Happy Saturday to you all.
Let’s start with Mikel Arteta and an interview he did yesterday with the official site from the Marbella training camp. He talked about what he’s looking to instill for the season ahead, in a summer when the return of the players is staggered due to their international tournament involvement. He said:
“The players who arrive first are going to set the tone for the ones that are coming back later because we have four different groups coming at different stages in pre-season and they really have to feel that
“For me, the best thing is when they come here on the first day and when they look at us, when they see the attitude, when they see the preparation, when they hear the words that we are using to start the preparation for this season.
“Then they go, ‘Wow, this is going up a level again, so what we did last season is not going to be enough. If I want to play and I want to be competing in this team, I’m going have to do something extra.'”
As I’ve said previously, for Arsenal to do better than last season, we’re going to have to break records again, and the better you get, the more difficult it is to improve. However, I take some comfort from Arteta’s relentlessness. I don’t know any other way to put it. He has always talked a good game, and has been able to back that up (for the most part). We all know about the ‘foggin estandards’, and here’s more evidence that no matter how good it gets, as long as it doesn’t deliver the silverware, it’s not good enough for him. That has been the undercurrent of his time at Arsenal, so let’s hope he can do it again.
Side note: In a world where everyone is looking for marginal gains to give them that bit extra, have we stumbled across something? The trip to Dubai in mid-season worked wonders, we’re now in Marbella, and will be heading for sunny California and the USA in a couple of weeks. Is Vitamin D the thing?
Arteta also spoke about transfers, and made it clear the Euros and Copa America have had an impact, saying:
“It’s a very different summer with the Euros and the Copa America. You can tell everything is a bit slower. The market and a lot of the constraints the new rules in place have caused clubs to be more aware and it’s a bit more delicate to do business in the way that we’ve done in the last few seasons.
“We’ve adapted to that and we still want to deliver what we want throughout the transfer window to have a much more competitive team and improve the squad in every area that we can.”
Thus far though, most of the chatter is about players going out. Nuno Tavares and Albert Sambi Lokonga are expected to depart this weekend, and there have been stories about moves for the likes of Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah.
As for incomings, there have been rumours and stories, but nothing particularly substantial – beyond the official arrival of David Raya, but that was all done last season really. The Riccardo Calafiori stuff has gone very quiet too – it’s almost as if it was never as close as some people reported it to be, but by reporting it to be as close as it was, it was beneficial for others. Or maybe I’m just being too cynical and these things take time, especially in a summer like this. Perhaps a little from Column A, a little from Column B.
With the Copa and Euro finals to be played this weekend (although there’s only Arsenal interest in the latter), hopefully things will pick up. I have a strong suspicion that this is a transfer window where a lot of business will get done late, which isn’t ideal, but it’s something we’re going to have to deal with. When you look at the opening fixtures of the season, it means even more responsibility will likely fall on the players who got us so close last season, but maybe we’ll have a reinforcement or two before then. Fingers crossed.
Right, that’s your lot for this morning. Have a good one.
