Happy Wednesday Gooners. The sun looks like it might make an appearance here in London, which ideally i’d wish it’d save itself for the weekend so i can be in the Emirates with the big ball of fire smiling back at me, but you can’t have everything in life I guess.

And clearly that’s the case for Kieran Tierney too, if rumours of a potential loan deal to Real Sociedad are true. I mean, there are worse places in the world to spend a year on loan, with the food and drink of San Sebastian being absolutely top notch. The weather will certainly be better than it is here, but if these noises of a loan with a Spanish club are true, it does feel a little weird. That’s because during the All or Nothing series he did speak quite openly of being a little homesick when he got to London. He brought one of his friends down to make him feel less homesick and it took him a while to get settled in. With that being the case, I don’t know what a move to Sociedad will do to help him feel more at ease? At least in the UK they speak the same language and a flight up to Glasgow must be, what, an hour max?

Heading off to a country in which he doesn’t speak the language, isn’t as familiar with the culture and if even further away from Glasgow feels like an odd move to me. Perhaps it is just spurious paper talk and indeed even today I’ve seen one of the gutter rags suggesting that West Ham might be interested in his services. If that’s the case then it makes a little more sense, although the idea of West Ham coming along and bidding for one of our players is enough to make any Arsenal fan chuckle.

Oh, you can have Tierney alright, but you ain’t havin’ him cheaply, you can count on that.

I think most of us now know that his time is up though. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Scot, but it has been clear for some time that his profile doesn’t quite fit what Arteta needs and when you have Jurrien Timber putting in a master class like he did against City at Wembley last weekend, it doesn’t feel like KTs route back to starting left back at Arsenal feels even more further away. He needs a move, we probably do for the right money and to bring down the size of the squad, so now it is on Edu to get a deal that works for all parties.

And this is where Edu needs to earn his crust. It has been too obvious to shunt Tierney off to Newcastle but that appears to be too obvious a move and now that other suitors have come along, this should be one that we should really to be looking to get over the line. I’ve seen rumours of an Arsenal expectation of £30million and I really don’t think that is unreasonable; a Scottish international, well liked amongst Arsenal fans, two year’s ago was an integral part of the team and at 26 he still has many good years ahead of him; that is more than fair market price for the player. I just hope this can be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. If it could be an overseas team then even better, although I don’t see how that loan deal happens unless there is an obligation to buy at the end, which is probably not something Sociedad would be willing to countenance.

So what else is going on in the Arsenal world, eh?

Well, how about Gary Neville admitting on a Sky Sports fan show that these new rules around managers shouting at referees has been brought about with Mikel Arteta in mind? If ever you wanted an example of a club that is very often ‘made an example of’, then there you have it. We’ve got a pundit saying he’s spoken to people in the game who have admitted that Arteta has been a chief protagonist, when we’ve seen the best part of the last five years of Jurgen Klopp screaming in assistants faces, with an article her FROM MAY THIS YEAR referencing that he does it. But no, it’s definitely all Mikel’s fault. Saint Jurgen can never be punished, can he? After all, he gives great interviews and soundbites.

Hmm…interesting that…Jurgen likes to give a good soundbite and the media love to fawn over him, whereas Mikel is a little more deadpan and gives little away in his pressers, yet one manager is highlighted as a problem where the other one gets away scot free. Hmm…interesting….

I am going to be watching with a keen eye this weekend to see how many referees book managers for complaining, because I can imagine Mikel will get the spotlight thrown on him whatever he does.

But do you know what? That’s ok. Let them come. Maybe it fosters an ‘us against them’ mentality amongst fans, players and the staff at the Arsenal. As long as we remain united as a collective, let them come at us, bro.

There’s still some stuff rumbling along re: Balogun to Monaco, but at £34million I don’t think it’s worth much debate over to be honest with you. So until they come back with something sensible then I think Arsenal are well advised to ignore. If Balogun bags another 22 goals in the French league for Monaco next season, I would bet you any money in the world that they would want £80million for his services.

I think that’s pretty much it for today; the Raya announcement is expected soon, which I think means the Turner deal will also go through. Then the goalkeeping stuff gets really interesting. I think I love Ramsdale even more when I read his comments on the situation too, which you have have a look at over at Arseblog News.

Right, I’ll wrap things up for today I think. Another day in the Big Smoke – with life now being hybrid and remote working it feels weird doing two days in a row!

Catch you all tomorrow.