So it sounds as though we find ourselves in a position where the wheels are finally starting to turn with a couple of outgoings, as Ornstein laid on not one, but two, Ornbombs on us yesterday. The first was the noises that Eddie Nketiah is the subject of interest from Nottingham Forest and apparently they’ve already bid £20million plus £5million in add ons. Arsenal are looking for closer to £30 – £35million and given that we saw Oliver Skipp – a pretty average midfielder from The Scum – join Leicester for that amount, I don’t think what Arsenal are after is unreasonable. Bump the total payment up to £25million and then make the add-ons achievable (come on now Forest, let’s not have any “Champions League football and a domestic Cup” target in there, eh?) and we’ll do the deal, eh?

The fact that Ornstein said the clubs are still talking suggests to me that there’s a deal willing to be done and given that there was then rumours circulating yesterday that somebody had posted a picture of Eddie’s box being cleared out of the Emirates yesterday, suggests that all parties probably feel this will get done.

Us Arsenal fans though, eh? We are undefeated when it comes to obsessive tracking of situations revolving around our club.

This deal – if / when it goes through – will surely mean Arsenal need to dip in to the market within the next week-and-a-half. This is a guy who made 37 appearances in all competitions last season and bagged just under 1,400 minutes. Those minutes will have to go somewhere and whilst Gabriel Jesus managed 1,900 minutes last season due to injuries, I don’t think you’ll find many Arsenal fans who think that he’ll stay fit for enough of the season to take all of Eddie’s minutes and combine them with his own. If he manages that it’d be well on to playing nearly all minutes of most of the season (3,100 minutes is circa 37 90 minute games). Given he’s picked up injuries essentially every season he’s been at the club, I just don’t see that as a feasible option.

This move will surely make Arsenal dip in to the market for a player that can play across the front line. We have all heard the rumours that Arsenal have that in their mind to do something like that all summer and whilst Sesko was a speculative effort because of his contractual situation, I do wonder if Arsenal will think about moving fairly rapidly should the Eddie deal get sorted out. From Arsenal’s perspective they’ll probably be saying that to Forest too i.e. “here’s the deadline because we don’t want to be waiting around trying to find a forward with hours of the transfer window to play”. This is where the relationship between clubs is important. If Forest and Arsenal have a good working relationship (no reason to think otherwise given Matty Turner and Nuno Tavares have joined them in recent seasons – so it shows they have experience working together), then they should be able to have frank and honest conversations about deadlines, payment structures, fees and add-ons. If Arsenal are telling Forest to come back to them to get closer to £30million ‘all-in’ on the Eddie fee, not only should they want an answer on whether they’ll pay the fee sooner rather than later, but they should also be telling them they need to make a decision one way or the other this week so we can start planning Eddie’s replacement too.

It’s a really tough one though, because although you’re joining a club that has a lot of positivity right now in where we are going under Arteta, you’re also asking a player to be a squad member. That’s a tougher sell. It’s not impossible though and the story of Trossard should be one in which Arsenal use to attract any incoming player. Leo was brought as what most of us thought was a rotation option the season before last, but towards the end of last season found himself as a regular starting. I’m reminded of that Ramsdale quote from a season or two ago as well; he said that Trossard’s mindset was not that he was coming in to be a squad player, but to take the place of somebody else. That’s the mindset that Arteta will be looking for and I think that’s what we’ll be looking at in terms of an incoming.

Who that might be remains to be seen. I can’t see it being Ivan Toney, as a few people have suggested to me on my social media, yesterday. That feels like there’s never been any major interest and although he’s a good player, he’d probably want big cash, plus to be a starter, which he just isn’t getting in this Arsenal team. There’s also the fact he’s 28 and can only really play in one position; we know how Arteta loves his versatility and to me it feels like that’s what we’ll go for again if we start to make moves.

More will start to become clear as the Eddie situation crystallises a little more and I suspect we’ll start to have some names starting to be leaked out over the next week if the Eddie stuff reaches a conclusion.

The other one mentioned was Ramsdale and apparently both Bournemouth and Wolves want him. Arsenal would prefer a permanent deal as we all know, but as we get closer to the end of the window I suspect they’ll settle for a loan fee; he’s on a decent contract, he’ll play more and hopefully up his value, plus his wages would be paid for by those clubs as well as a loan fee. Kind of works well for all parties providing Ramsdale can keep delivering on the pitch, which I’d be fairly confident he would. He’s a good ‘keeper, we all love him and if / when that deal gets done, then we’ll all wish him the best.

Other than that I think we’re pretty much done for today’s musings. It was fun watching Jamie Vardy get that equaliser and then banter off those Tottenham away fans last night, but I’ll keep that to no more than a footnote, which is all that club ever deserves. And Vardy too, to be fair.

Catch you all tomorrow. Have a good one.