Morning.
The summer of 2025 will go down in history as the great migration, as players from everywhere flocked to Arsenal. They came from far and wide. From Lisbon to London, from Leverkusen to the Basque Country. These footballing immigrants added joy to people’s lives and the wider community, seeking gainful employment and bringing skills and qualities that were much needed.
And on this Saturday morning, just days before the close of the transfer window, it looks like there’s another one on the way. Piero Hincapie will become the first Ecuadorian to play for Arsenal as he’s set to join on a season long loan from Bayer Leverkusen. David Ornstein reports in The Athletic (£) that the 23 year old will have a medical over the weekend, and the deal will have an option for us to make it permanent for around €52m.
The option might be an accounting decision, allowing us to put this transfer on next summer’s books, in much the same way we did with David Raya when he initially joined from Brentford. A bit of a loan fee this summer, pay the fee the next. And this summer of all summers, you can see how that would make sense given the outlay in the region of £250m on seven players before this deal. That’s a big financial commitment – even if payments will be staggered over time – so if you can put another lump on the never-never/long-finger, it’s probably not a bad idea.
We can talk more about this player and what he might bring at a later date, but this truly is an unprecedented summer of incoming business. It’s a bonanza, a literal shopping spree. Josh Kroenke gave Andrea Berta the titanium American Express card and sang his favourite 2Unlimited song at him. Then he also told him ‘No Limits’.
Not to bring anyone down or anything, but I do hope people realise this is more or less a one-off. We’re almost never going to see anything like this again, and the design/strategy of this summer is to push this team to a level that can achieve success and sustain it for a few years. Of course there will be those who exist online who love transfers more than football and will rage and scream when January comes and we don’t sign another five players, but let’s be realistic about all this. Those people are twats. What we’ve done this summer is great, and I love the ambition, but it’s not really repeatable window after window. And if this works, it doesn’t need to be … for a while, at least.
As for outgoings, well it seems the arrival of Hincapie is linked to the departure of Jakub Kiwior who is set to join Porto on loan with an obligation to make it permanent in 2026. They look to have had a pretty busy summer of ins and outs, so maybe this is one that suits them financially too. He’s expected to make that move official over the weekend, and I think Arsenal fans will wish him well. Solid player, nice guy, made us a bit of profit. Thanks Jakub.
There’s also talk of Oleksandr Zinchenko being of interest to Marseille, with talks ongoing about a move to Ligue 1. The wages are a bit of an issue, but that’s not unusual when a player has been at two high profile Premier League clubs and then has to negotiate a deal with a club on the continent. They generally can’t pay what English clubs pay, so it can be complicated to work that out between the two clubs and the player. It’s one I hope goes through, primarily because we need to do some outgoing business and he’s a player who has completely fallen out of favour.
At 28 now, Zinchenko needs to go and play somewhere. Hopefully he can stay fit, and maybe he might find some game time in his more natural position rather than as a kind of left-back, because ultimately defending is not really his strength. Get him on the ball, and he can make things happen. Let’s see what transpires in terms of that move, and we’ll keep an eye on what might happen with Reiss Nelson, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Fabio Vieira in the next couple of days. The latter was linked strongly with Stuttgart, and they’re now flush having sold a striker to Newcastle, so maybe they rekindle their interest.
What that means for Alexander Isak remains to be seen, but I will repeat what I said the other day: if the Newcastle owners sanction his sale to Liverpool they are LOSERS and WEAKLINGS, and everyone should point and laugh at them.
Right, I’ll leave it there. We’ll have a Liverpool preview podcast for you over on Patreon in a little while. For now, enjoy your Saturday.
