JoePre-season
Arsenal concluded this section of their pre-season with a draw at Scottish Champions Rangers. Nuno Tavares was on target for a debut goal, which was a cracking finish with his weaker right foot, before Eddie Nketiah drew us level for a second time. Later in the match Aubameyang missed a chance that was harder to miss than score so if Tavares can keep his record up that would be smashing.
What is a slight concern, despite this being pre-season is that we’ve now conceded 4 goals in 2 games, all of them from set pieces. We all know historically these have been a weakness of ours and to rectify that we’ve brought in a new set piece coach…best get to work mate!
Now that our journey north of the border has finished, we head to North America for two games in Florida, before returning for The Mind series against Chelsea and the scum.
Transfers
As I indicated in my last post, Albert Sami Lokonga was all but an Arsenal player and an announcement a few minutes ago now fully confirms it. Quite what he’ll bring remains to be seen but I know he is very highly rated by Anderlecht coach Vincent Kompany. Fingers crossed our new number 23 does better than our old number 23.
Following that all the talk turns to Ben White, who at £50m sounds expensive but hopefully Edu and Arteta know what they’re doing. This is another deal that is all but done. As White was away with England he’s currently on a break before dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s but we understand that an agreement has been reached between all parties.
The final player to talk about today is Manuel Locatelli, Italy’s starlet, fresh off his exploits at the Euros. Unfortunately, this is looking less and less likely by the minute. In terms of bids, we’ve had one accepted by Sassuolo, believed to be in the region of £38m but it is well known that the player himself would favour a move to Juventus who are reportedly interested but are yet to make an offer. That means that unless we can convince him otherwise this move is dead in the water.
All other transfers depend on the club raising funds from sales, so until that happens it looks like a quiet summer at the moment. That’s all for now I’ll be back with the latest developments as and when.
COYG!
-Joe