It looks like this summer is shaping up to be a successful one for Arsenal, except for the Benjamin Sesko snub. Bologna were giving Edu and his team a difficult time in negotiations for Riccardo Calafiori, refusing to budge on their £42 million asking price. But in the end, they had to agree to a compromise. It appears the Gunners are now focusing on Sociedad’s midfielder Mikel Merino, and that deal is also likely going to go through.
According to Eldesmarque, Mikel Merino is fond of Arsenal’s atmosphere and plans.
Their headline reads: The bidding for Mikel Merino: Arsenal have the money, Barcelona prefer to wait, and Atlético are not convincing
Out of the three teams — Arsenal, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid — it seems like the Gunners are the most eager to sign Mikel Merino. They have the financial means to make this deal happen.
Barcelona as per Sport.es has to wait for the completion of the Nico Williams and Dani Olmo deals before considering any other transactions, including Merino’s. It appears that Atletico Madrid, who could potentially compete for that deal, is also facing a challenge in its pursuit. The Real Sociedad star doesn’t seem to be fully convinced by the plan at Wanda Metropolitano.
After completing the Riccardo Calafiori deal, Arsenal are turning their attention to Mikel Merino, and everything suggests that soon we will hear a “Here we go… Arsenal and Real Sociedad agree on…”
Darren N
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Definitely think merino is a very good player, just not convinced he’s what we need for the first team – too similar to rice in terms of his strengths and weaknesses imo (reminds me a bit of edu actually). Hopefully I’m wrong about that (if we sign him, anyway), but even if I’m right, he’d certainly improve our squad depth
He would bring balance to the central midfield area which has been lacking since the departure of Xhaka.Neither Zinchenko nor Havertz have the physicality to be a success in the left central role .Ruiz and Merino dovetailed smoothly with Rodri and were instrumental in Spain’s success at the Euros.The new England Manager will already be aware of the dearth of natural left backs and left footed central midfielders and this lack of balance , along with the poor form of Kane, is probably the main reason why England failed to overcome Spain.
To the point. Merino is exactly what is lacking in our midfield. Calmness, balane and efficiency.
When did left footed central midfielders become so important? Aside from petit and (arguably) edu, I can’t think of a starting left footed central midfielder from a title winning side in the last 30 years – and whomever I’m forgetting, their left footedness can’t have been the most important factor, seeing as generally teams won without them
Vieira, Gilberto, Keane, scholes, carrick, fletcher, park, lampard, essien, ballack, makelele, rodri, gundogan, de bruyne, fernandinho… Maybe David Silva, if he’s considered a central midfielder?
We don’t need to be left footed to provide balance, just an intelligent player – we currently use the left footed odegaard predominantly as a right central (attacking) midfielder, and no one complains he causes a lack of balance.
Imo Spain beat England because they were simply better in midfield, but it was nothing to do with which foot their players preferred – they were just smarter and more skilled. Would have made no difference if ruiz was predominantly right footed
“We don’t need *a CM* to be left footed to provide balance”
We need that guy merino if he is a good defensive midfielder
Let’s keep our fingers crossed but also not get too carried away quite yet.
Arsenal have actually signed one player so far in this window – Raya, who was of course on loan anyway.
The Calafiori deal is not, at time of writing, done but looks likely (despite a reported last minute Roma intervention over the distribution of the sell-on clause money).
Hopefully Arsenal will also be able to sign a midfielder and a top-quality striker before the end of August deadline but it’s still pretty vague as to who will be signed in the end, and negotiations can drag on as Calafiori has shown.
It has been clear after clear, then favorite….. But we still can’t see anything tangible.
How favorite are we supposed to be to actually sign someone?
We were once deemed clear favorite to sign Zirkzee but it never happened, his now at Manchester United.
It’s really frustrating………if no one is coming for our dead wood, then we have to find a way. let’s auction them…..