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Manchester City just spent an obscene amount of money to buy Jack Grealish from Aston Villa. The £ 100million they paid makes him the most expensive England player of all time. Villa have already spent some of that money, acquiring Emi Buendia from Norwich earlier this summer, and more recently Leon Bailey from Bayer Leverkusen and Danny Ings from Southampton.
And oh, a guy named Leo Messi won’t be joining Barcelona due to La Liga financial regulations and the club’s dire financial situation.
So how, if anything, does this affect Arsenal?
As I write this, it seems more and more likely that Messi will sign with Paris Saint-Germain which pretty much eliminates any ripple effect this news could have had on the Gunners. But for a hot second, Manchester City were in contention for the Argentine’s signing, which, at the very least, would have precluded a possible Harry Kane-to-City deal.
Seeing Kane and Tottenham leave holding the sack trying to mend their broken relationship would have been endlessly fun. And I would have been a lot happier if Arsenal’s rivals in north London hadn’t categorically secured such an obscene amount of money as Aston Villa to reinvest, but I think there is still a good chance that Kane doesn’t move. He pulled out a (incredibly poor) declaration today that he will resume training tomorrow.
The potential trickle-down effect of City’s money in Villa’s pocket is much more intriguing. They’ve already spent some of it on Danny Ings, which means the Saints could be looking for a striker. I think they will look to replace Ings contribution. He scored 12 goals in 29 injury-hampered appearances last year and 22 in 38 in the penultimate season. That’s a lot of lenses to replace.
I don’t think they can do it from the inside out. They currently have Che Adams, who scored just 9 goals in 36 PL appearances last year, as a starting striker. Or maybe Ralph Hasenhüttl is (insanely) considering letting Shane Long or Theo Walcott lead the line. At this point in both of their careers, they are more apt to be energy substitutes / subs. The Saints also have 21-year-old Michael Obafemi, but 4 goals in 32 league games over four seasons seems a bridge too far, even for Southampton who like to play with young players.
Do you know who has a glut of attackers? Arsenal. I doubt Southampton is for Alexandre Lacazette – price and age don’t match. But Eddie Nketiah could be fine. He is young (22), originally from the country, has a decent scoring record in cup competitions and could become a useful player for sale in two or three seasons, which suits Southampton perfectly. operating mode. Heck, I would even consider selling them Folarin Balogun if they offered enough. If I were Edu, I would have rang the south coast already.
Beyond that, Aston Villa could spend money elsewhere in the Premier League which would turn things around, open up places on the roster and give some mid-table clubs more money to spend. Arsenal have several players – Reiss Nelson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Joe Willock, maybe even Callum Chambers – who could be attractive and useful additions to Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Crystal Palace types if one of their kind suddenly found themselves with it. more money. -hand than expected.
Another interesting possibility: Manchester City are selling some players in favor of their shiny new toy in the form of Jack Grealish / some of their guys are concerned about playing time and want to come out. Pep Guardiola said today that Bernardo Silva is one of the “two or three” players who might want to leave. Silva has been linked with a move to Spain rather than the Premier League, but he is the type of player, in terms of position, that Arsenal still need. Raheem Sterling has long been mentioned as a guy who could leave City on the right terms. Maybe he would like to reunite with the coach who was instrumental in his transformation into a superstar (Arteta). To be clear on Sterling, that’s it for me – no basis other than speculation and wishful thinking.
It has been a strange summer for transfers, no doubt due to the impact of COVID on balance sheets. But City’s cash injection could prove to be the first domino to topple the peloton, reviving the Premier League transfer market.
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