This might be a short one today, on account of the fact that there really is bugger all happening in the world of Arsenal right now.

Well, I’m sure that’s not strictly true, because I’m sure Edu, Richard Garlick and the other back office staff who deal with contracts and transfers are doing something, but externally we don’t really have much to go on.

I didn’t blog yesterday for that reason, as well as the fact I had loads of other stuff to do and friends to entertain, but there was some noises a couple of days ago about that kid Lavia from Southampton as a possible alternative to Caicedo, given we’d given up the chase for him according to some of the ITK journos out there.

I get it. If Brighton want £120million then we let whatever crazy club (Chelsea) have him because that is far too much for the player and if he’s priced out of a move this summer then his agents probably should have been a bit more sensible about whacking in a release clause. But going for Lavia makes sense. He’s only 19 years old, he’s just played 29 games in the Premier League for Southampton and was one of their bright sparks.

I’m pretty sure I saw him play really well at the Emirates too in the 3-3 draw. He is a player who ranks highly for blocks and interceptions and has a decent enough pass completion rate. Having come through the system at Man City Arteta will be aware of him and with Southampton going down you’d hope that he could be picked up for a slightly cheaper price as they will have players wanting to leave and Premier League prize money not coming in that they need to find alternate revenues for.

I’ve seen talk of a few of around £40million, which seems quite steep to me, but if you can get a Premier League ready central midfielder who can slot straight in to your team as a number six understudy to Thomas Partey for around the £35million mark, you probably go ahead and do it.

His age means that the handing over of the keys, the passing of the baton if you will, feels a little more set out as Partey reaches the final two years of his contract. If you can get a player like Lavia in now, then tell him there is a clear progression and opportunity for him to play plenty of matches as he starts to build his understanding of playing under Arteta, before we transition Partey out, then you’d think that would be appealing to the player.

“But what about Rice?” I hear you ask. Well, for me, we need two players who can play in the six and at £100million Rice is going to get games. But he could possibly also play in as a number eight in the way Xhaka did. Or we could change formation for some games and have a double pivot of Rice and Partey. So if you are eventually looking at moving on from Thomas Partey but you recognise that we need both Rice and Partey now, then the same has to be said next season when you might want to move Partey on. Now, maybe you can argue that this could be addressed next summer when/if we then move Partey on, but surely the way to make the transition and handover happen more smoothly is to give a player a year of acclimatisation this summer to have them ready for the season after next?

That all makes sense to me. And that’s why I am hoping that the Lavia links are true and that we get him for a good price.

That’s pretty much it from me today. Back tomorrow with the usual weekday waffle.