Transfer Deadline Day: Neto to join on loan, but further arrivals seem unlikely

Good morning, welcome to Transfer Deadline Day.

Let’s start with news that our pursuit of a second choice goalkeeper took a significant turn last night. The target was Espanyol’s Joan Garcia, but that didn’t pan out as the Spanish club insisted that Arsenal meet the full €30m release clause to get the deal done. I don’t blame them for that one bit, but nor do I think there’s any sense at all in Arsenal paying that kind of money for a player with basically no top-flight experience.

He has a smattering of La Liga appearances, and last season played 21 times for Espanyol in the Spanish second division. As much as goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana might view him as the solution, there’s really no way we should commit to that kind of outlay for a player with such little experience. You also have to wonder why, having left things so late with Aaron Ramsdale’s departure, Espanyol’s stance wasn’t something we were already aware of. Talk about being over a barrel, they knew we weren’t negotiating from a place of strength at all.

Meanwhile, Ramsdale must have been nervously waiting in a Southampton hotel because until such time as a number 2 goalkeeper was secured, his move couldn’t be allowed to go through. So, the end result is a season long loan for Bournemouth’s Neto, a man who will be greeted warmly on his arrival by Ben White (see featured pic!).

I can’t say I’m a massive fan of the Brazilian, but at this point of the window, in these circumstances, it makes a lot more sense to me than splashing €30m we could use elsewhere on a 23 year old goalkeeper who may or not may be worth that kind of money. Neto is a player we’d been linked with before, by the way. In the summer of 2021 he was a name bandied around before we signed Ramsdale from Sheffield United, the old Kia connection was strong at that point, but Arteta insisted on the Englishman. But now, here we are.

The reports say it’s just a bog-standard loan, no option or obligation, and considering he’s 35 years of age, that’s perfectly reasonable. He’s obviously got plenty of experience in Spain, Italy and the Premier League, and as a cup keeper and someone to add a bit of depth to an area that obviously needs it, it’s grand. Not exciting, but just fine. We might even add another keeper before the deadline too, so let’s keep an eye on that.

The other question today is whether we’ll add anybody to the attacking line-up. It’s a question we discussed on the new Arsecast, and all three of us came to the sad conclusion that at this point it seems very, very unlikely. We’re now at a point in the window where anything that happens is opportunistic rather than part of a plan, and the vast majority of Arsenal’s successful transfer business in recent times has been much more strategic.

Is it possible we pivot a bit? Sure. Unlikely, but not impossible. I think the departure of Eddie Nketiah leaves us light in the forward areas, and I find it hard to understand exactly why we’d allow that to happen. Two things occur to me. One is that we have a very specific target that we want to bring in and are unwilling to compromise on that (you could make the point a loan wouldn’t be an impediment to that if that’s what we wanted to do). The other is that financially we’re course-correcting in some way. I did some numbers yesterday, and Arsenal have spent big in the last three summers, essentially splashing out somewhere between €450-500m more than we brought in. I can’t help but think that even with some relatively healthy sales this window (assuming Ramsdale and Eddie get done today), that’s part of what’s going on.

To be fair, I think this squad is very well set-up in every area of the pitch (until we get to the front three), and I think the two signings we have made (plus Raya, btw), have been good ones. But the attack feels light – particularly when there’s such a burden on Bukayo Saka on the right, and banking on the fitness of Gabriel Jesus seems like a significant risk based on what we’ve seen from him in the last 18 months (and even the last week).

We’re now at a point where plans and strategies might require some compromise. Do you do a season long loan for Raheem Sterling, for example? Is there any chance Ivan Toney’s situation is something we’d consider? I can’t really see either of those happening, but that’s more or less where we are. Is something better than nothing? It really depends on how much that something can offer, and at what cost, and it did seem clear last week the manager wanted someone else based on his post-game comments after the win over Villa.

So, let’s see what happens. As I said, I’m not going to hold my breath, but maybe something will develop over the course of the day. As is tradition, you can follow all the action on our Transfer Deadline Day Live Blog over on Arseblog News, we’ll do our best to keep you up to date with all the stories that aren’t complete and utter nonsense. Because rest assured, there will be a lot of that today too.

Before we go, I should mention the Champions League draw which took place yesterday for the new format competition this season. I didn’t watch it, I’ve endured enough of these things down the years, but it was interesting to read so many people talk about how it was even worse than ever, so I’m quite satisfied with my decision. Anyway, we’ll play Internazionale (A), PSG (H), Atalanta (A), Shaktar (H), Dinamo Zagreb (H), Sporting Lisbon (A), Monaco (H), and Girona (A).

It’s a fairly friendly draw all things considered, but with some interesting games in there too. I have no idea how this new format will play out, but we don’t have too long to wait as the first game day is the week of September 17th-19th.

Righto, time for some breakfast, more coffee, and a long day of live blogging. Let’s hope we have a nice surprise, and along the way we’ll have a Brighton preview podcast for you on Patreon later in the afternoon. If there any transfer updates, we’ll discuss those there.

Until then.