Hugo Ekitike linked as a new week begins

Good morning.

Just a few Monday bits so that you can kick off what I believe is likely to be a busy Arsenal week. It’s June thirtieth right this moment, and that’s the day participant contracts usually expire. A type of contracts is Thomas Partey who, David Ornstein experiences, can be leaving the membership upon the expiration of his deal.

It’s no actual shock given the reported curiosity in, and anticipated arrival of, Christian Norgaard from Brentford. Having already signed Martin Zubimendi from Actual Sociedad, Partey was earmarked for the Jorginho position subsequent season, however some experiences advised he wished a pay rise to play that half, and albeit that’s not a great or smart use of sources. So, on the finish of right this moment he’ll be a free agent and might go wherever he needs. Which is totally advantageous by me.

Elsewhere, Johnny Right here-We-Go experiences that Arsenal have agreed private phrases with  defender Christhian Mosquera, and are actually set to make a brand new bid to Valencia after an preliminary €14m bid was rejected. He simply has one yr left on his contract, so whereas I perceive they need one of the best worth attainable for a 20 yr previous who has come via their Academy, it places us in a good place. I think this is likely to be one the place we discover a center floor on the payment, however embody a sell-on clause that might find yourself being helpful if, in some unspecified time in the future down the road, he strikes elsewhere.

Till then although, I believe an addition to the appropriate aspect of our defence is smart, and very similar to the arrivals of Norgaard, and Kepa Arrizabalaga because the quantity two goalkeeper, this looks as if a low-fuss manner of sorting that out. There’s no query we want cowl for William Saliba particularly, however the Frenchman remains to be going to play so much for Arsenal subsequent season, so it’s an advanced one. It’s just like the Bukayo Saka back-up – you want it, however how do you persuade somebody to come back and be part of to play second fiddle to certainly one of your greatest gamers? You both go younger, which is what we’ve achieved with Mosquera, or take a look at the opposite finish of the age spectrum which is what we did with Raheem Sterling final season. Each have their dangers, however normally the previous has doubtlessly extra upside and that appears to be the best way we’ve gone to bolster our defensive ranks.

The striker search continues and right this moment we will eschew the G-word and the S-word and as an alternative we will all take an enormous E – for Hugo Ekitike. Bild, which is a bit tabloid I do know, report that Arsenal are ‘critically contemplating’ the Eintracht Frankfurt ahead as an alternative choice to the 2 names which are actually synonymous with Arsenal and our quest to discover a new quantity 9. Will the Frenchman be the crispy dove from above? Will he arrive at London Colney driving a brand new white Mitsubishi? Who is aware of?! But when Arteta decides he needs an E, then somebody give him an E. It’d loosen him up a bit.

He’s actually an attention-grabbing participant as we glance to bolster our ahead line for subsequent season. 22 targets and 12 assists in 48 video games final season places him in an identical ball-park to Benjamin Sesko (21 targets and 6 assists for RB Leipzig), however ultimately Arsenal are going to need to decide on certainly one of these guys. At this level, it may effectively be any of them. My intestine feeling is that Sesko is the one Arteta most wishes, and if that’s the case, he normally will get what he needs, however let’s see the way it all performs out within the very close to future. Pre-season isn’t far-off, and greater than every other signing that is the one one you have to have settled and able to go earlier than the brand new marketing campaign begins.

Proper, I’ll go away it there for now. Tomorrow is July. Issues will begin occurring then. All types of issues. Maybe even augmented with some stuff. And as everybody is aware of, when you’ve gotten stuff and issues, you’ve reached your peak. Stand by for an Arsecast Further a bit later this morning. We’ve already put out the decision for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you happen to’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, go away your query within the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.

Till then, have an amazing Monday.