ALVAREZ: LAST FORWARD STANDING
Well friends, the countdown has well and truly begun, the window for good times shuts next Tuesday at 11pm. Deals could go down to the wire for Arsenal, with a little bit of work to be done by Andrea Berta and Mikel Arteta.
Barcola looks to be heading to Liverpool for a whopping £120m all in. It’s a big fee… you want guarantees at that number, and there are some concerns there. I love his speed, his tight space control, and his bang-bang. But I do have questions about his physical capabilities. We’ll see; key story here: that’s one target we won’t be getting, and one less option on a very small market shelf.
I am obviously tweaking out at my desk like a maniac, dreaming of a few extra little hits of the good stuff, but I’m largely calm about where we stand right now.
The main concerns are two-fold…
Our striking options have improved dramatically by virtue of Kai Havertz being first choice at the moment, but if you remember, that was the same story this time last year before the world of Arsenal goals fell on the shoulders of Viktor for a whole season.
Where are we this season? Same place. Gabi Jesus wants to hang around London on his mega contract, rumoured to be more enticing because he wants citizenship for himself and his family. Hard to knock that dream, I live in another country, my kids are sorted, but me? Not yet. That’s a risk if they put a Tottenham President in charge one day. Jesus feeling the same. So unless there’s the cheekiest of loan moves available to him, then he might be clogging up the third-choice striker position which is no good to anyone.
Then there’s the Viktor problem that I’ve tackled ad nauseam. To sum it up to a place where we can all agree… I just think we can do better. Either something electric that can offer more of a built-up forward, or even something young, that looks more like Kroupi. This is a hard position for Arteta, he’s not great at choosing forwards, but we do feel short on the sort of quality you tend to need to win Champions Leagues.
Our left wing is looking sparse. Like a pigeon that fought a cat, then dipped its injured flapper in Chinese food… it’s functional, but we’re no kestrel out here. I’d like us to be fully functional, scary, elite… we need to have some extra optionality out there.
Reiss Nelson has also been terminated; no fee from West Ham will happen now, which suggests he can’t have been taking their offer seriously and was gearing up for another deadline-day hamstring injury. Someone called him a fan fave in the media… really? Is that what he is? Crazy. A silly deal that he wouldn’t have got anywhere else… a rare miss by Edu (post-Raul Edu, to be clear).
The painful truth for you, sitting there, at the screen, trying to work out why I used a pigeon’s wing to describe the left wing of Arsenal is this… there are internal solutions here. Yes, I’m channeling my inner Arsène Wenger here, but the left has Tzolis, Eberechi Eze… and, yeah, I’m gonna do this… Madueke. Internal Solutions FC. Dreadful that in my wiser years, I am resorting to placation. To the transfer tweakers out there, this is like being offered a light methadone; it’s not hitting the spot, is it?
But where are the links? Where are the sales that’d make it possible to get both a striker and a wide player? I’m not sure…
The main deal we’re all waiting on is Julián Álvarez. I see the Viktor superfan trying to pollute the waters with ‘what does he do’ content and you just have to move past these footballing analysis heathens. No amount of data will convince these folks of their past transgressions. I know for a fact that 90% of these people have done a Bane mask celebration at a family gathering, and for that reason, we cannot trust their judgment.
This is what you gain with an Álvarez-type player. He’s just more well-rounded, and he plays his entire game at a far higher level. He’s a defensive monster, he’s very fast, and he makes those around him far better. There was a lot of criticism of Saka last season, some fans saying he was spiting Viktor at one point, but when you look at the underlying data, you’d find Saka was one of the most high-quality attacking distributors in the league. If the person you are passing to can’t get shots off or keep the ball, life is hard for a provider. This guy makes the providers more of a threat, and also gives more to the game as a forward. You go from someone who is redundant in half your Premier League games, to someone who is an active teammate in all of them… and don’t forget the magic-moment abilities he has.
Look at where this man lives compared to the best in the Champions League. He is undoubtedly one of the best attackers on the planet with a profile we just don’t have right now. He’d be an immense signing, even better if we could send players the other way.
Álvarez hasn’t shown up to training for the past two days, he’s damaged his rep with the home fans, and I’d be stunned if Barca have the money to move on him… not just that, Laporta’s little press conference.
“It goes without saying that Barcelona absolutely respect Atlético and the club’s directorate, who we have known for many years and have a lot of appreciation for,” Laporta added.
“We made a significant offer to Atlético for Julián, a player our coach [Hansi Flick] has a real interest in signing, which was ratified during a telephone call to [Atlético CEO] Miguel Ángel Gil Marín.
“He told me they would not transfer him as they didn’t have a replacement. I said when they have one, if the summer window was still open, we would be there to do a deal for Julián.
“That’s where it stayed. I spoke with [Barça sporting director] Deco and said to leave it on standby because it seemed they didn’t want to let him leave without a replacement.
“Then we get information that Atlético are in negotiations with other clubs. Upon learning that, we’re in a situation where we want to maintain our offer and for them to transfer Julián to us, not another club.
“From there, through third parties of confidence who also have a relationship with the Atlético hierarchy, it was confirmed to us once again that they did not want to transfer him. But, after, we still had information that there were, well, talks with other clubs.”
We’ll see where this one goes, but if Atlético cave and sell to Barca, they lose all credibility with their fans and they show they can be bullied by local rivals.
They also just posted this.
Crazier things have happened, but this aggressive NO on Alvarez seems to favor Arsenal in the story.
Champions League draw wasn’t very kind to us early on, some big games against some big teams, but overall, it’s hard to imagine we don’t qualify in the top 8 here. We’re monstrous. The two big ones are Bayern and Madrid. Canny wait!
Final pondering… the mates merry-go-round continued in the Premier League. Aston Villa moved on Nico Jackson for a deal that is worth a reported £65m. If you net out where all the deals before the two clubs landed, you get to about £9m for Morgan Rogers… that’s before the Boro cut of the profits. Emi Martínez might also end up in a Chelsea shirt. But whatever the deal, it certainly looks like a very odd summer where nothing has quite been what it seems. Is this good for football? Not really. Rules are blurred, everyone is making cartel-like friends, it is what it is… I’m just glad we didn’t lose our minds on the mega valuations.
Ok, that’s all we have for today, see you in the comments! x
