Mikel Arteta went all Recreation of Thrones this week and exited Steve Spherical, his assistant, from his teaching workers. This shock transfer has all of the hallmarks of a Logan Roy scene in succession. Typically, you want a bloodletting to point out the cattle who’s the farmer in cost. For those who needed to take this extra football-like place, then look no additional than Sir Alex Ferguson who used to repeatedly shake up his teaching workers to make sure his coaches had been on the bleeding fringe of the sport.

From what I perceive, I don’t assume he’ll be missed. He wasn’t doing lots so as to add to the technical ranges of the crew – seemingly a very good transfer for a junior coach, however I believe it was inevitable Arteta was going to should improve that place in some unspecified time in the future.

The chances on favorite proper now? I imply, it must be Santi Cazorla. The Spaniard has been flirting with Arsenal all 12 months and it’s no secret he needs to get again to Arsenal. He was bessies with Arteta throughout his time at Arsenal so it would work. The query for me is what’s Arteta searching for? If he’s searching for a well-liked particular person to combine with the gamers and produce good vibes to the followers, then Santi is the person for that. I don’t assume he’s performed a lot teaching, so I can’t communicate to how he’s on that entrance, nor can we guess. All we all know is he was an especially technical participant, so if he can translate even 20% of that into his teaching, we’ll be doing a-ok.

Jurrien Timber and Declan Rice can be having their medicals over the subsequent two days, these will go simply tremendous, and the squad will welcome them to coaching. Arsenal have performed such an important job right here. We’ve landed our 3 principal targets early, they’ll combine, get the max time with Arteta, and be able to go recreation day one. No different membership has moved with such velocity. Now we’ve got the privilege of sitting again and watching the others scramble.

There can be exits, little question about that.

Flo Balogun would be the most painful. The £50m quantity out there is there as a result of it’s to set an costly benchmark we’ll seemingly not attain. Nevertheless it’s higher to start out at £50m and drop to £40m – than begin decrease and find yourself with a shit charge. There are many golf equipment in want of a striker and never many available on the market that may do what he does. I advised Chelsea will desire a piece of the motion in February, based on stories in the present day, that’s the case. I’ve no doubts he’ll have loads of golf equipment in for him.

We’re in a luxurious place with Thomas Partey. If he decides to remain on the bench, we’ve got top-class protection. If he goes, we’ll transfer on Lavia and have some correct succession planning subsequent season. I don’t assume Partey needs to remain and I think the cash from Saudi on a long-term deal will show too tempting to cross up.

Then we’ve got a bunch of squad gamers that’ll be marketable. Sambi will go, Tavares has curiosity from West Ham, Rob Holding will get a transfer, and I actually assume KT can be on the march out of the membership as a result of he’ll need minutes.

There’s some huge cash to be made and I believe the curiosity will warmth up over the subsequent few weeks.

Level is: It’s good instances for us now. We’ve performed the laborious work with the large gamers. Arsenal is a greater crew than it was 2 months in the past already. The rest is bonus from right here on in.

Okay, that’s me performed. If you’d like some further content material, Johnny and Matt recorded a podcast final night time.