Morning.
06.45am: The training ground pictures game is now an established Arsenal fan tradition. First up, you can see who is in them and who isn’t, perhaps giving us an insight into a player’s fitness if there’s some uncertainty. Then there’s the bib aspect as we try and work out if that gives us a clue as to the starting XI for a particular game.
Now there’s a new game: Media Day Pictures. Arsenal’s took place yesterday, with the head-shots and action shots of players in the new kit ahead of the new season, and one particular absence has caused some speculation. While there are pictures of Kieran Tierney and Reiss Nelson, for example, there don’t appear to be any of Eddie Nketiah.
What does it all mean? What is the subtle or not so subtle conclusion we can draw from his absence? I don’t know. Maybe we’re not posting any Eddie snaps because we think he’ll leave or he’s on the verge of leaving. Maybe Eddie had a cheeky Nandos and it was a dodgy Nandos and he’s ended up with a dose of the splats and couldn’t make it in for the photo-shoot. Or perhaps Stuart and Pricey were called away on an emergency to take pictures of Edu’s BBQ after he reverse-seared a tomahawk steak to perfection and needed professional pics to capture the moment for all eternity. Your guess is as good as mine.
07.30am Update: I’ve just seen pictures of Eddie. Drama over. I’m glad he didn’t have a dodgy cheeky Nandos, nobody needs that.
I am curious as to what’s going to happen with Tierney, by the way. There hasn’t really been an update on his fitness, mostly because Arsenal seem replete with left-back options, including the emergence of a young talent in Myles Lewis-Skelly who everyone is very excited about. There are still a couple of weeks to go in the window, but it’s hard to envisage any club coming in with an offer to take him on a permanent basis. After witnessing him suffer that injury on the European stage, you would be somewhat cautious about spending on him, and I think the best case scenario is that he finds a loan move before the window shuts.
Whether that’s within the Premier League, or abroad, who can say? It wouldn’t at all surprise me if, as things went down the wire, we had a call from Celtic about him. That’s based on no info, by the way, just a gut feeling, but it seems clear that he – like others in the squad – will have to go elsewhere to play on a regular basis. The best case scenario is another PL team where he can play well and stay fit for enough of the season that they might come in with a permanent bid next summer.
Meanwhile, as Brooke Norton-Cuffy finalises his move to Genoa, I wonder what is going to happen with Charlie Patino. He’s had loans at Swansea and Blackpool where he has played quite a bit, but not really shown enough to make you think he can lay claim to a first team place at Arsenal. The fact that he wasn’t involved at all in pre-season with a very young squad tells you something about his prospects, and Ethan Nwaneri’s arrival onto the scene has pretty much put paid to any slim chances he might have had.
At 20, he’s still got it all ahead of him, and sometimes a player has to take a step-back to go forward. I think he’s probably in the same bracket as Norton-Cuffy and Mika Biereth, young players who aren’t quite at the level we need, but who we’ll let go for something in the region of £3m-£5m – with sell-on clauses included so if they do make real progress we’ll stand to benefit down the line. Let’s see where he ends up.
Elsewhere, Arsenal have reportedly rejected a loan move from Ajax for Aaron Ramsdale, preferring a sale. I just don’t know who is the market for a number 1 goalkeeper in the Premier League, because what Arsenal apparently want in terms of a fee makes it a fairly prohibitive deal for most clubs outside England. Another one where things might come down to the wire a bit.
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Righto, let’s leave it there for now. Have a good Wednesday, folks.
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