Good morning, a fast Saturday round-up for you.
Arsenal made their first signing of the January window, securing the arrival of Leandro Trossard from Brighton for a price of £21m which may probably attain £27m. As I wrote yesterday, there are many the explanation why it is a good signing, so there’s no have to go over them once more – however it’s clear that one of many vital ones is how rapidly he can settle in and make an affect.
Mikel Arteta spoke about it in his press convention yesterday, saying:
“|We’re actually pleased to have him. He’s a participant we have now adopted for some time now. The chance got here – we had the need to have a participant within the frontline who is flexible sufficient to play in several positions.
“He is aware of the league, he has sufficient expertise right here and I feel he can have an instantaneous affect within the crew. Now we have to assume short-term, however medium and long-term as properly. He provides us all of that. He’s a really clever participant. Once you have a look at his profession and what he’s finished in the previous couple of years, he’s a participant that matches our approach of taking part in.”
Whereas the participant himself stated:
Arsenal has a lot historical past and I need to be a part of that historical past occurring. That’s why I joined this undertaking. I’m actually excited to be right here. I need to present myself to all of the followers and on the largest stage.
I’m actually excited to see the followers within the stadium. I hope I may give you my all. I need to attempt to create as many magic moments as doable, and hopefully we will have fun collectively.
The membership made some extent of claiming that the paperwork was accomplished forward of yesterday’s midday deadline for him to be accessible for Sunday’s sport towards Man Utd, and hopefully he could be a part of the squad for that. Now we have a variety of soccer to play within the second half of this season, so the faster will get concerned the higher.
For extra on Trossard, Phil Costa’s profile piece is right here – and for Patreon members, we do our typical new signing podcast which you’ll try right here. A Tross-cast, if you’ll.
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The switch information didn’t start and finish there, as I had anticipated – for yesterday no less than. We’d barely had the information that each one the Trossard stuff was finished once we had been closely linked with Polish centre-half Jakub Kiwior. He presently performs for Spezia in Serie A, and studies say a £20m price has been agreed between the golf equipment and he’ll journey to London this weekend to finish the formalities of the deal. He would possibly even be on the stadium to observe the United sport.
He’s a left-footed centre-half who can play in midfield too (sounds a bit acquainted, eh?), and it makes a variety of sense when you think about how we don’t have ‘pure’ cowl for Gabriel. Now we have gamers who can play there, however Mikel Arteta likes a left-footed participant in that place, and we don’t have that. Gabriel has began 53 consecutive Premier League video games which is an actual measure of his consistency and sturdiness, however it additionally illustrates it’s one of many positions on the pitch the place we’re just a bit gentle.
The clip beneath a really fascinating 90 seconds or so on Kiwior, a participant many people will probably be doing our homework on over the weekend.
Perception into Jakub Kiwior – @FMAnalysis spoke intimately in regards to the Polish defender, his robust ball-playing means, versatility and potential on our World Cup Standouts podcast. A snippet. pic.twitter.com/3gelDHoz3p
— Scouted Soccer (@scoutedftbl) January 20, 2023
From my temporary have a look at him up to now, he’s good on the ball, he’s 6’2 so provides us extra bodily presence, and the out-of-the-blue-ness of this one is fascinating too. That is when we have to purchase gamers. Let’s be trustworthy, Mudryk was one we should always have finished final summer season earlier than it went psychological. I’m not saying this state of affairs is similar, however this price-tag is rather more commensurate to a 22 yr outdated who simply broke into his nationwide aspect within the final 12 months. He’s much more skilled than Mudryk, however attackers have the particular sauce which makes the worth undergo the roof. Anyway, this appears like good enterprise too.
There may be additionally discuss of signing Valladolid right-back Ivan Fresneda, ideas that he’ll play his last sport for the Spanish aspect at present earlier than transferring to London. We’ll look ahead to particulars on that one, however we’re not wanting choices in that place, so it could be a case he indicators and finally ends up loaned again. Except we need to get him in and indoctrinated within the Arsenal approach as quickly as doable. He’s 18, and garnering a variety of curiosity, so just like the one above, possibly we’ve determined to get in rapidly earlier than the price will get out of hand.
Lastly, an fairly excitingly, there’s a hyperlink to Actual Madrid’s French worldwide Eduardo Camavinga. In The Normal, Simon Collings studies that Arsenal are keen on a mortgage deal for the 20 yr outdated who’s considerably on the outs on the Bernebeu. He has began simply 5 video games in La Liga, and this might be a vastly thrilling signing – even simply on mortgage, as a result of all of us have these midfield worries. Personally, I feel Actual Madrid can be psychological to let him go, however then everyone knows soccer golf equipment could be a bit mad at instances. There are shades of Martin Odegaard within the January of 2021, so let’s see what occurs.
What we will say is that after a few weeks the place issues didn’t come off out there, Arsenal look to have moved rapidly to handle that. Whether or not we’re entering into a totally totally different course, or bringing ahead some plans we have now for the summer season – or a little bit of each – I don’t precisely know, however it actually does really feel like we’re giving it a superb push for an important second half of a season in almost 20 years.
Until tomorrow.
