20 players released & young Greek midfielder linked

Happy Thursday folks.

Arsenal yesterday released a list of 20 players who will be leaving the club this summer, with some familiar names on the list. Kieran Tierney, who I’ve written about recently, is one of them. He gave a nice goodbye to the fans, saying:

From day one, they supported us through the good times and the bad, they’ve supported me through some hard times as well. I think that’s what I’m most grateful for, the times where it wasn’t so good or so easy for me, is where they probably supported me the most. I’m just very grateful and feel very lucky to have the support from them.

I feel so lucky that I’ve played for this club and the love that the supporters have given me has been amazing. I’ve loved every day here and I’ve learned so much, I’ve improved so much and I just feel very lucky.

The lure of Celtic Park was enough for him to see off advances from other Premier League clubs, a nice example of a footballer following his heart rather than his wallet. It’s a rare enough thing these days, and I’m sure everyone will wish him the best of luck back home, as well as a decent spell without injury. He deserves that.

There is some considerable churn at youth level, and it’s an interesting thing to consider ahead of the new season. We’ve heard last summer, and again this, that funds will be available for Per Mertesacker to add to the Academy. I saw a story this week about interest in a young striker from Blackburn, but I have no real idea how much truth there is to that. It certainly sounds like a thing we could do, but if you search the lad’s name, there’s just a ton of churn about him and Arsenal so it’s hard to really know.

What’s clear though is that there is space for some players coming through the Academy to step up, and probably room for some external additions to bolster the existing squads. With Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly already part of the first team, and Mikel Arteta speaking publicly about Max Dowman being more involved at senior level next season, we’ll have to wait and see who emerges to make their case to be the next in-line.

I thought Pep Guardiola’s recent comments about wanting a smaller squad or he’d quit Man City were a bit histrionic, to be honest, but he said something along the lines of ‘Well, if we get injuries, we’ll just use the Academy players’. I don’t know if that’s an approach Mikel Arteta could take even if he wanted to (he doesn’t, he wants a bigger squad), but do we have players close enough to the level to start knocking on the door right now? I suspect there’s probably a bit of a gap, and if the club start looking at that via youth recruitment and developing the players we already have then it can be no bad thing. I’ve got no issue with senior players looking over their shoulder at a young guy who is hungry and determined to take their place.

Elsewhere, there’s an overnight transfer story from the Greek press, linking us with 17 year old attacking midfielder Konstantinos Karetsas. He was born in Belgium, currently plays for Genk, and this report suggests Arsenal are prepared to pay a fee which could rise to €45m – although the plan is to sign him and leave on loan at Genk for another season.

Exciting 17 year old attacking midfielder? Sure thing, I’m down. Adding younger players was actually something we talked about on the Arsecast Extra this week. €45m? Not so sure about that as a price point. Although it’s worth pointing out this is a report in the very early stages, it’s likely a fee that’s been floated to make the deal look good from one particular side, and it does say it could reach that figure, so it probably includes all the potential clauses and bonuses. Even then it feels very high but let’s see how this one goes. I suppose we do have that spare €30m lying around now that Inaki Cana can’t spend another €30m on a goalkeeper (I’m kidding ).

For some extra reading this morning, Lewis has had a look back at Arsenal’s season from a tactical perspective, and Miguel Delaney on next summer’s World Cup is worth a read as we find ourselves completely and utterly beyond the footballing saturation point. As stories about how FIFA can’t sell tickets for the ghastly gathering of grotesquery that is the Club World Cup clearly demonstrate demonstrate. Empty stands, pointless games, public interest barely above zero, but it’s fun for Gianni Infantino so he can cosy up to the worst people in the world. Grim.

Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. I’ll have an Arsecast for you a bit later so stand by for that. In the meantime, have a good one.

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