Good morning campers! Tim Stillman here to lovingly guide you through Tuesday while Andrew lands in Philadelphia in pursuit of the perfect cheese steak. (I think there might be a football match there this week too). Let’s start with the shock signing of Italian defender Riccardo Calafiori which none of us saw coming, that’s for sure.
Arsenal sign Riccardo Calafiori pic.twitter.com/872qPC2T0v
— Poorly Drawn Arsenal (@cantdrawarsenal) July 29, 2024
Calafiori flew into the US to join his teammates on the last leg of their US tour, flash his pearly whites and give those lavish locks a knowing wriggle. Fair play to Arteta for being secure enough in himself to sign the one player in football capable of giving him hair envy.
— P (@perwilo) July 29, 2024
In all seriousness, it’s a solid addition of an Italian international who, like Kiwior, Tomiyasu, Timber and White, can play in central defence and at left-back and it will be fascinating to see which position he appears in more often. I have to say left-back feels more likely since that’s where the gap in the team appears to be.
Last season, Tomiyasu, Kiwior and Zinchenko shared the position but as Zinchenko faded from view as the de facto first choice, it did feel like a firmer option was required there. I would wager that one of Kiwior or Zinchenko will now leave and the market might dictate who that is.
When Arteta buys defenders, I think he is thinking as much about how the team builds play from the back as he is nuts and bolts defending and Calafiori certainly seems to add something different there with the way he strides out from the back. I suspect this signing is about having a firmer left-back choice and giving Arsenal a little bit more carrying ability on the left side.
I know all new signings say nice things about the club they are coming to but i was enthused by Calafiori’s apparent enthusiasm to join Arsenal, eschewing Juventus- not something many Italian players do- in doing so. Arteta himself said, ‘We knew other clubs were interested but he told me- ‘let me know when you’re ready, my bags are ready and I just want to come to Arsenal.’
Calafiori himself sounded impressed with what has been brewing at Arsenal in recent seasons and, interestingly, in his Sky Sports interview he said he was at the Crystal Palace home game in January which suggests the interest has been there for a while.
“I spoke a lot with the coach and with Edu, and they convinced me, but I was already convinced by myself. I think it’s the best project for me for the next few years, and I think I will improve as a player.
“I just met [Jorginho] one month ago, but I can see that he’s a really good guy. I was already convinced but he forced me. He said: ‘come, come, come! You will enjoy being here, the team is amazing and the staff, everything is good.’ You can see that already from the first few minutes here.”
Arteta gave a pre-match press conference ahead of the game with Liverpool tomorrow night / Thursday morning depending on your timezone and he suggested numbers in defence were light last season, causing him to have to overplay some players (and largely being able to thanks to their good fitness records).
‘We only had six defenders in the backline and at this level you have to be really lucky to sustain the season like this. We were, because William for example and Gabriel nearly played every minute, we played more than 50 per cent more minutes than the previous season and if we are able to do that consistently over the next three or four years that’s a big question mark. Obviously you cannot just bet on that, that’s a big bet and we don’t want to take that bet.’
For more in-depth analysis on Calafiori, we have you covered. Phil Costa has a really interesting profile on the player and his strengths and weaknesses here. While we also have an audio offering as Phil and Andrew chew the fat over the player on patreon in podcast form here.
Meanwhile, the sale of Emile Smith Rowe to Fulham seems to be gathering pace with multiple reports that a fee has been agreed with Arsenal pocketing a cool £27m plus another potential £7m in add-ons. I have no idea whether that represents a good price or not since the market has been so skewed by PSR shenanigans.
On one hand, it feels like certain clubs (!) are able to sell 14-year-old goalkeepers called Clumsy McLettucehands for this sort of money. On the other hand, Arsenal are not ensconced in that particular version of transfer reality and Smith Rowe has barely played for two years and as an academy product, the sale represents pure profit. It’s not a miserly amount of money in any case and it sounds like it might fund a move for Mikel Merino.
For Smith Rowe, he needs to go and have a career now and it has been clear for some time that isn’t going to happen at Arsenal. Arteta needs options he actually trusts too, they can’t have a clutch of 4-500 minute a season players any longer and they need to start making some cash from sales.
Ok, well that was two pretty meaty pieces of Arsenal news from yesterday. We will have an Arsenal Women Arsecast out later today with myself and the Guardian’s Tom Garry swapping notes on breaking transfer exclusives in women’s football so do check that out. Otherwise, I am back over the weekend.
Sadly, I couldn’t make the men’s US tour this year (I will be in Washington in a few weeks for the women’s tour) but I am going to my first match since the end of last season on Saturday as the Arsenal XI play away at Lincoln City. Much more scenic and glamorous than Hermosa Beach, I am sure you will agree…
