Just a little Friday blog post for you. Today’s top news revolves around rumors involving Slovenian forward Benjamin Sesko. According to a report by John Cross, Arsenal is in ‘pole position’ to sign the 20-year-old from Leipzig’s disgustingly sweet energy drink. Of course, time will tell how things work out, but conceptually, this makes sense. I have expressed my opinion on numerous occasions that Arsenal would not be wise to spend over £100 million on players such as Victor Osimhen or Viktor Gyokeres (to the Victors, no spoils—at least not from North London this summer), and there has reportedly been little interest in Ivan Toney. It didn’t really seem like we would spend a lot of money on the Brentford man when we were 28. The other option was to look younger and locate a striker who had the potential to become one of the best, and Sesko meets that description. To be clear, he is still quite raw despite his potential, as you would expect from most 20-year-olds. The fundamentals are in there; he has good technical skill and a commanding physical presence (6’5—be careful around corners!), but he clearly needs some refinement. But when you have a coach like Mikel Arteta, that also makes some sense. Recall that this is a man who desired Mykhaylo Mudryk and believed he could mold him into a player we haven’t yet seen during his Chelsea tenure. Not that he enjoys working on projects, but you can see how the kind of team Sesko would join and the manager we have in place would make for an almost ideal atmosphere for his growth. The pressure wouldn’t be as great because he wouldn’t be starting right away, and even if the transfer cost (estimates of £45 million) is substantial, it’s still just half of what a standard or garden Antony fetches in the present market. It’s not the kind of price tag that would depress a player, in my opinion, and as we’ve shown, you can throw away £60 million and still get good value. Wak waka! Once more, this is just conjecture on my part, and it will stay that way until anything is verified, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Arsenal opened the upcoming campaign with Kai Havertz up front and Declan Rice in a position similar to what is known as the left 8. That means that, at least, Newcastle will need to pay close to £100 million for Bruno Guimaraes, which means they will need to buy a deep-lying midfield player, probably someone along the lines of Martin Zubimendi. That’s not something I think we should pay, and I doubt we’ll pay it. Maybe there are other candidates for that job. Our center-forward position would have much more depth with the addition of a player like Sesko. Although I am itching to sign a winger, if you had him and Havertz as your strikers and Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus (hopefully 100% fit), Gabriel Martinelli, and Leandro Trossard as your wide options, that would be a very tasty forward line. Well, we’ll see what transpires with this one; however, a lot of smoke has the potential to turn into fire. Here’s your required YouTube playlist featuring his goals and assists from the previous campaign (head, left foot, and right foot). Take a peek. Okay, I’ll end it there for now. But there’s a brand-new Arsecast for you below where I speak with Harry Symeou about a manager’s new contract, summer transfers, and much more. Have fun!
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