{"id":74988,"date":"2023-01-14T09:37:12","date_gmt":"2023-01-14T09:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/?p=74988"},"modified":"2023-01-14T09:37:12","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T09:37:12","slug":"arsenal-links-seem-to-make-little-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/2023\/01\/14\/arsenal-links-seem-to-make-little-sense\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal links seem to make little sense?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Swans are reported to be &#8211; along with Stoke City and Queens Park Rangers &#8211; interested in making a move for Arsenal midfielder Matt Smith who, it is now suggested, could leave the Emirates Stadium on a permanent deal this January.<\/p>\n<p>Smith has spent the last couple of seasons out on loan at Swindon Town, Charlton Athletic and Doncaster Rovers to gain valuable first-team experience.\u00a0 It was reported this week by <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/sources-arsenal-ready-to-accept-matt-smith-offer-as-stoke-city-qpr-and-swansea-city-lead-chase\/\">Football Insider<\/a><\/strong> that the three Championship clubs could all be looking at a permanent deal for the player.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='glIu1jTRQrh9L-3jKv9H1g' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1448842170' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'glIu1jTRQrh9L-3jKv9H1g',sig:'KmxvKEsTLXBM-CNgIjq2Ti518kqJLs-39N-1YJExWME=',w:'594px',h:'431px',items:'1448842170',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n<p>The question for me is why this makes sense?\u00a0 \u00a0Midfield is an area where we are not short of options.\u00a0 Matt Grimes, Joe Allen, Jay Fulton, Luke Cundle, Ollie Cooper and Olivier Ntcham have all featured heavily this season for the Swans and there is little doubt that we have other areas of the pitch where strengthening will be higher up the agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Smith though is a quality player and when you factor in the speculation that Ntcham could be open to leaving and there can still be lingering doubts over Joe Allen&#8217;s long term fitness then maybe the door is open to this kind of move.<\/p>\n<p>For it to happen though it has to mean departures and surely it would need to be departures from that area of the squad.\u00a0 \u00a0Otherwise we end up with another transfer window purchase that seemingly makes no sense.\u00a0 \u00a0We had some of those last year and whilst it may immediately appease those that demand signings I have always be a firm believer that you only buy players that add value to your squad.\u00a0 \u00a0Smith may do that but for it to happen then someone needs to make way.\u00a0 \u00a0Who that would be is a different question.<\/p>\n<p>For now I am putting this one down firmly as &#8220;not happening&#8221;\u00a0 \u00a0No inside sources, detailed insight just a gut feel that it doesn&#8217;t make sense and we don&#8217;t have the budget to do things that don&#8217;t make sense.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='M-hUDLF9SoRRCw0z7IRrSQ' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1450760040' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'M-hUDLF9SoRRCw0z7IRrSQ',sig:'Yh1AD7TH_jtR0plZ8RVkyA2S-8bMRFAve3Lky48_1Oc=',w:'497px',h:'594px',items:'1450760040',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Swans are reported to be &#8211; along with Stoke City and Queens Park Rangers &#8211; interested in making a move for Arsenal midfielder Matt Smith who, it is now suggested, could leave the Emirates Stadium on a permanent deal this January. Smith has spent the last couple of seasons out on loan at Swindon [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":74990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[293,49,203],"tags":[680,1477,665],"class_list":["post-74988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-team","category-news","category-opinion","tag-arsenal","tag-matt-smith","tag-the-2022-23-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}