Arsenal
What the hell did I say about nothing taking place?
Let’s begin this morning with affirmation of Myles Lewis-Skelly’s new contract, which arrived yesterday. Not a shock, by any means, but it surely’s good to have it official, and there’s no query he deserves it. He had a breakthrough season final day out, and a brand new 5 yr deal cements his future in North London, and places him on pay-scale that his place as a primary alternative participant deserves. Congratulations to him, and the video of him together with his household is de facto beautiful.
Talking to the official website, he laid out his ambitions for the longer term, saying:
I wish to win every little thing there may be to win within the recreation. I wish to win trophies on the largest levels while being an individual that’s all the time studying and stays grounded, which is so necessary.
And he’s adopted a path from Hale Finish to first group which stays steeped in historical past and romance:
After all, it’s an honour seeing everybody who’s come earlier than me. I’d simply say that I’ve embodied the values of Hale Finish and are available by. I’ve nonetheless acquired lots of years forward of me, so if I can maintain staying humble and being particular person, that’s a very powerful factor to me.
I realise he’s very real when he talks about staying humble, however after the Haaland factor final season, it’s a pleasant little contact. He was, to some extent, a slight shock package deal as a result of though he’d been absolutely concerned throughout pre-season, the main target was a bit extra on Ethan Nwaneri – which is type of pure. Attacking gamers are typically within the highlight a bit extra, however over the course of the marketing campaign, Myles actually got here to the fore.
He gained’t be a shock to anybody subsequent day out. Not domestically, and never in Europe, so now it’s about how his recreation develops. Selecting and selecting his moments to show away from the opposition to drive ahead, one thing he did brilliantly final season, however which a few times acquired him in a bit little bit of bother. That’s fantastic although, it’s all a part of the training expertise for an 18 yr previous, and he’s such an clever participant you understand he’ll take it on board and look to develop his recreation. So, all in all, excellent news, and hopefully the primary of plenty of contract extensions this summer season.
In the meantime, we’ve been linked with a transfer for Valencia centre-half Cristhian Mosquera, with David Ornstein reporting a deal is presently being labored on with the Spanish membership. I noticed just a few ‘Oh look, one other defender!’ feedback, however to me this makes excellent sense. I believe, within the absence of Takehiro Tomiyasu, we’re gentle a right-sided defender on this squad. We needed to play William Saliba in nearly each minute of each recreation final season, and when Ben White acquired injured, Jurrien Timber needed to play by the ache at right-back. On paper, these two have been doable back-ups for Saliba, however we lacked a real choice there for many of the season.
So, a younger signing makes some sense. He can are available in, practice, study – play some cup video games and acquire expertise because the season goes on. He’s acquired some excellent gamers to work alongside too, which ought to assist his improvement, and bodily he seems to be the half. One other 6’3 defender so as to add to the record, and at 20 there’s room to develop a bit there too. I mentioned on the Arsecast Additional final week I felt we wanted a signing there to actually give us the proper of depth, and this one makes lots of sense.
My intestine feeling about that is that it would simply imply Jakub Kiwior departs. I could possibly be fallacious, however his inventory is excessive proper now. Arsenal would possibly see it as the precise time to money in, and the participant himself most likely has choices open to him that may not be there if he sticks round to play a squad position subsequent season. Let’s see what occurs, but it surely wouldn’t shock me massively if we began to listen to tales about him within the coming weeks.
Anyway, it seems to be, after what has occurred this week, that the Arsenal switch cake is effectively and actually being baked. We’ve sorted out the goalkeeper scenario, we’ve primarily added two central midfielders, and now a centre-half. All gamers I believe we’d like and what appears apparent is that the supervisor and the brand new sporting director are resolute when it comes to constructing a squad with redundancy for each place. Absences price us dearly final season, and so they’re seeking to deal with that.
The cake is ok with these strikes, however now we have to high it. That may solely include the arrival of the brand new striker everybody needs, whether or not it’s Sesko or Gyokeres or another person solely, that’s the icing for this specific cake. And if there’s a cherry on high, maybe within the form of Eberechi Eze, linked yesterday, or one other winger, then all the higher. These are the ultimate touches to this window. The good Arsenal bake-off regarded prefer it would possibly fall a bit flat, but it surely seems as if we’d find yourself with an actual show-stopper. Fingers crossed.
Proper, I’ll go away it there for now, however there’s a enjoyable Arsecast for you beneath with Lewis. We needed to choose a group to lose a recreation, and I’d urge you to pay attention earlier than commenting. Some folks acquired a bit mad at us for not choosing their favorite worst participant! However there have been sure standards to fulfil, and we defined our selections – a few of them fairly tactical – within the pod itself.
Get pleasure from!
