SETTABLOID

Arsenal will be unable to facilitate a move for Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak this summer.

The 25-year-old Sweden international has been touted with a potential move to the Emirates in 2025 should the Magpies fail to qualify for Europe.

Isak’s camp are thought to be aware of Arsenal’s interest but the former Real Sociedad man is more than happy at St. James’ Park.

That leads Arsenal a little cold in terms of their ongoing striker search, with Kai Havertz simply not an out-and-out goalscorer manager Mikel Arteta can rely on.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has not ruled out a signing in January but has reminded fans how difficult it can be to land acquisitions mid-season.

Ten days into the window, Arsenal have yet to buy or sell – although this year deadline day does not arrive until February 3, which gives clubs an extra few days to make transfer decisions.

The Gunners have continually been linked with Newcastle United star Alexander Isak amid rumours that Arteta could be looking at attacking reinforcements. Newcastle say they are expecting a quiet window, this designating an exit for Isak unlikely.

Meanwhile, there has been a claim that Arsenal have put in a phone call to Manchester United for Marcus Rashford, with a figure of £12m floated.

There also could be some sales this month amid speculation around the future of Oleksandr Zinchenko amid his limited game time this season.

Barcelona are ready to sanction the ‘immediate sale’ of a world class Arsenal target, and while The Gunners are weighing up a bid, they’re facing stiff competition from Juventus, according to reports.

Barcelona’s financial woes have been well documented, with the club’s struggles to register Dani Olmo and Pau Victor for the second half of the season summing up their situation.

The LaLiga giants must sell before they can even begin to think about making any new additions and one player whose future could lay away from Catalonia is Ronald Araujo.

The Uruguayan 25, is among the finest centre-backs in world football right now. Despite boasting a formidable pairing in William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes, Arsenal ARE showing concrete interest in signing Araujo.

The player has just 18 months remaining on his existing deal. As such, and with no new deal on the horizon, Barcelona are willing to cash in right now in order to extract maximum value.

We understand Arsenal are seriously considering launching a bid for Araujo after contacts with Barcelona chiefs were established earlier this week.

But before Arsenal fans can get their hopes up, it’s important to note Italian powerhouse Juventus are also in the mix and they’ve already acted on their interest…

With Bukayo Saka out indefinitely, Ethan Nwaneri sidelined for at least several more weeks, and neither Gabriel Martinelli nor Leandro Trossard in form, it is no surprise Arsenal are keeping an eye on the transfer market. Given the strength of their interest in Athletic Club’s Nico Williams, it should also be no shock that he is still seriously admired.

The Spain star was followed closely over the summer after impressing for both club and country last season. He ended the campaign with five league goals and 14 assists, adding another eight in total from the cup. It was at Euro 2024 that he truly announced himself as a European superstar.

Combining with Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, the pair terrorised defences in Germany on the way to winning the tournament. Arsenal, along with Chelsea and a host of other sides, were already tracking him before that but were left with little choice but to sit up and pay massive attention to his demands after his performances.

Williams hasn’t been able to follow that up with a true statement campaign yet at his boyhood club in Bilbao, but that hasn’t dented the interest.

As a 22-year-old, and part of Athletic’s unique wage structure, the money he commands is enormous. It was one of the reasons – along with a variable release clause standing at over £51million currently – that no true bid was made last year.

To get Williams to the Emirates Stadium would likely require a wage increase from Arsenal and that would immediately make him among the top earners. It could, in fact, break the system that has been methodically put in place over the past few seasons.

The importance of the match against Manchester United in the FA Cup has increased dramatically following Arsenal’s disappointing defeat in first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final. With chances of making the final narrowing, this competition has taken on extra importance for the Gunners.

Mikel Arteta knows that a defeat here would bring a huge amount of pressure on his shoulders and following a week of rest and the result at Anfield, Ruben Amorim arrives for a second time this season in a much better place, with the Gunners comparatively much worse off. There is some good news that the team continues to recover from a spate of illness and Raheem Sterling returned to the squad following a knee injury.

There could be changes made to the team that lost to Newcastle. Certainly, some performances drew plenty of criticism while others stood out and deserve to keep their place as a result.

There had been some speculation about whether or not goalkeeper Neto could make his debut for the club as he has waited a very long time for it. Signing from Bournemouth on loan, the Brazilian has been cup-tied in the Carabao Cup and not utilised in other games with David Raya impressing.

The back four remains the same from the Newcastle clash. Myles Lewis-Skelly stood out in particular, and he joins Gabriel, William Saliba and Jurrien Timber in the back line with the hope that Ben White could be getting closer to stepping up his recovery ahead of a return.

Into midfield and Declan Rice starts in the No.6 role, allowing Mikel Merino to enter the fray in midfield, rested from the midweek clash with Newcastle. Martin Odegaard needs to find some form after returning from illness but it has so far been hard to come by.

FC Barcelona gained a victory in court, albeit a temporary one, as a Spanish court allowed Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor to be registered to play pending a final decision.

La Liga chief Javier Tebas expressed dismay at the court’s decision, as his organization had told Barcelona that Olmo and Víctor would be de-registered and thus unable to play in any competition for the second half of the season.

Jorge Calabrés, an investigative journalist who works for Madrid-based newspaper El Español has said that La Liga “abused their power” when de-registering the two players.

In a tweet, Calabrés laid out a timeline of Barcelona’s dealings with La Liga, accusing the league of shifting the goalposts in order to essentially prevent Barcelona from registering the players.

He goes on to say that a contract was signed on December 31st. That’s when Barcelona agreed to sell VIP suites in exchange for a cash infusion. Calabrés accuses La Liga of asking for unnecessary paperwork, demanding to see a larger than necessary amount of the cash already transferred, and quickly de-registering the players when the money did not arrive until January 3rd.

Nigel Winterburn says he didn’t want to leave Arsenal after spending 13 years with the club.

The full-back, who made an impressive 577 appearances for the Gunners after joining from Wimbledon in 1987, picked up an array of silverware during his tenure – including two First Division titles, a Premier League, two FA Cups, a League Cup, and a European Cup Winners’ Cup.

Despite his long-standing tenure, which had many tag him as one of the elite left-backs of his era, Winterburn ultimately moved to West Ham United in 2000.

Reflecting on that period and his reluctance to leave Highbury, Winterburn told Mirror Football via William Hill: “I came from Wimbledon to Arsenal, I think my first six months for me were probably the hardest. I’m joining a huge club from a team that’s come up through the ranks.

But it’s still the same thing, and I say it all the time – when you’re used to playing regularly to not playing, even though you’re moving to, let’s say, a better club, a bigger club with a huge history, I love the atmosphere of matchday.

“So I found that very, very difficult for a long period of time, but once I started to break in – initially at right-back and occasionally at left-back – and then the following season, I was pretty much in full-time and I played most of the time if I was fit throughout my career at Arsenal, probably apart from the last six months.