I’ll start this week by writing about Barcelona’s pursuit of Rodri, who proved he’s the best player in that position after his outstanding World Cup. As I’ve said many times, when Pep Guardiola explained that you won’t see the best of Rodri until the World Cup—he was spot on. I thought he was fantastic for Spain, and it’d be a huge blow for Manchester City if he left.
City are going to play hardball, and I don’t blame them, because I think he’s got a year left on his contract. So they might keep him for another year and then let him go in the summer. But from the outside, it seems like he wants to go to Barcelona. It’d be some coup for them, because I think he’d be fantastic there.
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That style of football suits Rodri perfectly. Barcelona have a similar style of play to Spain, and lots of their players are in the national team. He would easily slot into their midfield and make things happen.
‘Araújo alongside Virgil van Dijk is brilliant’
One player who has left Barcelona this summer is Ronald Araújo, after joining Liverpool. His biggest issue will be staying fit after having lots of injury problems last season. He’s missed a lot of football, but he’s someone with natural talent. Liverpool needed to go into the market to get a defender, and they got one.
Someone else whose name has been touted with a transfer is Myles Lewis-Skelly. We all knew him as a left-back, but I thought he was outstanding after coming into midfield for Arsenal. He can play in numerous positions, and you can understand why a club like Manchester United would be linked with him. They want to strengthen in midfield, and he could also be a long-term successor to Luke Shaw at left-back. And you can see why Chelsea are keen on him, because they’ve lost Marc Cucurella, and he just fits straight into that hole.
But if I’m Arsenal, I’m not selling Lewis-Skelly to a rival, that’s for sure. They are likely to go deep into the cup competitions and are the favourites to win the Premier League. So you’re going to need your squad, and Lewis-Skelly is the type of player you would like to call upon.
If I was him at 19-years-old, I’d probably stay for at least another season. I’d be thinking to myself that I’m with the Premier League champions, so I would want to stay there and I want to fight for my position.
I want to say to Mikel Arteta, ‘I’m good enough to get into this team.’ And that’s how he’s got to be thinking. It looks like Arsenal want him to stay and Lewis-Skelly wants to stay too, which is probably the best thing for both parties right now.
We also saw a rare swap deal this week, with Brennan Johnson going to Everton and Dwight McNeil arriving at Crystal Palace. I must say, it was crazy for Palace to lose Johnson. I haven’t spoken to anyone at Palace about it—I think I might do that very soon—but I don’t get it, because Palace paid big money for Johnson. He was on massive wages though, so that may have come into their thinking.
It hasn’t really worked out for him there so far, and the new manager’s probably seen him in pre-season and thought, ‘It’s not going to work for me.’ They’ve obviously strengthened too, with the signing of Evann Guessand on loan from Aston Villa, and they’re looking at other players in that area as well. I know they also tried to go for Dwight McNeil previously, but the deal fell through at the last hour. McNeil’s wages are probably lower than Johnson’s, so that’s the biggest benefit to Palace in the deal.
Looking at the football matches coming up, we’ve got the Community Shield taking place this Sunday. I was at the match last year when Palace beat Liverpool on penalties, and you could see that neither team were treating the game like a friendly. I realise that nobody wants to get injured a week before the start of the Premier League season, but it’s the opportunity to get another trophy in the cabinet. Both Arsenal and Man City will be going for it, and it should be an entertaining game. So I totally agree with what Viktor Gyökeres said when he dismissed the match as a friendly. It’s all about winning now, and that can only breed confidence going into the new season.
This is also the opening weekend of the EFL season, and it’ll be interesting to see if West Ham can hit the ground running in a battle of the relegated Premier League teams against Burnley on Sunday. A lot of eyes will also be on Lincoln City after winning promotion, and they’ve got a very tough start away at Middlesbrough, who have spent a fair bit of money in the transfer window.
Sheffield United are also up against my old team Birmingham City–can they get in the promotion mix this season? A lot of money is being spent in the division, and the play-offs now go down to the team which finishes eighth.
A team that I feel could do well this season is Norwich City. I think they’ve got a good manager in Philippe Clement, with some good, exciting players, and quite a few internationals. They could be a force in the division this season.