What's going on Arsenal? Kinda quiet over there

It has certainly already been a massive transfer window for Arsenal, with the big money signings of Viktor Gyökeres, Martín Zubimendi and Noni Madueke addressing some problem areas. Kepa Arrizabalaga, Cristhian Mosquera and Christian Nørgaard have also arrived as affordable backups to fill out the squad.

If the Gunners are done here, it’s been a successful window, and fans should feel like Arsenal have a better chance at competing for trophies this coming season than they did in the last campaign.

But Arsenal have been linked with a slew of other forwards to offer some help to the slightly overworked and eternally divisive Gabriel Martinelli. If all of Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Jesus and Reiss Nelson exit, as has been rumoured, Arsenal will definitely need at least one more incoming.

Eberechi Eze has been the most regularly linked player, with his £67.5m price tag pretty clearly a significant hang-up for the Gunners. The Guardian says that initial talks have been held between the clubs, but Sky Sports are reporting that the two teams are not in active talks about the transfer.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid seem increasingly concerned that they could be left bag holding on a depreciating asset if no one buys Rodrygo this summer and he spends the year glued to the bench. The Mirror say his asking price is now about £78m, but we’ve heard nothing about the player agreeing contract terms with anyone, which is usually a prerequisite for a transfer these days.

If I were running Arsenal, I’d be much more interested in Rodrygo at £78m than Eze at £67.5m, but a player coming from Real Madrid is going to demand a much bigger wage packet than one coming from Crystal Palace.

We’ve talked about Rodrygo and a potential Premier League move both here and on the podcast before: His dribbling makes him a major ceiling-raiser, and he’d instantly make any team better. He’s worth a big fee and wage to Arsenal, much more so than Eze.

But after spending nearly £200m, the Gunners clearly need to sell a few pieces before they buy another. I wouldn’t be surprised if things remain quiet with regard to a potential incoming attacker for Arsenal, and heat up again at the end of the window after they’ve made a few sales.

More transfer rumours

• The Alexander Isak story continues to look a lot like the Bale-to-Madrid story. He’s training away from the club out of the country while Newcastle say he has permission to do so while recovering from a minor injury. Florian Plettenberg says “talks are progressing well” between Newcastle and Liverpool about the transfer.

• In related news, Yoane Wissa is also refusing to show up for work. I imagine he’ll be a Newcastle player by September 1.

• I really want to know who leaked this one. Sebastian Vidal says that Ruben Amorim strongly prefers Ollie Watkins to Benjamin Šeško and is worried he’s having a signing that he doesn’t care for imposed on him.

• Ajax are reportedly signing Oscar Gloukh for €18m. I’m shocked that a big league club that pays bigger wages than Ajax wasn’t going hard for this guy. Elite passing wingfielder who can dribble and has some decent shooting production too.

• Marseille are going absolutely bananas in the market this summer and I have no idea where they’re getting the money. After completing the buy obligations following the loan deals of Jonathan Rowe, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Neal Maupay, they’re linked to four big money transfers today. We previously wrote about their club record breaking signing of Igor Paixao from Feyenoord, but they’re also re-signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for presumably a hefty salary. They’re also linked to Joel Ordoñez and Tim Weah, who will cost them around €50m. They’ve sold a bunch of dudes at a loss the last couple windows. I’m scared.

• Spurs are pursuing a loan move for Joao Palhinha, which as long as it doesn’t include a buy obligation, is fine I guess? But Spurs need a passer in midfield at least as badly as they need a destroyer, and Palhinha offers zero passing value.

• Fulham are in talks to sign Samuel Chukwueze from AC Milan, and I like that a lot. He’s never really gotten a fair shot there despite putting up decent numbers in rotation minutes.

• Juventus have agreed with Dusan Vlahovic that he can exit “if we get a good proposal. Vlahović can only leave with a good bid and we’ve not received it so far,” says Damien Comolli. Given the player’s recent level of production, a loan with no buy obligation that covered half his wages would constitute a good proposal from Juve’s perspective. He made the worst decisions on the ball around the box of any player on earth last year, and I do not think that’s hyperbolic.

And one last thing: We have a huge Premier League season preview coming out the week of Monday, August 4. It has detailed previews of all 20 teams, with contributions from Ted and I, plus a slew of other brilliant people. We wanted to be able to pay them fairly, so it’s £10, and you can get it here. Click the far right option and make sure the button at the bottom says £10. This sub will get you access to the whole thing: All 30,000+ words, with stats and data viz you won’t get anywhere else.

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