League, and in this condensed season, team depth could well be the difference between relative success and failure for all teams from the league. As such, I’m looking forward to the busiest (generally) January window anyone can remember. If I’m wrong, I’ll eat a delicious meal with a beautiful bottle of wine. Can’t say fairer than that.
That’s right, I’ll leave you with a new Arsecast below, and for some more reading, this week’s Tim column check out Albert Sambi Lokonga. Happy listening!
