Morning all.
After a few days of training in the Spanish sunshine, Mikel Arteta and the players have travelled to Asia where Arsenal’s preparations for the 2025/26 season go up a level. The fixtures the boys play out in Asia might be ‘friendlies’ but I’m sure friendliness will go out the window when the games against Totts and Newcastle Utd kick off.
Men’s Asia Tour 2025 – Travelling squad (from Arsenal.com)
Goalkeepers: David Raya, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Tommy Setford, Alexei Rojas-Fedorushchenko.
Defenders: William Saliba, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhaes, Jurrien Timber, Jakub Kiwior, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Riccardo Calafiori, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Josh Nichols, Marli Salmon.
Midfielders: Martin Odegaard, Christian Norgaard, Mikel Merino, Sambi Lokonga, Martin Zubimendi, Declan Rice, Louie Copley.
Forwards: Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard, Ethan Nwaneri, Reiss Nelson, Kai Havertz, Ismeal Kabia, Max Dowman, Andre Harriman-Annous.
There is a few surprise inclusions in the above squad, three surprise omissions too as having been in Spain, Maldini Kacurri, Harrison Dudziak and Ife Ibrahim have been overlooked for this tour. Perhaps the club are in the process of arranging a loan for them.
All three pre-season fixtures in Asia kick off at 12.30 UK time. Yep, I’ve already bought my streaming pass for £9.99 from the clubs official website which includes coverage of the two August fixtures at The Emirates.
It feels like it was only yesterday that Arsenal were on the south coast playing their final fixture of last season and yet here we are already, gearing up for what is expected to be another campaign with a number of clubs involved in the hunt to become Premier League champions. Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City have been busy in this transfer window and I’m sure they are not finished yet, whilst Arsenal have signed Kepa, Zubimendi, Norgaard and Madueke. I’m thrilled about the Zubimendi deal but the other three are hardly what I’d call “wow” players. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it when Declan Rice signed for us but I think it was the signing of Alexis Sanchez who last excited me the most. Perhaps that’s because he was an attacking player and an excellent one he was too.
Maybe individuals aren’t as important anymore because one player is only as good as the team he plays in. By that I mean I mean if he can’t fit in, he might as well be elsewhere. When Pepe arrived, every statistic in the book would have probably suggested he’s a fantastic player but when it came to the rigours of the Premier League, he struggled. Similarly, Fabio Vieira has struggled during his time at Arsenal. So perhaps it’s no wonder that three of our four signings so far have come from Premier League clubs.
I’m thinking about Gyokeres as I type this and the comments already made here on Highbury House, if he signs, can he be as successful in the Premier League as he’s been in Portugal? The answer to that is no one knows until he gets here, if he ever gets here. I’ll be honest, Delap was always the striker I hoped we’d sign. Don’t tell Chelsea fans that though.
In recent times, I don’t know whether it’s just my perception or not but more Premier League players are switching clubs within England and I can understand why. The risk is less although the fee is usually higher. Trouble is, when it comes to signing strikers, when they’re very good, clubs keep hold of them of slap a ridiculous transfer fee on them. So the alternative is to search overseas and that’s when the risk increases. Utd and Liverpool found that out with Højlund and Nunez respectively.
I just hope that if Gyokeres arrives at Arsenal, he fits.
Catch up in the comments.
so you preferred a striker with Ipswich with no real proven track record in a high league or europe. ok
Yes al, I did. Each to their own eh.
Morning Rico, yeah it was great laughing at Nicholas Jackson last season but I suspect that Chelsea have done some really smart business this summer in bringing in Delap and the lad from Brighton. Two Premier proven strikers who have scored regularly with unfashionable clubs rather than going for another ‘big time Charlie’
Morning Kev, that’s how I see things too.
It would serve Sporting right if we just paid the money required to sign Sesko, you know, like Liverpool are doing for Ekitike…
That’s £150 million at the moment Rico, even selling Jesus,Veira, Zinchenko, Nelson, and all the others surplus to requirements wouldn’t raise that sort of money and his wage demands would be astronomical.
Sesko Cicero?
That makes the £30m for Delap look even more smart.
Sesko was €100m I believe?
But who knows, it changes every day, every hour even?
It does, and money left to sign a back up like Watkins perhaps..
It also makes the £5m we got for Biereth look even more stupid…