Properly, 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 correct of atmosphere, one which challenges the gamers to do even higher than final day out. Simpler mentioned than completed, in fact, but when we all know something about Mikel Arteta that’s what he’s going to demand from everybody.
I think there can 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 can go. Then we would get a bit about accidents and who is on the market, how good Wolves are, and after that allow’s wait and see what else crops up. There’s very not often something too juicy, fairly intentionally too, so I don’t count on that to alter at present.
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 ‘Carry me to life’). He arrives in England on the again of 25 purpose season for his membership, together with some Champions League targets, and it makes Eddie’s return of 6 in the identical marketing campaign look considerably meagre. What now for Eddie although? Your guess is pretty much as good as mine.
I don’t suppose it’s past the realms of chance that our want to promote needs to be matched with the fact of the market. If a late bid from someplace emerges, nice – however proper now, I feel we now have to be open to the thought he ought to go away on mortgage, with the hope {that a} first rate season some place else means there could be extra curiosity subsequent summer time. It’s not splendid, 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 enjoying frequently someplace, and barring some sort 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 now have proper now could be what we’ll have in opposition to Wolves on Saturday, and as Arteta has mentioned repeatedly, his first job is to get essentially the most out of the gamers at his disposal.
Elsewhere, I believed this was an fascinating little video on the official website with Martin Odegaard chatting to Ethan Nwaneri. It pushes the 17 yr 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 throughout the summer time, enjoying with (and in opposition to) males in entrance of huge crowds, and he – and the opposite children – 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 thought 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 all the way down to expertise and laborious work (and somewhat little bit of alternative), however think about your self again once you have been 15 and having that sort 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 incredible, and I feel it speaks very extremely as to how holistic the method is on the membership proper now on every kind of ranges.
For some additional studying this morning, right here’s the normal Arseblog Large 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 general view of the place we predict we’re (taking into consideration the window continues to be open). These have been all written individually to make sure all ideas are our personal, nevertheless it’s fascinating to notice some frequent floor in sure areas.
In a while, we’ll have our first preview podcast of the brand new season over on Patreon, so please do be a part of us for that as we stay up for Wolves, and run an eye fixed over the remainder of the weekend’s fixtures. Except for that, there’s a brand new Arsecast accessible under, 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 carry you all of the press convention stuff on Arseblog Information afterward too. For now, have an excellent one.
