Unai Emery has taken a long hard look at Arsenal’s wobbly spine and winced. It will take some fixing – and a £50m repair kitty probably won’t do the job. But in any case he’ll get to work doing what should have been done when the iron age was kicking off and finally sign a defensive midfielder who doesn’t have scissors for legs. His preference is for a reunion with Steven N’Zonzi, who has diligently been doing the dirty work for Sevilla since Emery signed him from Stoke three years ago.
He’ll have to argue his case with Arsenal’s head of recruitment though. Emery will likely be doing a lot of that this summer. You see, transfer guru Sven Mislintat would rather sign Watford’s Abdoulaye Doucouré. Now there’s a stormy relationship that could keep the Mill titillated this season.