Morning all, a quick Saturday round-up for you.
We’ll start with Arsenal stuff because my World Cup consumption yesterday was zero. I can’t find it now, but I saw a story linking Leandro Trossard with a move to Besiktas, which sounds like a a very early summer piece of transfer tittle-tattle. I’m always suspicious of stories involving Turkish clubs because if you think we’re mad for transfers in the rest of the world, they’re next level.
That said, I do think one of the areas of focus this summer will be the left hand side, and so it was interesting to then see David Ornstein (and others), report interest in a left winger:
🚨 Arsenal exploring deal to sign Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge. 24yo left-sided winger expected to be gettable for ~€40m. Move for Greece international does not impact #AFC interest in Morgan Rogers or other options to strengthen attack 🚨 @theathleticfc.bsky.socialwww.nytimes.com/athletic/735…
— David Ornstein (@david-ornstein.bsky.social) 2026-06-12T20:55:36.366Z
He is not a player I know a great deal about. His career trajectory has seen him go from PAOK to Norwich City, where he made 30 appearances (14 in the Premier League), before going on loan to FC Twente and Fortuna Dusseldorf, and then securing a €6m move to Club Brugge. He actually played for them against us in the Champions League last season, a game we won 3-0 with goals from Noni Madueke (2), and Gabriel Martinelli, but I don’t remember him at all. And this was a night when we played Christian Norgaard at centre-half.
Nevertheless, last season he put up some impressive numbers at club level, scoring 22 goals and providing 29 assists in 52 appearances in all competitions (via TransferMarkt). The BBC report that we’ve been ‘offered’ the chance to sign the player, which is interesting. Maybe he’s somebody we have had on our radar, but I’m always a little wary of deals that come about like that. For example, my understanding of the Noni Madueke deal last summer was that it was more a case of Arsenal being presented player as available and willing to join, rather than Arsenal pursuing the player as a matter of priority.
So, I guess we’ll see how this one plays out. I think we’re probably going to have to do a couple of deals like this, looking for talent in the European market rather than pay the Premier League tax on every signing we make. If there is still interest in Morgan Rogers, as David Ornstein says, he’s a player who is going to cost north of £70-80m at the very least, so to make our money go further we’ll have to look further afield. It just seems a bit mad that the market is so inflated that a lad from a Belgian club is gonna cost close to €40m, but it is what it is, I suppose.
I also saw us linked with French midfielder Manu Kone, who currently plays for Roma. This was behind the L’Equipe paywall so I don’t have any more info, other than he’s a central midfielder who missed a big chunk of the end of last season with a hamstring strain. Sounds perfect! I expect him to be one of many central midfielders whose name comes up in the transfer dispatches this summer. I’m certain Christian Norgaard will move on during this window, and despite the emergence of Myles Lewis-Skelly as a midfield option, I reckon Mikel Arteta will be looking for more established cover for Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi – especially as they’ll both be involved in the World Cup this summer.
Speaking of which, last night’s games saw Canada draw 1-1 with Bosnia and Herzegovina, which produced this incredible piece of defending from former Gunner Sead Kolasinac; while the US beat Paraguay 4-1, with two goals from another former Gunner Flo Balogun. The finish for his second was really lovely, even if the defending beforehand was more than a bit Mustafi. So I’ve got some highlights to catch up on this morning.
Later on Qatar play Switzerland, Brazil (with their Arsenal lads) take on Morocco, and I think there are some games overnight with Scotland, Australia and others involved, but the times are confusing me and it’s too early to work it all out.
Just a reminder that Phil Costa is doing a World Cup diary exclusively for our Patreon members, so if you want a bit more of that, you can sign up here. For now though, have a great Saturday folks.