2017-2018 Transfer Window Masterlist
transfers in
SEAD KOLASINAC (completed)
Status: Kolasinac has signed for Arsenal on a five year long deal and will start playing for us when his contract with Schalke runs its course this summer. In the end the Bosnian international chose us over interest from the likes of Manchester City and AC Milan. Looks like this deal has been going on for awhile, possibly even from the beginning of this year.
This signing feels reminiscent of the Xhaka signing last season, which happened very early on in the transfer window as well. I'm personally happy with the signing. Our other left back options are Nacho Monreal who is currently 31 and Kieran Gibbs who doesn't quite seem himself anymore.
Stats:
Status:
Update (7/5): Today it has officially been announced by the club that we have signed Lacazette. There we have it, our second signing of the summer, and a good one at that!
Update (7/4): Looks like the deal is finally complete. According to the Guardian, Lacazette has signed for £52.7m on a five year contract.
Update (7/2): Lacazette is very close to becoming an Arsenal player. The fee is believed to be around £50 plus add ons, breaking the club record fee for a player.
Update (7/1): David Orenstein from BBC Sport has confirmed that the club is almost done with negotiations with Lacazette. Looks like Lacazette will finally be an Arsenal player after all the rumors about him over the years. He also mentioned that it will be our club record fee, which I'm not surprised by because players are going for crazy amounts of money nowadays.
Update (6/28): David Orenstein from BBC Sport has confirmed that we have indeed put in an offer for Lacazette, but it got rejected by Lyon.
We've definitely seen this rumor before. The club has been linked with Lacazette for a while now and it seems again that North London will be the preferred destination once again. It has even been mentioned by Lyon's president that the club have shown interest in signing Lacazette.
There has also been rumors that we're in for Mbappé (as is every other European club) and if that's the case, then it seems like we're trying to go for either one. Now that it looks like the Lacazette deal is over the line, Mbappé may not be in our sights at the moment. It looks like there is more momentum with Thomas Lemar at the moment instead.
Sources:
Alexandre Lacazette move to Arsenal a matter of 'when, not if' (Sky Sports)
Alexandre Lacazette: Arsenal in negotiations to sign French striker from Lyon (BBC Sport)
Arsenal hopeful of landing Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette with £44m bid (Guardian)
thomas lemar
Status:
Deadline day: According to David Ornstein, we were in for Lemar, but he ended up refusing us. It seems as if he was our back up for Alexis. Maybe if we secured his signature we would've been more inclined to sell Sanchez... Oh yeah, and we bid £92m for him today. Crazy.
Update (7/14): According to L’Equipe (via the Metro), Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev has expressed that Monaco are under no obligation to sell Lemar and is only interested if the bid is significantly high. It is also reported that Lemar is still keen on Arsenal's interest.
Not only are we keen on Monaco's star player, Kylian Mbappé, we actually put in a £31m bid for Monaco midfielder Thomas Lemar. The club was told that Lemar was not for sale, but Lemar is known to be keen on working under Wenger. >> Looks like there is no Mbappé in our future as he's close to signing with Real Madrid.
Sources:
Thomas Lemar: The Monaco winger wanted by Arsenal (Sky Sports)
Arsenal’s £31m bid for Thomas Lemar turned down by Monaco (Guardian)
transfers out
🔥🔥🔥 alexis sanchez
Status:
Deadline day: As reported by BBC's David Ornstein, Man City offered £55m+£5m but we didn't agree to the deal. Sanchez will be staying next season and will most likely leave on a free next summer.
(8/30): Alexis will only leave for big money and if the club have a replacement ready according to David Ornstein of the BBC.
Update (8/29): There has been a lot of activity regarding the Alexis situation at the moment. Manchester City have bid for Alexis Sanchez and are determined to sign him before the window closes. Apparently, we will not allow him to leave if Man City do not up their offer and have a player as part of the deal (maybe someone like Sterling)?
Update (8/1): Alexis is back in training today.
Update (7/16): Alexis is currently in Chile on holiday and of course, he was asked about his future this summer. The Guardian has a run down on what Alexis mentioned about his future and from what I can decipher, it seems that he's going to be gone this summer unfortunately.
He mentioned that he would like to "play and win the Champions League, it is a dream I have had since I was little." Now, you can think that maybe he means that he would like to win the trophy with Arsenal, but considering that we have to CL football this season and that our record in Europe is so bad, I think saying that he wants to stay with us and fight for that trophy is naive.
Another update from Ornstein mentioned that we have made Sanchez a big offer to stay, but the offer is still in the air. Manchester City is his most likely destination this summer if he is in fact going to leave.
Update (6/28): According to BBC Sport's David Ornstein, there have been no current bids on Sanchez although there are certain Premier League clubs who have interest in signing him (ahem.. Man City). He also mentioned that he may leave if the price is right, but Sanchez might sign a new deal with the club as he only has one year left on his contract.
This summer Alexis Sanchez has been linked and to be fair, I could see this one coming, especially because we don't have Champions League football for next season. Although we've won the FA Cup, I feel that there is still some tension between the club and Sanchez. I can see that the club and Sanchez himself might open up the possibility of leaving. Of course, it would be more than lovely if we could keep Sanchez.
Sources:
Sky Sports on Twitter: "Arsenal reject £50m bid from Manchester City for Alexis Sanchez"
Kaveh Solhekol (Sky Sports correspondent) on Twitter
Alexis Sánchez: I want Champions League football but my future depends on Arsenal
🔥🔥🔥 kieran gibbs (completed)
Status:
(8/30): Gibbs has officially signed for West Bromwich Albion today.
One of our longest serving players, Kieran Gibbs, is close to signing for West Bromwich Albion after multiple reports of him leaving for Watford; medical on the way.
Sources:
🔥🔥🔥 Alex oxlade-chamberlain (completed)
Status:
(8/30): The deal is completed. Chamberlain will be leaving on a 5 year, £40 million deal to Liverpool. How funny is that. He'll be missed and I'll even admit that he was one of my favorite players for the club over the years.
(8/29): Wow Chambo. Just check this out. Also, according to Ornstein, Chamberlain wanted the move to a different club because he wanted to play in his preferred position. All this drama over switching from Chelsea to Liverpool is also about his position in his future team.
(8/28): It's done, it's fucking done. Well, we just need an anouncement from both clubs.
Although this long winded rumor has officially come true, I never thought that I would today (8/28) have to write this. Oxlade-Chamberlain, a player who has been endlessly nurtured at this club, has been given every chance to shine under Arsene Wenger, is now headed to rivals Chelsea. To be fair, on his part, the deal makes some sense. "Get in while you can Alex" were probably the words his agent told him to get him to make the controversial switch.
I mean, the fact he refused the club's offer of £180,000 a week is absurd to me and the only thing I want now since it looks like the deal is done is for the club to try and move forward and find someone who can blossom into that left wing back role, or any role for that matter, who am I kidding?
Sources:
Arsenal and Chelsea agree Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain fee (Sky Sports)
Arsenal to tell Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain if he can leave after he turns down new deal (Sky Sports)
🔥🔥🔥 shkodran mustafi
Status:
Yet another one of our first-team players are being linked away, this time Sckodran Mustafi. With the amount of games he's played for us last season, it's surprising to see that he might be leaving so quickly.
Sources:
Inter Milan make new offer for Arsenal's Shkodran Mustafi (Sky Sports)
jack wilshere
Status:
Update (8/1): Jack Wilshere is back in training as well.
At the moment it's being reported that there are several clubs interested in Wilshere such as West Ham and Turkish club Antalyaspor, but that he would prefer to stay in London.
I have mixed feelings on selling Wilshere because this is a guy who we know is capable of absolute magic, but for his time at the club has been injured way too often and has never been able to show his capabilities for a longer period of time. If the club do want to sell him, I could see why they would want to but like many Arsenal fans, it would be great to see him finally have a season without any prolonged injuries.
Sources:
Antalyaspor in talks with Arsenal over Jack Wilshere deal (Sky Sports)
Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere wants to stay near London and prefers West Ham move (Independent)
lucas perez (Loan deal)
Status:
8/31: Perez has gone back on loan to Deportivo.
This one is a bit of a weird one because this whole situation with this particular player has been dealt with very awkwardly. Perez was signed for £17 million last season and was used very sparingly. We didn't have a chance to see much of him, but from what I saw, he was decent.
Now we can see that there is some tension between Perez and the club. This could also be seen last season due to his very minimal game time as well. Something must be going on behind the scenes for his situation to have become like this where he is blatantly speaking about the club's mistreatment of him, as can be seen in La Coruna-based paper La Voz de Galicia. Here are some of Perez's thoughts kindly translated by Arseblog.
“I want to leave to play and be happy,”
“Last year I barely had any opportunities and when I had them I took advantage of them. And this season is clearly going to be more of the same. I want to fight to go to the national team. I want to play football, but for that I have to leave.
From the looks of his current feelings, it's safe to say that I think he will go back to Spain this transfer window even though Perez is already training with the club. I feel very bad about how this situation with Perez has come about and I do think that it has been handled in a very unprofessional way.
Sources:
Deportivo wait on Arsenal outcast Lucas Perez's arrival (Marca)
Lucas Perez feels “cheated” by Arsenal and demands Deportivo return (Squawka)
Wojciech Szczesny (confirmed)
Getty
Status:
Szczesny, who has been at the club for more than a decade, is finally saying goodbye as the Poland international has signed with Juventus. This move seemed inevitable as his "loan" spell at Roma was a bit too long and there seemed to be no new news from Wenger as to whether Szczesny was coming back to the club.
I'm happy that he gets this new move in his career, but I can't help but wonder what else must have gone on behind the scenes for us to let him go. Certainly if he's good enough for Juventus, he's good enough for us as well. I wish him well at Juventus.
Sources:
Wojciech Szczesny: Arsenal goalkeeper signs for Italian champions Juventus (BBC)
olivier giroud (not leaving)
Don't leave plssss
Status:
Update (8/3): It looks as if Giroud will be staying at the club this season. According to le10sport, Giroud will be fighting for his place in the side with the signing of Lacazette. Marseille are still interested in Giroud though and may have to wait until the very end of the transfer window for any possible change.
This summer Olivier Giroud has been heavily linked to West Ham. At the moment, it seems like a one ended deal where West Ham are the ones pushing for Giroud's signature as it doesn't seem like there is a reason for the club to get rid of the striker.
According to L'Equipe, Slaven Bilic is very interested and are continuously monitoring Giroud's situation. L'Equipe believe that Monaco and Marseille for instance are more tempting than West Ham. Yet, it seems that this is all speculation.
There are also talks that the club might be interested in a swap deal with Alexandre Lacazette from Lyon, which would see Giroud going back to France. Lyon's President, Jean-Michel Aulas has revealed that the club have interest in Lacazette and that they are monitoring Giroud's situation here at Arsenal.
Personally, as you all know already, Giroud is one of my most loved Arsenal players and in general, I don't see why the club would want to let him go as he is still a player that Arsene Wenger could utilize to our advantage. Giroud has got some fantastic qualities, but I can see why fans would want someone like Lacazette to come in as well.
Sources:
EXCLU - Mercato - OM: OM strategy for Giroud (le10sport)
West Ham want to sign Olivier Giroud from Arsenal (Sky Sports)