Arsenal confirmed yesterday what we all already knew; Andrea Berta joining us as Sporting Director having left his post at Atletico Madrid at the end of 2024. As you’d expect, the official announcement doesn’t really give much intel or information on his thoughts and philosophies, but you’d expect that given that it’s essentially just a simple communicado officiale message. When we’ll maybe get a bit more is when he does speak to any assembled media. I suspect even then we’re not really going to get too much in terms of his direction.

But I’m ok with that. I’m not interested in a man who wants to talk about “a different knock” when Arsenal come calling, or a figurehead telling us that we are aiming to be “bigger than Bayern Munich”, but instead I want a guy that gets his head down and gets the business done that is needed to take us to that next level and step that we’re currently missing.

Perhaps linked to that was a little mini Ornbomb that dropped last night, as David mentioned on his social media feeds that Arsenal are developing their interest in Gyokeres as a possible signing for the summer. IT’s interesting because I think many Arsenal fans’ eyes and expectations had been towards either the Bundesliga (Sesko and Ekitike) or the Premier League (Isak). I know people have spoken about Gyokeres, but it has seemed that this interest had been from fans more than the club, so I think many of us had just assumed that it wasn’t something the club were going to look at. But as Ornstein has mentioned, Berta is apparently a big fan of his and with Arsenal having played Sporting this season already, Arteta and his team have had a closer look at the 26-year-old. Although we did batter Lisbon, he did show some flashes of the player we have been watching from afar; he was strong (rolled Gabriel in one moment I seem to recall – not an easy task), he had a couple of powerful pot shots (somebody willing to have a go from a distance could be no bad thing), plus his hold up play was there to see. He’s bagged 42 goals this season having got 43 last season and so clearly he’s a man who knows where the onion bag is.

But I still wonder about whether he can do it in he Premier League. His physicality suggests he should be fine, but the time and space he’ll get in the Premier League will be less and the other question will be over his age. He’s 26, he’ll be 27 in June and the window for strikers to be at their peak is usually now. I’ve always said I like the look of Sesko, or that Ekitike guy because of their age profiles and so that would be my preference. Sesko is about to turn 22 in the summer and Ekitike is going to be 23 in June. It feels like Gyokeres is the ‘now’ option though. I’ve never liked the Isak option though, so give me Gyokeres, Ekitike or Sesko over that any day of the week, because as I’ve previously stated it’s that injury record that worries me. Isak would also probably cost twice as much as any of those players. And just look at this injury record. I know if you’re a regular reader you’ll proably be sick of me mentioning it, but now compare:

I know those players are younger than Isak (other than Gyokeres), but they still have better injury records compared to when the Swede was their age. That bodes well and hopefully signing any of those players mean we get availability as a more likely probability than if we spent double on Isak.

Whether or not this news is coming as a direct response to Berta’s arrival is interesting. Ornstein doesn’t usually report things unless he’s pretty sure on the source, but perhaps he’s been sitting on this information until the Berta arrival, as the two are in fact linked. One way to curry favour with fans is to get a quick win of a signing under your belt and so if that’s what Berta is looking at by way of a deal to be done. The noises on the fee seem like they’d be pretty feasible too; apparently he’s got a €100million (£83million) release clause, but there’s an expectation that a deal could be done for around €75million (£62million). That sort of cash would certainly be on the affordable side for Arsenal and I suspect pulling the trigger on that kind of money earlier on in the summer would be something Arsenal would be more happy to do. They know they need to do it this summer and so why not make a decision and settle on a first choice, settling on a player and go for it? The way the club operate is that they get all of the checks and balances in place so that the player is 100% convinced he wants to play for the club and by making moves now it could tee it up for the summer. Look at the way they courted Rice, the groundwork they seem to have done on Zubimendi, which they could replicate with Berta and Gyokeres. And if they can get those two deals over the line early in the summer, I think it’ll have Arsenal fans pretty pumped for the new season. Supposedly Zubimendi’s release clause is €61million) and Sociedad know that he will probably leave this summer, so they want to move fast to get the money in so they can re-invest. So if you’re asking me whether we should try to get Isak for £125million, or go get Zubimendi and Gyokeres for that combined price, then I’m obviously taking the latter option. And you could just tell that Isak would be a long, drawn-out, process. These feel like deals that could be done with little fuss.

Football transfers, eh? Simple job!

I’m going to leave it there for today. We have the prep for the Fulham game coming up today and Arteta will be having his press conference at some stage so let’s say what things he says about the Cottagers, Berta, as well as how Saka is getting on.

Catch you all tomorrow for a match preview.