Good morning campers! Tim Stillman right here to lovingly information you thru Tuesday whereas Andrew lands in Philadelphia in pursuit of the proper cheese steak. (I believe there could be a soccer match there this week too). Let’s begin with the shock signing of Italian defender Riccardo Calafiori which none of us noticed coming, that’s for positive.
Arsenal signal Riccardo Calafiori pic.twitter.com/872qPC2T0v
— Poorly Drawn Arsenal (@cantdrawarsenal) July 29, 2024
Calafiori flew into the US to affix his teammates on the final leg of their US tour, flash his pearly whites and provides these lavish locks a understanding wriggle. Honest play to Arteta for being safe sufficient in himself to signal the one participant in soccer able to giving him hair envy.
pic.twitter.com/QwOtUukr1R
— P (@perwilo) July 29, 2024
In all seriousness, it’s a strong addition of an Italian worldwide who, like Kiwior, Tomiyasu, Timber and White, can play in central defence and at left-back and it will likely be fascinating to see which place he seems in additional typically. I’ve to say left-back feels extra probably since that’s the place the hole within the workforce seems to be.
Final season, Tomiyasu, Kiwior and Zinchenko shared the place however as Zinchenko pale from view because the de facto first selection, it did really feel like a firmer possibility was required there. I might wager that certainly one of Kiwior or Zinchenko will now go away and the market may dictate who that’s.
When Arteta buys defenders, I believe he’s considering as a lot about how the workforce builds play from the again as he’s nuts and bolts defending and Calafiori definitely appears so as to add one thing completely different there with the way in which he strides out from the again. I think this signing is about having a firmer left-back selection and giving Arsenal somewhat bit extra carrying skill on the left aspect.
I do know all new signings say good issues in regards to the membership they’re coming to however i used to be enthused by Calafiori’s obvious enthusiasm to affix Arsenal, eschewing Juventus- not one thing many Italian gamers do- in doing so. Arteta himself stated, ‘We knew different golf equipment had been however he informed me- ‘let me know once you’re prepared, my luggage are prepared and I simply need to come to Arsenal.’
Calafiori himself sounded impressed with what has been brewing at Arsenal in current seasons and, curiously, in his Sky Sports activities interview he stated he was on the Crystal Palace house sport in January which suggests the curiosity has been there for some time.
“I spoke rather a lot with the coach and with Edu, they usually satisfied me, however I used to be already satisfied on my own. I believe it’s the perfect challenge for me for the subsequent few years, and I believe I’ll enhance as a participant.
“I simply met [Jorginho] one month in the past, however I can see that he’s a very good man. I used to be already satisfied however he pressured me. He stated: ‘come, come, come! You’ll take pleasure in being right here, the workforce is wonderful and the workers, every thing is nice.’ You may see that already from the primary couple of minutes right here.”
Arteta gave a pre-match press convention forward of the sport with Liverpool tomorrow night time / Thursday morning relying in your timezone and he advised numbers in defence had been gentle final season, inflicting him to must overplay some gamers (and largely having the ability to due to their good health data).
‘We solely had six defenders within the backline and at this degree it’s a must to be actually fortunate to maintain the season like this. We had been, as a result of William for instance and Gabriel almost performed each minute, we performed greater than 50 per cent extra minutes than the earlier season and if we’re ready to try this persistently over the subsequent three or 4 years that’s a giant query mark. Clearly you can not simply guess on that, that’s a giant guess and we don’t need to take that guess.’
For extra in-depth evaluation on Calafiori, we’ve you coated. Phil Costa has a very attention-grabbing profile on the participant and his strengths and weaknesses right here. Whereas we even have an audio providing as Phil and Andrew chew the fats over the participant on patreon in podcast type right here.
In the meantime, the sale of Emile Smith Rowe to Fulham appears to be gathering tempo with a number of experiences {that a} price has been agreed with Arsenal pocketing a cool £27m plus one other potential £7m in add-ons. I don’t know whether or not that represents a great value or not because the market has been so skewed by PSR shenanigans.
On one hand, it seems like sure golf equipment (!) are capable of promote 14-year-old goalkeepers referred to as Clumsy McLettucehands for this kind of cash. Then again, Arsenal will not be ensconced in that specific model of switch actuality and Smith Rowe has barely performed for 2 years and as an academy product, the sale represents pure revenue. It’s not a miserly amount of cash in any case and it sounds prefer it may fund a transfer for Mikel Merino.
For Smith Rowe, he must go and have a profession now and it has been clear for a while that isn’t going to occur at Arsenal. Arteta wants choices he really trusts too, they’ll’t have a clutch of 4-500 minute a season gamers any longer and they should begin making some money from gross sales.
Okay, nicely that was two fairly meaty items of Arsenal information from yesterday. We could have an Arsenal Ladies Arsecast out later in the present day with myself and the Guardian’s Tom Garry swapping notes on breaking switch exclusives in ladies’s soccer so do examine that out. In any other case, I’m again over the weekend.
Sadly, I couldn’t make the lads’s US tour this yr (I might be in Washington in a number of weeks for the ladies’s tour) however I’m going to my first match because the finish of final season on Saturday because the Arsenal XI play away at Lincoln Metropolis. Rather more scenic and glamorous than Hermosa Seashore, I’m positive you’ll agree…
