Nicely, right here we go once more.
Mikel Arteta will meet the press for the primary time forward of a Premier League recreation because the 2024-25 season kicks off. To be honest to the supervisor, he’s been doing the rounds this week. There was an enormous interview on Sky Sports activities, and a pleasant one with our pal Rog from Males in Blazers, and all through the messaging has been comparable.
A lot chat about mentality and the way this crew goes once more after final season. Creating the proper of surroundings, one which challenges the gamers to do even higher than final day out. Simpler stated than finished, in fact, but when we all know something about Mikel Arteta that’s what he’s going to demand from everybody.
I believe there shall be questions on transfers which he’ll play with a straight bat, giving nothing a lot away both about departures or arrivals. We’d get a line about how we’re open to doing extra enterprise, however that’s so far as it’s going to go. Then we’d get a bit about accidents and who is obtainable, how good Wolves are, and after that allow’s wait and see what else crops up. There’s very hardly ever something too juicy, fairly intentionally too, so I don’t count on that to vary at this time.
Wanting round on the information, it appears as if Bournemouth’s curiosity in Eddie Nketiah is over after they agreed a deal for Porto striker Evanilson (Andoni Iraola insisting he can ‘Convey me to life’). He arrives in England on the again of 25 objective season for his membership, together with some Champions League objectives, and it makes Eddie’s return of 6 in the identical marketing campaign look considerably meagre. What now for Eddie although? Your guess is nearly as good as mine.
I don’t suppose it’s past the realms of risk that our need to promote needs to be matched with the fact of the market. If a late bid from someplace emerges, nice – however proper now, I believe we’ve to be open to the concept he ought to go away on mortgage, with the hope {that a} respectable season elsewhere means there is likely to be extra curiosity subsequent summer time. It’s not supreme, however what else is there? I don’t suppose it does him, or us, any good if he stays. Which isn’t to say I don’t suppose he’d do his greatest or work laborious, in fact he would, however like Reiss Nelson, he’s at an age the place he needs to be taking part in commonly someplace, and barring some form of harm disaster, it’s not going to be at Arsenal.
In the meantime, the Mikel Merino talks proceed with some suggestion he’ll be omitted from their squad for the weekend recreation in opposition to Rayo Vallecano. One other one to simply wait and see what occurs, however what’s clear is that what we’ve proper now’s what we’ll have in opposition to Wolves on Saturday, and as Arteta has stated repeatedly, his first job is to get probably the most out of the gamers at his disposal.
Elsewhere, I assumed this was an attention-grabbing little video on the official website with Martin Odegaard chatting to Ethan Nwaneri. It pushes the 17 12 months previous just a bit extra into the highlight, and I’m so curious to see how he’s used this season. He’s had an actual style of first crew soccer in the course of the summer time, taking part in with (and in opposition to) males in entrance of huge crowds, and he – and the opposite kids – are going to be hungry for extra.
There have been tales about Odegaard has been mentoring Nwaneri behind the scenes, and I really like the concept of that. He was a star at 15 earlier than he selected Actual Madrid; Nwaneri made his debut on the identical age – making him the youngest ever participant within the Premier League. That’s right down to expertise and laborious work (and slightly little bit of alternative), however think about your self again while you had been 15 and having that form of a landmark occasion in your life. To have somebody like Odegaard in your nook to supply recommendation about easy methods to take care of it on and off the pitch should be improbable, and I believe it speaks very extremely as to how holistic the method is on the membership proper now on every kind of ranges.
For some further studying this morning, right here’s the standard Arseblog Huge Season Preview 2024-25. I’m joined by Andrew Allen and Tim Stillman to evaluate the state of the squad because it stands from entrance to again, and provides an total view of the place we expect we’re (taking into consideration the window remains to be open). These had been all written individually to make sure all ideas are our personal, however it’s attention-grabbing to notice some frequent floor in sure areas.
Afterward, we’ll have our first preview podcast of the brand new season over on Patreon, so please do be part of us for that as we look forward to Wolves, and run a watch over the remainder of the weekend’s fixtures. Other than that, there’s a brand new Arsecast obtainable beneath, during which I chat individually to Amy Lawrence, Nick Wright (Sky Sports activities), Adrian Clarke and Dara O Briain in regards to the new season, and a great deal of different stuff too.
We’ll convey you all of the press convention stuff on Arseblog Information in a while too. For now, have one.
