What can Ceballos do for the Gunners?

By Arsenal’s standards, the loan transfer of Ceballos from Real Madrid was amazingly swift and efficient. They identified him, made their bid and signed him. I have done some digging to find out why he could be the most important player to join Arsenal for some years.

He is without a doubt a talented midfielder around whom play will be centred. He can also deputise for the likes of Mesut Ozil and he is the ideal replacement for Aaron Ramsey who moved to Juventus. Regrettably, Real Madrid want to hang on to Ceballos on the long term and therefore there is no purchase option in the loan transfer agreement. He is at Arsenal for a year unless circumstances change.

Although Ceballos was the third choice behind Luka Modric and Toni Kroos, he was in the Madrid starting team 13 times last season. The most outstanding of his qualities is passing which was 92.6% perfect last season and that exceeds Ozil and Ramsey.

The main beneficiaries of Ceballos’ passing game according to manager Unai Emery will be Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who often suffered from not receiving enough through balls last season.

My insiders tell me that Emery will use Ceballos instead of Matteo Guendouzi, who was pushed far to hard and too early last year for someone of his age and will also start ahead of Mohamed Elneny and Joe Wilcock.

Dybala’s agents in Manchester for a deal                           

Despite Real Madrid not selling on Gareth Bale to either Manchester United or a Chinese club and Paul Pogba remaining a United player, the Reds are still negotiating to bring Juventus star Paulo Dybala to Old Trafford.

Manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer wants the Argentine to operate as a creative attacking player working closely with first choice striker Marcus Rashford. Dybala wants to stay with Juve but I have been told he said in private he would be willing to listen to offers for his services but would demand a considerable rise in salary which United might be reluctant to agree.

His agents are in Manchester at the moment trying to negotiate a salary of £10m a year after tax. This impacts strongly on Romelu Lukaku and his position at United because Inter Milan boss Antonio Conte wants Lukaku but his club but has not matched United’s valuation of the striker. Juventus, under new manager Maurizio Sarri, also want Lukaku and are now favourites to sign him.

 

Liverpool and City still want improvement

Pre-season tours have revealed some interesting facts about Liverpool and Manchester City who face each other in the Charity Shield tomorrow. The Reds started their pre-season preparations with a win at Tranmere Rovers and Bradford City but such lowly opposition offers nothing in assessing how prepared the team is for the new season.

Defeats against Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla and Napoli left manager Jurgen Klopp embarrassed and only a draw against Sporting Lisbon saved his total humiliation. Of course, and as I have already told you, Klopp is less than happy that most of his top players have been away playing for their countries this summer and are only now arriving back.

Alisson Becker, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah will be in the team at Wembley on Sunday and Xherdan Shaqiri and Naby Keita are training as you read this column. Klopp said it will be a different Liverpool contesting the Charity Shield measured against their pre-season tour teams. If you think this all gives an edge to Manchester City it doesn’t.

City haven’t been having the best of times either. After their team was delayed in leaving for China, they arrived tired and jet-lagged as they arrived in Shanghai. They beat West Ham 4-1 but were held to a 0-0 draw by Wolves, who then beat them on penalties. City then played two very low-grade teams from Hong Kong and Japan which told us nothing about their quality for tomorrow’s match.

While all this was going on Angelino arrived back at City just a year after being loaned to PSV Eindhoven in Holland. That gives Guardiola a choice of left back alongside Benjamin Mendy and Aleks Zinchenko. One thing is clear, and phone calls with both clubs proved the point, they need to improve their defences.

City are still looking at bringing in a new centre half and right-back but the transfer window closure is getting forever closer and the new season starts next week. Judging from all the conversations I have had with my contacts, I would say that Klopp is marginally happier with his squad than Guardiola, who also has striker Leroy Sane still being tempted by Bayern Munich and that has unsettled both player and club.

 

Everton must replace Gueye

As many fans dreaded, Everton have lost their midfield dynamo, Senegal’s Idrissa Gueye. Paris St Germain made a tempting offer of £29m and Gueye himself was happy with the move because he wants to play Champions League football.

Gueye was Everton’s rock in midfield last season and protected the backline brilliantly, winning man of the match week after week. Fabian Deplh is an excellent Toffees signing and a very capable player but manager Marco Silva has stressed to the Everton board that he still needs a replacement for Gueye.

Head of scouting, Marcel Brands is, I am told, scouring all the top divisions throughout Europe looking for players and Marcos Silva waits anxiously by the telephone.

Juventus striker Moise Kean is the youngster Silva wants to base his attacking strategy on and his agent Mino Raiola has steered him away from Arsenal who could not guarantee a starting place. I am told that £36m is the agreed final price for Kean and he should be at Everton by this weekend.

 

Son Heung-Min is an Asian mega-star!­­­­­

I have never met anyone who has a bad word to say about Tottenham striker Son Heung-min. Apart from being a lovely man, he is a normal, balanced human being who takes his star status in his stride.

He still lives with his parents in a three bedroom flat in north London despite having millions in his bank account. What has surprised me, however, is just how big a star he is in Korea and the Far East. Manager Mauricio Pochettino joked last week that Son is now more popular in Asia than David Beckham, without doubt, one of the most famous players on the planet along with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Renaldo.

The 27-year-old has been mobbed everywhere Spurs have played on their pre-season Asian tour with long lines of fans queuing for his autograph — his queue was much longer than Harry Kane’s or Deli Ali. At the Yuanshen Sports Centre in Shanghai, 50,000 fans shrieked and cheered every time Son touched the ball and afterwards thousands waited patiently in hope of securing his signature on their programmes or even better a priceless selfie picture with their idol.

Back in the UK, every morning on the road leading to Spurs training ground in Tottenham, hundreds of Korean fans wait to cheer their idol. Son, in his usual obliging and friendly manner, politely stops his car and signs autographs and allows fans to take pictures.

He is the perfect ambassador, not only for Korea but also for football. Every time Son wears a new item of clothing millions of fans rush out to buy it the next day. Something to watch for,: Son and Moussa Sissoko are working on a new goal celebration in which they touch chins… I suspect you will see it very soon and possibly next weekend end when Spurs take on newly promoted Aston Villa. I also suspect many other players will be copying them this season.

 

Sheffield United could rescue Hart

Top goalkeeper Joe Hart has had a tough time over the past five years. He spent six seasons at Manchester City as first choice keeper and then was discarded by incoming manager Pep Guardiola.

As a result he lost his England starting place and was sent out on loan to Italian club Torino where he failed to make an impression. A further loan to West ham also did not work out. Finally he went to Burnley for £3.5m last August but lost his first team place to Tom Heaton who returned after injury.

Heaton signed for Aston Villa this week but Hart is still behind England cap Nick Pope. Now it looks like Premier League new boys Sheffield United could be interested enough to make a bid for Joe. Sheffield are trying to re-sign loanee goalkeeper Dean Henderson from Manchester United but negotiations are proving difficult and hence the interest in Hart. No deal has been arranged yet but time is getting tight before next week’s season start.

 

Sorting out Chelsea’s right back position

New Chelsea manager Frank Lampard is considering letting right-back Davide Zappacosta go out on loan so that Reece James can be the number one back up to Cesar Azpilicueta. Zappacosta has never looked comfortable at Chelsea since joining from Torino in 2017 for £23million and has played in only 34 matches since joining.

Lampard had chosen Ola Aina as the regular reserve right-back but he has told the Blues he would rather return to Torino where he was out on loan last year. The Italian club offered to buy him for £8.9million in June.

James was on loan to Wigan last year and he won their player of the year award. Meanwhile, Chelsea’s midfield superstar Willian is close to signing a two-year extension to his contract which has only one year left to run. Willian is hoping to take over Eden Hazard’s vacant No 10 shirt but Lampard has not made that decision yet.