Arsenal and Everton Soares: I’ll believe it when I see it

Arsenal are supposedly inching closer to a move for Everton Soares, having dispatched the medic. Forgive me if I’m not getting out of my seat yet.

Everton Soares emerged as a potential target for Arsenal following his successes in the Copa America for Brazil, and with the Edu connection standing strong, it looked like a natural fit. Now, according to reports, the Gunners have sent their medic to check in on the £36m man in an effort to streamline the move.

Is anyone else not getting out of their seats to celebrate yet? Yeah. We’ve all learned our lessons. If not from history, then from this transfer window alone.

Arsenal transfer windows are notoriously frustrating. It’s just part of life. Never before have we gone into a transfer window and addressed every single need all at once. Either because money was an issue, which it always is, or because the problem wasn’t always identified as a problem. Defensive midfield, for instance.

This transfer window has taken the cake though. It has been an absolute crap fest of rumors and hearsay and lowballed bids that are never going to be accepted.

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The inability to get Kieran Tierney done is the biggest example of that, but there are so many more. Marc Overmars literally telling us to buy Hakim Ziyech. I mean… how much worse can it get than when other Sporting Directors have to tell us to take their players?

So here comes Everton Soares, and undoubtedly talented winger with a strong connection to Edu, and we are supposedly interested for a fee exactly the same as Ziyech’s. And apparently, if the rumors are to be believed, we are acting quickly, going to check if he’s healthy before finalizing the move. Which all sounds great, if there was any supporting evidence that we can actually get a deal done.

There is only one thing that this deal has that all but one previous deal haven’t—Edu. And the only other deal that had Edu was Gabriel Martinelli, and that was done incredibly quickly. So if you want to derive some optimism here, derive it from the Edu connection, which has proven to be the only thing capable of getting a deal done thus far into the summer.

Still. One for one is a bit of a small sample size, so forgive me if I reserve my enthusiasm until the deal is actually done and he has a yellow (gag) number.