Morning, a very quick Saturday blog for you.
Chelsea have apparently rejected Arsenal’s opening bid for Kai Havertz. They’re all at it! Rejecting first bids here, rejecting first bids there. Why even bother with a first bid? Just go straight in with your third, I reckon.
Obviously there wasn’t as much outcry about this first bid being rejected as there was about the West Ham one the other day. There are obvious reasons why. Nobody likes giving Chelsea money, plus at this point it’s quite difficult to see what the plan is for Havertz. Where does he fit in this team? I suspect as a front three option, but quite where I’m not sure. All I’ll say though is that Mikel Arteta wants very specific things from his signings, so it’s quite possible he’s seeing something in this player that we haven’t yet – at least not in his time at Chelsea.
Also, I would enjoy it if we did find an agreement and had to pay those horrible bastards actual money, we did it with thousands of bags of 5-pence pieces.
“It’s legal tender, pal!”.
Elsewhere, a very interesting midfield story sees us linked with Southampton’s Romeo Lavia. He signed for Man City from Anderlecht, but joined the Saints last season, leaving his former club with a buy-back clause. He did well there, despite their relegation, but is clearly too good for the Championship and likely to be available this summer.
I know everyone is keen on Moises Caicedo, and I understand why, but with reports that Brighton have put a price tag of over £100m on him you could also understand why we might be looking elsewhere. That Brighton guy is a top seller, and he’s very rarely one for compromise – especially when it comes to the transfer fee. Lavia isn’t quite as developed as Caicedo, but that would be reflected in the price. If you think about a midfield roster next season with Thomas Partey, Martin Odegaard, Declan Rice (🤞), Jorginho, Mo Elneny, and Romeo Lavia – with other players in the squad who could slot in there too – it’s pretty decent sounding to me. Hopefully one to keep an eye on.
Speaking of Southampton, sort of, Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ departure from Arsenal was confirmed this week. He spent last season on loan at St Mary’s, suffering the disappointment at relegation, and with his contract expiring his time at this club is over.
I suspect that somewhere down the line he might look back on the last few years with some regret. Remember in Arteta’s early games, he was played as kind of inverted right-back, a taste of things to come, perhaps. That opportunity was there because of injury to Hector Bellerin, and to be fair to AMN, he did contribute to our FA Cup win in 2020, playing as a left wing-back in the semi and final.
However, he wanted to play in midfield, and while I don’t know if he kicked up a fuss about it, there was that whole thing when his loan to Everton was nixed at the last minute and there was a bit of a social media tantrum. He came back, played a bit in his favourite position, but it was never going to be a long term thing for Arteta. Or at least a first choice thing. The manager wanted, and needed, more from players in that position, and I don’t think Maitland-Niles was ever the guy to provide it.
The opportunity, as I saw it at least, was to be a full-back. I think he had all the qualities to have had a real go at making that position his own, but he wanted something else. Which is fair enough, I suppose. Still, he leaves with 132 appearances for his boyhood club, an FA Cup winner’s medal, and a collection of the coolest penalties you will ever see. Good luck to him wherever he goes.
@MaitlandNiles steps up to the spot…
…you know the rest 🥶 pic.twitter.com/CfZZRDK6g6
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) June 16, 2023
Finally for today, for some extra reading, Jon Spurling reflects on the career of John Hollins, a player who came from Chelsea back in the day to make his mark in North London too. John passed away this week.
Have a great Saturday folks.
