Exclusives from Singapore Tour

Clrnc

Ok so as you know I have spent some time with the coaches and players over the past week since last sunday. Here are some of the insights I have gotten. It's all over the place, I try my best to remember as much as I can. Feel free to drop questions and if I have the answers for it I will reply. Pictures, I will post in the private forum so as not to compromise everything that can leak to reddit or twitter. Of course it has been pretty cool to know Gyokeres signed before any journo reported it, what caused the delay and like whatever fraudulent journos get exposed easily in this past week. Like the journo who said Gyokeres has touched down etc but I know he is not here and I know the exact flight he is taking, what are the plans etc. Also the spanish journo who said Mosquera has been training in Singapore and participating in pre-season when he is sleeping the whole day in the room lol. Also take note many of these are already old info by now.

Was told Arsenal told hotel to cater for 2 more pax (now we know is Mosquera and Gyokeres)
We were contacted by a striker's agent expressing his strong interest to join us. Name was not told to me (now I know it's Isak). We delayed the Gyokeres deal, media was fed about add-ons disagreement, but if you are wondering why we agreed everything and suddenly became Sporting wants more guaranteed add-ons, it's actually our side deliberating whether to pivot. Was also told we considered the spillover impact (how long it will take to get the other deal over the line vs Arteta wants a striker ASAP in pre-season to be ready for the season), and our future signings in this window. Now we know we chose Gyokeres. Was told by Mr R half an hour before media announced Gyokeres that we chose him and "hope you guys will be happy with our choice."
Enquired about how come this tour is so strict compared to Wenger/Emery days last 2 tours in Singapore. "Arteta's instructions" Differences include 11 body guards vs 2 previously. 1 guard for each player movement, 3 at all times surrounding him when Arteta moves. No casual interactions with fans allowed, no touching of fans markers (arsenal provides it).
Tried to fish for info if we would sign one more after Gyokeres. Was told the following.

"Yes we have space for one more, yes."
"We are happy with the progress, the media does not know yet."
"Not dependant on sales."
"Not in for Isak, nope. It is not in our plans to move for him now."
"Eze? You know I can't tell you but let's see." - with a big smile.

Gyokeres was too far down the line and we did not want to give up all our efforts by the time Isak contacted us.
Saw ******* browsing his laptop the day after Gyokeres was announced. He first looked at the media articles (bbc, mirror etc), then he went on reddit to browse for fans reactions. Then we surfed twitter to see fans reactions. Then he opened 2 players pages. First one was Alejandro Ganarcho. He took pictures of some stats and sent on his phone. Then he spent some time on Rafael Leao's page. Same thing.
Spoke to Nwaneri, he has signed the thing and is looking forward to playing centrally.
Spent time with Dowman (this was before I spoke to the coach that gave the youth insights). He didn't come across as positive to me at that time.
Supposed to spend some time with the coaches today. Ended up spending the whole day with Merino. Didn't talk much about football, mostly about my country and food.

Don Pacifico

Clrnc He didn't come across as positive to me at that time.

Appreciate the download Clrnc - just as interesting as last time!

Shame about Isak but I suspect in the long run (given the money needed) we've made the right decision.

Curious - what did you mean by this re: Dowman? Not positive about being at Arsenal or just personality (shy?)?

Qwiss

Clrnc that's great that you got to spend time with the players. Great insights yet again, thanks for posting.

JazzG

Wow, thanks @Clrnc really good info there.

Clrnc We were contacted by a striker's agent expressing his strong interest to join us. Name was not told to me (now I know it's Isak). We delayed the Gyokeres deal, media was fed about add-ons disagreement, but if you are wondering why we agreed everything and suddenly became Sporting wants more guaranteed add-ons, it's actually our side deliberating whether to pivot. Was also told we considered the spillover impact (how long it will take to get the other deal over the line vs Arteta wants a striker ASAP in pre-season to be ready for the season), and our future signings in this window.

I wonder if the club also didn't want to get into a bidding war over Isak with Liverpool and then be potentially left with nobody because if Gyokeres knows we have the deal near enough done and switched I doubt he'd want to wait. Then Newcastle will probably want to drag this out and not make it easy either. For me Isak over him is a no brainer but it is also a much harder deal to get over the line and higher chance we miss out on him as well as Gyokeres.

Clrnc Spoke to Nwaneri, he has signed the thing and is looking forward to playing centrally.

There's your confirmation @Sicario2

Clrnc Saw ******* browsing his laptop the day after Gyokeres was announced. He first looked at the media articles (bbc, mirror etc), then he went on reddit to browse for fans reactions. Then we surfed twitter to see fans reactions. Then he opened 2 players pages. First one was Alejandro Ganarcho. He took pictures of some stats and sent on his phone. Then he spent some time on Rafael Leao's page. Same thing.

Leao 😯

Clrnc Spent time with Dowman (this was before I spoke to the coach that gave the youth insights). He didn't come across as positive to me at that time.

What do you mean by that?

CPM

Brilliant stuff mate.

Clrnc

Oh yeah and Kepa is training extremely well. Coaches were surprised by his level.

Calafiori has been training as an inverted CB in training, Myles drop centrally when Calafiori bombs forward.

Saw Mikel's player hierachy. Pretty interesting, never like what we imagine when we doing squad analysis. Many players are repeated over different positions and he can be first choice as both 6 and 8.

Nelson, Sambi behaved like they are not here the entire trip. Zinchenko took a lot of time out of his way to interact with fans and told the guards to stand down.

Myles did something naughty.

flobaba

Lol, go on then. Did something naughty like Partey or like gave Dowman a wedgie ?

Sicario2

Wow this is proper ITK stuff 👏👏👏 Hand of Arsenal who?

Did feel like we were stalling Gyo for Isak but good that we bit the bullet on the former. Can’t be fucking around in pre-season.

@Clrnc do you feel Eze could get done before the start of the season or will it be more of last min deal?

Clrnc

Sicario2 I have no idea. But he was literally smiling and winking from the moment he said we are all very happy with the progress so far on the discussions.

Re Negative: Dowman said he doesn't know if he would stay, his parents have to look at the pathway planned for him.

Tam

I don’t buy the Isak stuff.

There’s not a chance in the world Kroenke has opened the chequebook Arteta has told the team to get him at all costs, we’ve been Isak’s apparent first choice, and at the end of the day we’ve shat it because Newcastle said no. Just didn’t happen. There’s not a transfer or potential transfer in this world that happens without the buying club getting in the player’s ear to see if he’s up for it, especially at that cost/level.

Not saying you’re lying Clrnc but at least one of those aspect just don’t ring true at all. I get that we might have hesitated when we were too far down the road for Gyokeres, and I’m glad we didn’t bite, but the rest doesn’t make sense.

tazmania

Tam ya. If that's the case, we'd be getting a top quality LW because we saved so much by not breaking the bank on Isak.

Where's my top5 LW?

Thanks for sharing @Clrnc

Burnwinter

Very cool @Clrnc … this is my first real "in the know" material of the summer. I don't count people who are clearly getting briefed!

Very interesting re: Isak and it sounds like there would've been a bit of frustration about it behind the scenes.

Tam I don’t buy the Isak stuff.

The latest narrative tends to slide past the "spillover impact" mentioned a bit.

It sounds like that impact was decisive: we did want Isak, he did want us, and we would have paid, but by the time Isak's agent said he was on the move, it was too late, Gyökeres and Varandas practically had their pens in hand.

IBL

We got our own Tolly insider, nice!

I just want to more noises about Eze, keep us posted.

lorddulaarsenal

Thanks Clrnc - love the insight. What’s the word on Madueke.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Thanks Clrnc 🔥

invisibleman18

Amazing stuff @Clrnc
Thanks for posting, really appreciate the insight. Must be an awesome job! Better work stories than me for sure!

Also curious on what you mean by Dowman not being positive, and what kind of naughty thing MLS did.

Asterix

Thanks @Clrnc - great stories to tell there. And lovely work on the teasing - you've got us all hooked! 😆

TambourineMan

Really cool stuff. Thanks for sharing. @Clrnc

Hear anything on extensions for Saliba and Saka? And is your impression that the potential signing ('that we're happy with the progress and the media does not know about') Eze or someone else? Feels like it's not Eze as the media are all over that one.

And fucking Isak man, about 2 months too late. Hope he enjoys living in bumfuck Liverpool.

Gazza M

nice share Clrnc.

I remember the last time you were on ITK duty when wenger was still coach. when would that have been - was it 2015-ish?

invisibleman18

Gazza M That was following back to the hotel and eavesdropping wasn't it? Remember the post going kind of viral 😆

TambourineMan

Might be remembering this wrong but didn't @Clrnc also break the Tomiyasu news before anyone reported it? Am pretty this forum knew about it hours before anyone else cottoned on.

Gazza M

invisibleman18 I do recall some grainy photos from behind some kind foliage 😆