Just for fun.... Asked ChatGPT to evaluate the 4 wings I listed for Arsenal. Lots of detail but here is the short version..... Then I asked if there were any other young players that would be a better fit. Lots of detail but the short version..... Then I got into some questions on Rogers and other AMs playing on LW. It suggested positives & negatives for such a move. Then asked of all the players we discussed, who would be the best for breaking down low/mid blocks and are there any realistic options we haven't discussed that would be better. Lots of detail but the short version..... If the media is to be believed, we seem to be signing Tzolis no matter what. So the question becomes who else we sign and how much we are willing to spend. I personally think the prices for Rogers/Barcola are ridiculous. Would like to push for Yildiz but I have a feeling Juve will fall in line and ask for 150m. So if he is off the table, who is next? The Simons mention above is interesting but I don't think I would go there. Edit..... I asked a bunch of questions/scenarios after the basic analysis above to try and figure out who we should sign and ChatGPT REALLY likes Godts. In every scenario it found some reason why it thought Godts would be the ideal option for Arsenal.
🚨No matter how much further they go at the World Cup, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice and William Saliba are not expected to be available for Arsenal until the first international break.The club are aware they desperately need a rest and it’s likely they will not play any part until… pic.twitter.com/SE8to0J7aH— now.arsenal (@now_arsenaI) July 9, 2026
Rogers & Barcola aren't coin tosses? Rogers isn't a natural wing. He may have a better time than Eze adjusting to W for us but it's not his natural position and how much experience does he really have against low/mid blocks? Barcola is atleast a natural W but he effectively looks like little better Marti that is only 1-2 yrs younger Yildiz looks like the best fit but he would have an Italy to EPL adjustment. Yildiz is the only one that sniffs 100m for me. With my suggestion, at a bare minimum you have Marti and then you "roll the dice" that atleast one of the 2 you sign turns out better than Trossard.
If I'm going to gamble on a stat stuffer from a smaller league, I'd rather have Godts than Tzolis. 3-1/2 years younger and didn't flop at Norwich. Not sure what Godts would cost but £35m for Tzolis would be a record fee for the Belgian league. I'm not sure Barcola is any better than Martinelli, you better be really sure to spend £130m. Martinelli would cook if he played for PSG, what will Barcola produce against Premier League right backs?
Yup that's no big surprise. Somewhere above I had speculated they'd be out until sometime in Sept, and now the club is saying early Oct. That's good and smart on their part. It will be challenging for Arsenal, and a few other elite clubs with multiple players still playing at WC. And it's going to be a driver for our summer transfers I guess. p.s. I heard that Rice did not train today, along with James & Guehi. I also heard that Saliba could need back surgery. And Timber is a big fat question mark.
Bruno G is a very good buy. He is not worth a 5 year contract at nearly 29 years old. He'll be good till he's 31 if he's box to box and only as a 6, after that. My guess is he got a 5 year deal to seal the deal. It gives him a high salary till retirement. My guess is he'll be sold or whatever in 3 years but in the mean time the plan is to get us another title or two and a CL win. Just my guess.
Barcola is clearly a level better than Martinelli in my opinion. I don't think he's worth as much as PSG says. They know it and we know it. That price is basically "I don't want to strengthen a CL rival" As for Tzolis, there are players who have a break out season. Gyokeres "failed" in England before and it wasn't ignored by those who wanted him last summer. I wanted Sesko but didn't use Gyokeres stint in England as a reason. There are late bloomers n all sports.
Re Barcola, between league and Champions League play he had 13 goals and 5 assists last season. The season before those numbers were 16 and 16. Re Tzolis vs Godts, both were prolific in their respective leagues, but their performances in the Chmpions League weren’t close to their form in league play. In the Champions League Godts tallied a single assist in 8 games, while Tzolis had 2 goals and 1 assists. So there are questions about whether either would be able to transfer their domestic league form to the Premier League. With respect to Tzolis’ “flop” in the Premier League with Norwich, he was 19 at the time. I, like @chjoak, think that Yildiz would the best fit. There has been a lot of talk about the need for more creativity in the attack. One measure of creativity is the ability to get one’s teammates shots, i.e., key passes. This season Arsenal had just three players who averaged more than 2 key passes per 90 minutes, Odegaard with 2.6 key passes per 90 and Saka and Rice with, 2.5 and 2.1 key passes per 90, respectively. Saka and Rice undoubtedly benefitted as the designated corner kick takers. In league play Yildiz averaged 2.4 key passes per 90, while Rogers and Barcola averaged 1.3 and 1.4 respectively.
Norwich paid €11m for him. A year later loaned him to the Netherlands. That loan was cut short in Jan, he returned to Norwich where he scored his one and only league goal in the Championship at age 21 (Godts just turned 21). He was then loaned to Bundesliga 2 with a €3.5m buy clause. Dusseldorf exercised that and flipped him for €6.5m to Brugge.
We're linked recently to yet another wide player. Antonio Nusa. Why does my gut say we aren't going to buy Barcola but go with a couple left wingers who aren't big names.
Put Mbappe on Club Brugge in the CL and he might get the odd goal every few games. Its a team sport. Doesn't matter how good you are if you don't have good players around you. I'd suggest that Gyokeres would have done much better in other EPL clubs if they had an attack that played to his strengths and made him the number 1 go to option like Sporting did. There were more than a few times (understandably) Saka and others went for glory instead of Gyokeres. There were more than a few times I saw Gyokeres signal he was open/better option when someone else went for glory. We have a great team. I can't blame Trossard, Martinelli, Saka or other players to go for it.
I apparently mis interpreted your post, I read it as a flop in the Premier League. Norwich’s only recent Premier League season was 21-22 when they finished bottom of the league. He was 19 at the start of that season and turned 20 half way through. Coaches battling relegation don’t usually trust players that young. In addition, some players don’t break out until they are 22 or 23, For example, during his 20-21 year old season Rogers was at Blackpool in the Championship, where he scored one goal and had one assist. However, I wasn’t arguing for Tzolis over Godts, I was suggesting that since neither’s form translated to the Champions League last season, they are both big gambles.
Yeah, I see selling a young player at 1/3 of what they paid for him after 3 years as the flop. Agree both are gambles. The upside on Tzolis is a more expensive Trossard, likely never a nailed on starter but someone with end product. He's great at set pieces, but how many will he take when playing with Rice? But he doesn't have Trossard's high floor, the downside is his game doesn't translate and he's a complete flop. Would be the most expensive player ever from the Belgian Pro League. Sambi cost half as much and was a flop. Think Godts has more upside, as you said, he may not break out for 2-3 years but could provide depth in the meantime.
My ideal signing would be a Kvara, Vini, Doue, Raphinha. Those are guys that are to me clear low risk upgrades on the left. Vini or Raphinha are the only possible options of those due to situations at their clubs If you take them out of the equation, Yildiz is the only high dollar option I truly like. To me he has fewer questions (primary one being league adjustment) and he brings the skillsets we need to solve one of our biggest offensive issues, breaking the low/mid block. Godts seems to be a similar player but because of league he is a bigger risk but also atleast half the price. My ideal scenarios..... 1. Vini or Raphinha along with either Marti or Tzolis/Godts/Nusa 2. Yildiz along with either Marti or Nusa (Yildiz block breaker, Marti/Nusa speed option) 3. Keep Marti as your floor setter and bring in 2 of the cheaper options and see what happens 4. If I have no choice but to choose between Rogers or Barcola, I choose Barcola paired with Tzolis/Godts
I don't think any foreign attacking player is really low risk. Premier League defenders get a lot of discretion when defending against either fast or tricky players. The stats say L1 is the easiest transition but even those players aren't putting up the numbers people expect of our LW. I'd love a Reyes, but even he looked light weight when he showed up. Notwithstanding that day in Manchester.
HofA on Bruno - Bruno G has directly told Eddie Howe he wants to join the English Champions- Kia still doing all the communication between the clubs- Arsenal internally discussing another offer- Bruno G preferably wants it sorted before pre-season either way but wont do a Isak.— HandofArsenal (@HandofArsenal) July 10, 2026
Maybe a decade ago I did a deep dive on when forwards matured and saw a significant uptick in goals scored. My conclusion at the time was that most forwards saw an uptick in goals scored at age 22 or 23, but the elite players generally hit the ground running as teenagers. For example Salah didn’t tally double digit goals in a top domestic league until he was 23 at Roma, while Messi and Mappe scored in the double digits as teenagers. Kane and Ronaldo first recorded double digit goal domestic seasons as 21 year olds. Applying these criteria to current Arsenal players and Arsenal’s targets, Saka was 19 when he scored at least 10 league goals, but his subsequent two seasons have been marred by injury. Yildiz and Godts were 20 when they first accomplished the feat last season, and Barcola was 21 and Tzoli 22 when they first scored in the double digits two seasons ago. Interestingly our apparent top target, Rogers was 23 last season when he first scored double digit goals. It’s hard to draw conclusions anecdotal data, I went into more detail a decade ago. In general I believe the earlier they breakout, the more likely players are to become elite. Most transfers are gambles. Without taking into account the expected transfer fees. Yildiz and Godts get credit for breaking out at 20, Barcola and Tzoli for scoring double digit goals two seasons running, and Rogers for doing it in the Premier League. How much weight we give each of these factors is an open question. I’m pretty sure Arteta values doing it in the Premier League above the other factors.
My gut says this deal doesn't happen. If he's not willing to throw a strop, I can see us moving on, and I would be fine with that.
Yeah I was listening to a recent Arsecast and Andrew made a point that I hadn't been thinking of: that because NUFC don't want him to leave (apparently) nor do they want to axe all their best MF's (apparently) that this deal has the hallmarks of a protracted difficult one to do. And that is precisely what we don't need. We're not going to have Rice & Odegaard available until October maybe, so we need new MF'er(s) who come in early, gets a decent pre-season with our squad and system and can feature in Aug/Sep. Bruno G doesn't seem likely to fit that category. Not that I have anything against the guy otherwise of course!
I can see us ending up with either or both Tzolis and Nusa. I don't see us getting Barcola and Rogers and Alvarez. We have one 100 mil buy in us I think. I can't see us getting two. I'd love Barcola but I think we can still be very effective without him on the left. Bruno G is costing 65 mil or there abouts. I think we'll get Rogers but he'll be like Eze, flexible. Seems like Arteta is building flexible players to cover injuries, rotation for tired legs and changes needed for certain opposition. As the old saying, Merino is like getting a new signing. The midfield is stacked. At this point, do we really need Rogers? An argument can be made otherwise but I'd still love to him. Really big fan of his. We have a ton of midfielders but not many game changers. Rogers is a game changer. Bruno G can be as well. Other than Alvarez no real serious links to other strikers and I think we'll get surprise there. I am still gonna guess Kofane.
Rumors that Chel$ki are in for Camavinga and RM could let him go for ~ 80M Euro. Yanited are reportedly in for Kone at roughly the same price. Camavinga is injury prone, but I love the player, and he is still only 23. seems like we should at least be poking around these midfield options in case the Bruno deal doesn’t happen, though I personally think Bruno is coming.
We've been rumored to have "agreed terms" with Kone several weeks go. With a supposed expected transfer fee of 50m euro. Never saw anything from legit guys so it was likely agent talk. Camavinga's name gets brought up occasionally over the last several year but it is always fans talking. Arteta doesn't have seemed to ever really show any interest. I do agree that we need a solid backup plan because I really have my doubts that Brun is gonna happen and I think we need someone in before preseason so we can plan for an early season rotation of MLS, Zubi & new CM.