Arsenal like short dribbly boys now

April Fool’s is corny, but I guess we’re participating by printing a bunch of fake stuff that probably won’t happen. We’re getting close enough to the transfer window that rumours are flying, and this is usually the time of year we get back into covering them. Since it’s been a while, we’ve got plenty of juicy stuff to cover.

Most interesting to me is Julián Alvarez, who’s been regularly linked to Arsenal over the past year. He moved from Manchester City to Atlético Madrid two years ago for £80m, and has been constantly subjected to rumours about returning to England ever since. Surprisingly, his shot production has dropped way off in La Liga this year, though he’s been good enough in Champions League that I don’t think anyone is alarmed.

Alvarez has an extremely unique profile, as a striker who’s much more dribbler and playmaker than goal scorer. But his shot volume and goal production has been good enough over the years that teams are still very much interested in him as a striker, rather than something else.

With Gabriel Jesus likely departing the Gunners this summer and Viktor Gyökeres’ performances eliciting reviews such as “he’s fine I guess,” I’d expect Arsenal to be in the market for a striker this summer. While Alvarez is the opposite of a set piece monster, I think his link-up play and carrying would help just about any team in the world.

Selling Alvarez in the same summer that Antoine Griezmann departs for MLS might be tough for Atléti to stomach, but this is likely to be a summer of pretty significant transformation for the club. They recently got new owners, and Diego Simeone’s contract is running down. Selling the player with the most market value, in his age 26 season, when he’s not currently producing at his best, seems plausible.

Alvarez to Arsenal for roughly £80m makes sense for all parties, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see it happen.

More transfer rumours

• Over on the podcast, the boys talked about the likely transfers of Elliot Anderson and Adam Wharton. Both Manchester clubs are reportedly interested, and they’d likely make as good of a pair at club level as they do for England.

• We could fill this newsletter with just midfielders that Man United are linked to. Sandro Tonali is reportedly their top target, and I have no idea how hard Newcastle would push to keep him. The Magpies could have a difficult fight on their hands to keep a lot of their stars given their disappointing results.

• They could also go for Lamine Camara from Monaco, though Chelsea and Liverpool are the teams popping up most often for him. In a physicalspilled world, everyone wants the guy who runs far and fast.

• Alessandro Bastoni caused Italy to miss the World Cup with a silly red card yesterday, but he’s still likely to stay Barcelona’s top target. The Camp Nou luxury boxes are now open and making money, which will allow the Blaugrana to actually sign some players, but they’ll still need to make a few sales. A couple of the top candidates to raise funds are:

• Alejandro Balde and Ferran Torres. Both of them have agents who love yapping to the press about how many Premier League clubs are interested in their clients.

• Awesome Enzo Fernandez interview quote: “I would like to live in Spain. I really like Madrid; it reminds me of Buenos Aires. I would live in Madrid.” I think maybe he’d like to play for Real Madrid.

• If Los Blancos were to plop down the £100m or so it would take to tempt Chelsea to sell Enzo, they’d have to cell a central midfielder for a decent fee themselves. The top candidate for that is Aurélien Tchouaméni, who would probably have plenty of suitors in the Prem. He’s pretty much a true DM, but one that does enough ball progression (and avoiding turnovers) to work on teams that want a lot of the ball.

• One guy Real Madrid are definitely buying is Nico Paz, who they have a buyback clause on. This one is barely even a rumour at this point.

• 19-year-old Leverkusen striker Christian Kofane is drawing interest from richer clubs. We’ll have a deeper dive on him next week.

• Liverpool will be in need of a center back this summer, and one name bouncing around is Leipzig’s Castello Lukeba. He’s not very big or good in the air, but left footed, very good on the ball, and doesn’t ever get beat on the dribble. It’ll be interesting to see who goes for this profile when big center backs are the current meta.

• Speaking of big center backs who are good in the air, it looks increasingly likely that someone will bring Charlie Cresswell back home from Toulouse. The former Leeds man is a set piece menace.

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