Morning all, a fast Saturday round-up for you.
We’ll begin with Arsenal stuff as a result of my World Cup consumption yesterday was zero. I can’t discover it now, however I noticed a narrative linking Leandro Trossard with a transfer to Besiktas, which seems like a a really early summer time piece of switch tittle-tattle. I’m all the time suspicious of tales involving Turkish golf equipment as a result of if you happen to assume we’re mad for transfers in the remainder of the world, they’re subsequent stage.
That stated, I do assume one of many areas of focus this summer time would be the left hand aspect, and so it was attention-grabbing to then see David Ornstein (and others), report curiosity in a left winger:
🚨 Arsenal exploring deal to signal Christos Tzolis from Membership Brugge. 24yo left-sided winger anticipated to be gettable for ~€40m. Transfer for Greece worldwide doesn’t affect #AFC curiosity in Morgan Rogers or different choices to strengthen assault 🚨 @theathleticfc.bsky.socialwww.nytimes.com/athletic/735…
— David Ornstein (@david-ornstein.bsky.social) 2026-06-12T20:55:36.366Z
He’s not a participant I do know an important deal about. His profession trajectory has seen him go from PAOK to Norwich Metropolis, the place he made 30 appearances (14 within the Premier League), earlier than occurring mortgage to FC Twente and Fortuna Dusseldorf, after which securing a €6m transfer to Membership Brugge. He truly performed for them in opposition to us within the Champions League final season, a sport we received 3-0 with targets from Noni Madueke (2), and Gabriel Martinelli, however I don’t keep in mind him in any respect. And this was an evening once we performed Christian Norgaard at centre-half.
However, final season he put up some spectacular numbers at membership stage, scoring 22 targets and offering 29 assists in 52 appearances in all competitions (by way of TransferMarkt). The BBC report that we’ve been ‘provided’ the possibility to signal the participant, which is attention-grabbing. Possibly he’s any individual we now have had on our radar, however I’m all the time just a little cautious of offers that come about like that. For instance, my understanding of the Noni Madueke deal final summer time was that it was extra a case of Arsenal being offered participant as accessible and prepared to hitch, reasonably than Arsenal pursuing the participant as a matter of precedence.
So, I assume we’ll see how this one performs out. I believe we’re most likely going to must do a few offers like this, searching for expertise within the European market reasonably than pay the Premier League tax on each signing we make. If there’s nonetheless curiosity in Morgan Rogers, as David Ornstein says, he’s a participant who’s going to price north of £70-80m on the very least, so to make our cash go additional we’ll must look additional afield. It simply appears a bit mad that the market is so inflated {that a} lad from a Belgian membership is gonna price near €40m, however it’s what it’s, I suppose.
I additionally noticed us linked with French midfielder Manu Kone, who at the moment performs for Roma. This was behind the L’Equipe paywall so I don’t have any extra data, aside from he’s a central midfielder who missed an enormous chunk of the tip of final season with a hamstring pressure. Sounds excellent! I count on him to be one among many central midfielders whose title comes up within the switch dispatches this summer time. I’m sure Christian Norgaard will transfer on throughout this window, and regardless of the emergence of Myles Lewis-Skelly as a midfield choice, I reckon Mikel Arteta will likely be searching for extra established cowl for Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi – particularly as they’ll each be concerned within the World Cup this summer time.
Talking of which, final night time’s video games noticed Canada draw 1-1 with Bosnia and Herzegovina, which produced this unbelievable piece of defending from former Gunner Sead Kolasinac; whereas the US beat Paraguay 4-1, with two targets from one other former Gunner Flo Balogun. The end for his second was actually beautiful, even when the defending beforehand was greater than a bit Mustafi. So I’ve bought some highlights to atone for this morning.
Afterward Qatar play Switzerland, Brazil (with their Arsenal lads) tackle Morocco, and I believe there are some video games in a single day with Scotland, Australia and others concerned, however the instances are complicated me and it’s too early to work all of it out.
Only a reminder that Phil Costa is doing a World Cup diary completely for our Patreon members, so in order for you a bit extra of that, you may join right here. For now although, have an important Saturday people.
