Morning.
It’s an outward looking blog this morning as we consider the potential departures of two players. First up, Eddie Nketiah has attracted some interest from Nottingham Forest who, according to David Ornstein, had a £25m first offer rejected.
I have to say, my initial thought was ‘Take it! That’s a good deal!’, but I guess the thing to consider is how that deal was structured. I very much doubt it was a suitcase full to the brim with £25m in a cash all in one go. It’s more than likely an offer which might possibly, perhaps, maybe, potentially reach £25m if all the clauses/conditions are met, and we don’t know anything about the proposed schedule of payment either. How much were they offering up front and when did they want to pay the rest?
Nevertheless, it seems talks are ongoing, and there are some whispers this one could be quite far down the line. We’ll have to wait and see though. It looked like Eddie was set for Marseille before they went in a different direction late on, and I suspect a lot of the Bournemouth chatter was simply about the fact Dominic Solanke had just left and he was very much on the market. The speed with which they closed the Evanilson deal makes me think he was their primary target all along, with Nketiah as a fall-back option, perhaps.
I hope this one goes through though. As I’ve said all along, as much as we’d like to see someone new and a bit different come in, Eddie is at an age where he needs to be playing regular football. Forest are an interesting side with some good players who could provide him decent service, so it looks like a solid fit for all concerned. Let’s keep an eye on this one over the coming days then.
Meanwhile, there was another late night David Ornstein report which says Wolves are interested in Aaron Ramsdale. The proposal is a loan + option deal, which is not exactly what we’d have wanted, but as we get closer and closer to the end of the window, it’s something the club are going to have to consider. The reality of the Ramsdale situation is that the new contract, on substantial wages, handed to him in May 2023, is a major impediment to a permanent transfer at the moment.
When you also take into consideration there isn’t much stirring in the goalkeeper market this summer, it makes it even more difficult. Clubs will roll the dice on an extra striker, an extra winger, an extra defender etc, but not so much with a keeper. You need a space for a number 1 goalkeeper, which is what Ramsdale considers himself, and right now there isn’t much going on either in the Premier League or abroad. Not to mention the clubs abroad who could take on his £100,000+ wage are few and far between.
So, as much as Arsenal would prefer to sell, the fact is this situation is a consequence of giving Ramsdale a new contract and then deciding to bring in David Raya a few months later. We saw an ‘opportunity’ to bring a keeper who is a better fit for what Mikel Arteta wants, but the consequence of that is we’ve made Ramsdale redundant and very, very difficult to sell. So, if it’s a loan with an option, that might be the way to go this summer.
As it stands, Ramsdale’s stock has fallen and his performances when he did play last season were not quite at his best level. Maybe a season on loan where he plays often and, hopefully, plays well creates a better market for him next summer when a permanent deal can be done. Unless there’s an out of the blue offer from somewhere, I don’t really see what else we can expect before the end of this transfer window. Maybe reported interest from Bournemouth and Southampton could create a scenario where that happens before August 30th, so we’ll see what happens.
Should Ramsdale depart, we’ve been linked for some weeks now with Espanyol’s Joan Garcia. He’s 23, with very limited top flight experience under his belt, but as the kind of profile you need to back-up an established first choice like Raya, it makes sense. Let’s see what the price is though. I’ve seen talk of a release clause that’s pretty expensive, and we’ve spent quite a lot of money on goalkeepers in the last few years, so that’s something to be mindful of.
Right, I will leave it there this morning. The new Arsecast Extra is below if you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, and over on Patreon we recap the first weekend of the Premier League season in The 30 (recorded before last night’s game and Jamie Vardy’s quite-funny-indeed baiting of Sp*rs fans).
Bye for now.
