So, we have ourselves another Italian, as Riccardo Calafiori was officially announced by the club as our second major first team means signing of the summer, arriving from Bologna. It’s a good deal, it seems a fair price, Arteta has his man and we have ourselves another left back to add to our stockpile.

We’ve all done a fair bit of talking about him online and so I’m not sure what more there is to say of our latest recruit, but it’s a deal that has us looking very good defensively and I enjoyed the way the club announced it. It was the same last season when they showed a training session and then the camera panned around to Declan Rice in the crowd, with the Arsenal media team going for ‘part II’ yesterday with Riccardo.

He said all the right things, that’s for sure, and I have loved hearing some of the sound it’s from the player and manager. The first one I saw was them embracing and him saying “is this real?” It is becoming quite clear that this kid really wanted to join The Arsenal and whilst we can all be proud of how big we are as a club, let’s be honest here, what Mikel has built has a big bearing on how players view Arsenal right now. We are an employer of choice; players see the direction of travel under Arteta and they want to be a part of the ‘project’. By all rights Calafiori doesn’t have a connection to London (that I know of), he doesn’t have family here, he didn’t grow up supporting The Arsenal, but by the sounds of it he rejected Italian, Spanish and other clubs to join us. And Arteta referenced that when speaking about him too and when they first spoke it was Calafiori who apparently said something along the lines of “when you are ready, let me know, I will pack my bags”. I bet Mikel would have loved that.

This doesn’t sound like a guy coming for a pay day in the Premier League. This sounds like a young, impressive, football player, wanting to challenge himself at the highest level. This sounds like a guy who is serious about his craft and as we know from the All or Nothing documentary from a few years ago, these are the types of people Arteta likes. When you are competing at the highest elite level in sport, you have to be a bit of a mentality monster and I know it’s only words at this stage, but this kid sounds like he has a bit of that.

Quite how Arteta fits all of these defensive puzzle pieces together remains to be seen, but the signs were there in his interview that I saw yesterday, in which he reference Saliba playing every Premier League game and how it isn’t really sustainable. I think Mikel is looking to do more rotation this coming season and Calafiori is an example of that. And I think we also have to hand out some kudos to Mikel as well, because he learns and evolves all of the time. Two season’s ago accusations (tentative ones, mind, because it’s not as if there were raging mobs on the streets) were labelled at Mikel that he didn’t seem to be able to impact games from the bench. I’ve heard a few people talk about how his subs were sometimes a little late, that they didn’t always have the impact you’d hope a manager could do, etc. But last season I thought he was much improved in that facet of his game. But last season’s questions that arose were around not rotating enough. Now we find ourselves stockpiling in certain positions and I think it’s just another example of how Mikel is learning, adapting, analysing where he could make his own improvements, then trying to act on this.

We look like a serious outlet now. We have a strong and deep defence. Midfield still needs some work but the noises of Mikel Merino and that possible arrival (more from yesterday’s blog where I gave some thoughts on that possible arrival here) will probably start to hot up now, whilst our attack is pretty stocked at the moment you have to say. Martinelli, Trossard, Gabriel Jesus looking good, Havertz, Saka give us some quality. We will probably need one more if Eddie and Reiss depart, but I guess that is more to do with exits rather than a big hole that needs to be filled. Ideally you want to shift them on and buy one wide forward who can operate across the front three to cover Saka if needed, but Gabriel Jesus did that against City so even if the season started tomorrow, it feels like we have cover. So I’m not massively stressed about our attacking options.

Instead, I am excited, because this team is taking shape, the squad is looking good, plus I haven’t even mentioned the likes of Nwaneri who will be hopeful of getting minutes too. It’s an exciting time to be an Arsenal fan. Let’s hope that excitement can continue in to the summer and for the first very tough half-a-dozen games or so. 

The other news that emerged yesterday was around ESR’s exit and whilst some are saying that £27million plus £7million in add on’s is a decent deal, that feels on the light side to me. It wasn’t that long ago that Villa were after him for around £40million. I’ve seen some suggest that it’s because he can’t stay fit, but for large chunks of last season he was, in fact, fit and ready to play. Arteta just didn’t feel he could use him for whatever reason. If he maintains that fitness then Fulham will have got themselves a bit of a steal in my opinion, a bit like they did by getting Bernd Leno for just £4million. This ESR deal is pure profit to be banked, that’s good, but it doesn’t 100% exonerate Edu on the charge of not being able to recoup decent fees for players. During a summer in which we’re seeing deals for some players going at £40million who have barely played any Premier League football, this just feels a little like we’ve caved. Not by a lot – I would have said something like £34million with add on’s would have been market value – but every little helps these days, doesn’t it?

Let’s wait until that’s confirmed though before we can say our farewells and thank you to a Hale Ender who will always be thought of fondly at The Arsenal.

Until then, catch you tomorrow.