Morning and happy Tuesday from the Algarve.

I think most of the football is pretty much wrapped up now, what with City losing to United at the weekend and then Southampton being promoted to the Prem yesterday, so until the Euro’s start in a couple of weeks we’re having to find snippets of Arsenal-related info here and there to help us get by. For me the challenge is that it’s so early in the window that talking transfer gossip feels a little moot. There are so many players away on holiday in the aftermath of a long season, that they aren’t going to be too bothered about talking to agents or anything like that. Not until at least the beginning of June, anyway. Even Marcus Rashford, who I’ve seen linked with us from a couple of places and who isn’t even going to the Euro’s, probably won’t be entertaining any kind of talks about his future. And after he announced on social media that he’ll be stepping away from all channels (because of the abuse he gets) I suspect that will also include talk of his future.

Would I want him at The Arsenal? He’s had a pretty average season last season, but the season before that he was a monster, bagging 30 goals and looking very impressive from the left and right hand side. When he first broke in to the United team I thought he would be a central striker, but he seems to have been better in recent years in that wide forward position and given that we’re looking at having options for rotation across the front three (at least I assume we are and amongst fellow Gooners we’re all talking about a need to strengthen in depth up top, it suggests most of us think the same), I don’t think it would be the worst decision in the world.
I think the chances are probably unlikely though. Let’s not forget this kid is from Manchester, he was a United fan as a child and he very much is considered a starter. That will be the same next season as well I suspect and I would find it very unusual for United to sell him to us. He’s also on a long contract until 2028 and earns £325k-per-week. That would put him in guaranteed starter position on the left wing and I’m sorry but after the season he’s just had, I can’t be thinking that he should be playing ahead of Trossard or Martinelli.

I suspect we’ll be looking at somebody younger who comes in to improve the team and will accept that he isn’t going to play every single week. Rashford is 26 and will be 27 at the end of October, which feels a little towards the peak/top-end of the age curve for a forward. I have no intel, but I suspect that Arsenal would probably prefer to get somebody in their early 20s. Trossard will be 30 in December and Martinelli will turn 23 in a few weeks, so perhaps somebody in the middle of that is the way Arsenal will go, but I feel like we’ll be looking a little younger.

We do know that Arteta loves to buy from the Premier League though, so perhaps there is a deal to be done.? I’m just not sure that will be Rashford given all of the above re: wages, where he’s at, etc. Yes, we sold them RVP and yes, they sold us Welbeck, showing that deals between the two clubs can happen, but that’s because in the first instance Arsenal were backed in to a corner because of the one year left on van Persie’s deal, then the Welbeck situation was because he wasn’t getting game time and was looking for a team that he would play more football in. The Welbeck situation feels a little like ESR at us this season; I bet if Emile had played 40 games this season and was a regular in the Arsenal side, there’s no way that he’d be angling for a move away from us, even if we were where United are in the league. If we flipped the situation and he’s just been on the winning side in an FA Cup final for The Arsenal, I’d be feeling pretty confident that he wouldn’t be looking to move away. Welbeck had already stated he wanted to leave and he’d already said at the end of the 2014 season that he wanted to play somewhere else with van Persie, Rooney and Falcao in the United side, so it was a natural parting of the ways.

So all of this suggests to me that it’s a spurious link that will unlikely come true and I suspect that we’ll probably have a few of those that just aren’t likely this summer, so strap yourselves in because we’ll have to get used to it for a few months.

The good news is that Edu and Arteta have shown that they have their heads screwed on when it comes to identifying player talent. A load of us – me included – have been proved wrong about Havertz this last season, we’ve seen White, Tomiyasu, Gabriel, Rice, Trossard, Jorginho and more all come in and show that they know their onions when it comes to building a quality squad, so whatever happens this summer I reckon most Arsenal fans are pretty happy to let them have the reigns and trust their judgement when it comes to acquisitions. Whatever happens, we’re all excited for the summer and that’s a great thing.

I’m going to leave it there for today. It’ll probably be a bit sporadic for the next week as I’m on holiday and won’t always have time to get on here and blog every day, so will potentially be back tomorrow, or not, depending on anything interesting that comes out in the Arsenal stratosphere.

Laters peeps.