You can tell the ITK gears are starting to crank up again for January. I’ve noticed a slight uptick in transfer-related news over the last week or so, including some of the noises coming out yesterday and the day before about the teenage sensation Arda Gular, who signed for Real Madrid a couple of summers back but has found his game time supposedly limited this season.

Apparently, according to a few of the online media channels, Arsenal are looking to do a Martin Odegaard 2.0 on the Turkish kid.

I think we were linked with him – tentatively – before he signed for Madrid. But then again, I don’t know who wasn’t linked with him to be fair; he was a very impressive for Fenerbahce as a 17-year-old and I think most of the big clubs in the world had eyes on his signature. But as is their wont, Madrid decided to come calling and for most players from lesser leagues (with all due respect to the Turkish, but it is – money, technical ability, reputation of the big clubs, etc) that is the pinnacle of what they want to aim for.

His game time has supposedly been limited and that’s why this rumour has popped up, but I have to say I can’t see this one coming to fruition like Odegaard did. For one thing, he has actually been getting minutes this season. He’s played a total of 307 minutes for Madrid so far, including three starts and four sub appearances in 12 games. That’s probably not exactly what he’d have hoped for, but let’s get this straight – this is a kid who is 19 playing for one of the biggest teams in the world going for multiple positions. He’s not going to walk into the Madrid team overnight. Last season his campaign was impacted by a couple of injuries and so his time was limited, this season he has been slowly integrated into the team but of course a fair bit as an impact sub. The notion that Arsenal will get him on loan and then he’ll get the kind of minutes in the team ahead of our current crop seems a bit fanciful to me, so that means he’d be a rotation option for us in the latter stages of the season if we got him on loan for the second part of it. Why would he go from Madrid’s bench/rotation squad option, to ours?

I just don’t see it, even if a loan deal to cover makes sense for us, I’m not sure it makes sense for the player or Madrid. I suspect Madrid are also mindful of the old adage the one that got away with Odegaard, so I can’t see them wanting to repeat that feat again.

So let’s go back to some news which relates to the here and now, which is that Kieran Tierney has been spotted back in first team training. That’s lovely for him. I’m not sure how much it impacts the first team however, because although I partook in some “what if?” scenarios on the socials last night (“would you take Tierney at left back for the whole season or Partey at right back for the whole season, if you had to pick one?”), I doubt we’ll see him at all in an Arsenal first team shirt. At left back Arteta is picking Zinchenko (maybe) or Lewis-Skelly ahead of KT I suspect; MLS certainly has more of an Arsenal career ahead of him at this stage, so I can’t really see KT being a ‘thing’ right now.

Of course I could be wrong and heck, given the number defensive injuries we’ve had this season and with Ben White now out for a while I suspect that ensures there’s no chance Timber gets asked to fill in at left back, but I still think the pecking order is such that we won’t see Tierney rocking up in an Arsenal shirt in the next six weeks or so. But let’s see how deep Arteta has to dive in his squad.

I guess it could also depend on Tomiyasu, who I have seen some rumours that he might be close to a team return. If Tomi is back and Calafiori could be back for this weekend or in the next week or so, then you’d expect it’d be Riccardo and Jurrien as the first choice full backs, Tomiyasu in at first reserve for both positions, MLS and Kiwior as third and fourth choice full backs, then KT making up numbers. I haven’t included Zinchenko in there, as he’d probably be in there behind Tomiyasu as third choice left back, but after his comments about Arteta and the fact he likes to pull the wool over opposition teams’ eyes by telling players to act like they are fit even when they are injured, I suspect there might be some choice words being said to the Ukrainian. Arteta hates a leak and he hates anybody knowing what the inner workings of the team are, so this open admission of information might not bode too well for Zinny.

I’m sure the press will pick it up in the pre match presser too, so it’ll be interesting to see Arteta’s reaction if asked about it. If he gives it a very terse response, I suspect that means Zinny is in the dog house a bit.

I think that’s probably all that there is worth talking about for now. Tomorrow I’ll do my usual and start to look at what Forest fan vibes are ahead of Arteta’s press conference, so we can finally start getting back in to the swing of The Arsenal and not those pointless international glorified friendlies.

Catch you all tomorrow