MLS signs his contract + The Arsenal transfer cake

What the hell did I say about nothing happening?

Let’s start this morning with confirmation of Myles Lewis-Skelly’s new contract, which arrived yesterday. Not a surprise, by any means, but it’s nice to have it official, and there’s no question he deserves it. He had a breakthrough season last time out, and a new 5 year deal cements his future in North London, and puts him on pay-scale that his place as a first choice player merits. Congratulations to him, and the video of him with his family is really lovely.

Speaking to the official site, he laid out his ambitions for the future, saying:

I want to win everything there is to win in the game. I want to win trophies on the biggest stages whilst being a person that’s always learning and stays grounded, which is so important.

And he’s followed a path from Hale End to first team which remains steeped in history and romance:

Of course, it’s an honour seeing everyone who’s come before me. I’d just say that I’ve embodied the values of Hale End and come through. I’ve still got a lot of years ahead of me, so if I can keep staying humble and being a good person, that’s the most important thing to me.

I realise he’s very genuine when he talks about staying humble, but after the Haaland thing last season, it’s a nice little touch. He was, to some extent, a slight surprise package because although he’d been fully involved during pre-season, the focus was a bit more on Ethan Nwaneri – which is kind of natural. Attacking players tend to be in the spotlight a bit more, but over the course of the campaign, Myles really came to the fore.

He won’t be a surprise to anyone next time out. Not domestically, and not in Europe, so now it’s about how his game develops. Picking and choosing his moments to turn away from the opposition to drive forward, something he did brilliantly last season, but which once or twice got him in a little bit of trouble. That’s fine though, it’s all part of the learning experience for an 18 year old, and he’s such an intelligent player you know he’ll take it on board and look to develop his game. So, all in all, good news, and hopefully the first of a number of contract extensions this summer.

Meanwhile, we’ve been linked with a move for Valencia centre-half Cristhian Mosquera, with David Ornstein reporting a deal is currently being worked on with the Spanish club. I saw a few ‘Oh look, another defender!’ comments, but to me this makes perfect sense. I think, in the absence of Takehiro Tomiyasu, we are light a right-sided defender in this squad. We had to play William Saliba in almost every minute of every game last season, and when Ben White got injured, Jurrien Timber had to play through the pain at right-back. On paper, those two were possible back-ups for Saliba, but we lacked a genuine option there for most of the season.

So, a young signing makes some sense. He can come in, train, learn – play some cup games and gain experience as the season goes on. He’s got some very good players to work alongside too, which should aid his development, and physically he looks the part. Another 6’3 defender to add to the list, and at 20 there’s room to develop a bit there too. I said on the Arsecast Extra last week I felt we needed a signing there to really give us the right kind of depth, and this one makes a lot of sense.

My gut feeling about this is that it might just mean Jakub Kiwior departs. I could be wrong, but his stock is high right now. Arsenal might see it as the right time to cash in, and the player himself probably has options open to him that might not be there if he sticks around to play a squad role next season. Let’s see what happens, but it wouldn’t surprise me massively if we started to hear stories about him in the coming weeks.

Anyway, it looks, after what has happened this week, that the Arsenal transfer cake is well and truly being baked. We’ve sorted out the goalkeeper situation, we’ve essentially added two central midfielders, and now a centre-half. All players I think we need and what seems obvious is that the manager and the new sporting director are resolute in terms of building a squad with redundancy for every position. Absences cost us dearly last season, and they’re looking to address that.

The cake is fine with these moves, but now we need to top it. That can only come with the arrival of the new striker everyone wants, whether it’s Sesko or Gyokeres or someone else entirely, that’s the icing for this particular cake. And if there’s a cherry on top, perhaps in the shape of Eberechi Eze, linked yesterday, or another winger, then all the better. Those are the final touches to this window. The great Arsenal bake-off looked like it might fall a bit flat, but it appears as if we might end up with a real show-stopper. Fingers crossed.

Right, I’ll leave it there for now, but there’s a fun Arsecast for you below with Lewis. We had to pick a team to lose a game, and I’d urge you to listen before commenting. Some people got a bit mad at us for not picking their favourite worst player! But there were certain criteria to fulfil, and we explained our decisions – some of them quite tactical – in the pod itself.

Enjoy!

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