Morning.
Arsenal announced the first official signing of the summer yesterday, with Kepa Arrizabalaga’s move from Chelsea made official. We paid a £5m release clause which, for an experienced back-up goalkeeper with tons of Premier League experience, is about as good as you’ll get in this market. He’s 30 years old, still quite young in the life of a keeper, and he signed a three year contract.
Speaking to the official site, he said:
We’re here to win. I think we have a great team. I think we have great staff around here, the best facilities, so we have to prepare ourselves for this season and to have success.
When I talk with Mikel and Inaki, they show me their desire to win. They showed me this ambition, how much they want to improve, how much they want to grow and I’m really here to help, to push and to win more.
It’s a pretty low fuss solution to an issue we had to address during this window, and we’ve done it quickly and efficiently (not always the case when it comes to our goalkeeping department). And while I know the arrival of another player from Chelsea is problematic for some people, I think this is a pretty smart move all things considered. I might have more to say if we go back to Stamford Bridge again this summer given some of the recent reporting and names we’ve been linked with, but not with this one.
We have a very Spanish set-up in this area, with the coach and David Raya already established as the number 1, and perhaps a consequence of Kepa’s arrival is the door being open for Karl Hein to depart. He spent last season on loan at Real Vallodolid, and after a taste of first team football, and a signing which tells him his chances of playing at Arsenal this season are minimal at best, I’d fully expect him to look elsewhere. He’s a full international for Estonia, he has a year left on his contract, and perhaps this is one where we might bring in a few quid with a permanent deal rather than another loan.
Meanwhile, in yesterday’s blog I said of our reported interest in Eberechi Eze:
We’re yet to hear the word ‘concrete’ in relation to this situation, so until that time we’ll have to see how it all plays out…
I wake up this morning to an update from Fabrizio Romano, from his YouTube channel, and he says:
The talks are concrete. What I can tell you today is that also the player is opening doors to Arsenal. The player is keen on the move to Arsenal. He’s excited by the Arsenal project. So Eberechi Eze is something concrete for the Gunners.
Not just a single concrete, a double concrete. Concrete Squared. Mega Concrete. I think we can all relax in the assurance that this much concrete can mean only one thing: we’re building an new outhouse at London Colney. Or Eze is gonna sign. There’s no inbetween. Nuance is a word which no longer exists in the world we inhabit.
By the way, thanks to an Arseblog reader (CFPB!) who reminded me of this classic concrete video. Arsenal are sustainable thanks to all our Timber, but we’ve cracked the alchemy of concrete and are growing our own to power this transfer window.
With Kepa now done, is today the day for the Martin Zubimendi announcement? There’s no reason why it can’t be. The player was in London last week to do all the paperwork and to produce the content for his signing, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if we made that one official. Unless there’s some other reason to keep the lid on it, I can’t see why we wouldn’t get something any time now.
*checks watch*
Or now …
Anyway, it is the donest of done deals and all we need is to see him in red and white, and find out which number he’s going to wear. Kepa took 13, a classic second choice goalkeeper number, and it shows he’s not superstitious – or he’s decisively fighting back against his superstitions. There’s some suggestion that Zubimendi will take 36, but let’s see. He wore 4 at Real Sociedad, he’s gonna be very much a first team player at Arsenal, so maybe he’ll go for something a bit lower.
Current available numbers include 3, 5, 10, 14, 16, and 20, some of which suit a deep-lying midfielder better than others to be fair. It’s not really that important in the grand scheme of things, even if Gallas 10 remains an abomination: a unholy stain on this club that can never be scrubbed away.
Finally for today, Fabio Vieira’s loan spell at Porto is over. They announced it on their website, saying he’s going back to Arsenal, thanks very much for the middling numbers last season, and good luck. I’m curious to see what happens with him this summer. Or, to put it another way, curious to see what kind of a solution the new sporting director might be able to conjure up because I don’t think he’s going to be too high in the manager’s plans. One to keep half an eye on.
Right, that’s your lot for this morning. Have a great day.
