As predicted, the signing of Carl Jenkinson has been confirmed on arsenal.com. At 19, he'll be counted as part of the senior squad. Acquisition of younger players are not mentioned on the club website on principle. (Jon Toral and Hector Bellerin are said to have signed for the U18 side already.)
As Arsenal make their first official signing of the summer, at approx. £1m, two of the main rivals in the top of the Premier League have spent more. Liverpool have confirmed that they have agreed a fee for Sunderland's Jordan Henderson, and Manchester United are reportedly signing Phil Jones. Remember Jones? Yesterday, Liverpool or Arsenal were his possible destinations.
Those fees, supposedly £20m for Henderson and £16m for Jones, dwarf Arsenal's outlay for today. And predictable moaning ensues - "why do all the others get the English talents"? Well, Arsenal have a few England youth internationals already, and Jenkinson would've been one had he not opted for Finland.
Let me remind you, even though Arsène Wenger and today Liam Brady promise a busy summer in the transfer market, nothing indicates that policies have changed at Arsenal. The transfer budget includes salaries for all the signings throughout their contracts, not just transfer fees.
So we can expect more signings like Jenkinson, Toral and Bellerin. If there are established stars coming in like Gervinho or Gary Cahill (both linked with Arsenal three times each in the Mail and the Mirror only today!), there aren't likely to be many of them this summer either.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks for the comfort.
ReplyDelete