Northern Ireland’s Michael O’Neill believes that Jonny Evans would have no trouble playing for a ‘big club’ and said that he’s not surprised about the interest from Arsenal.

I guess, at this point, it looks like it might be time for me to hold my hands up. When this rumour started a few weeks ago I called it the worst one of the summer yet. I thought there was no way we would be interested in the West Brom man, but it seems as if I might have been wrong. A lot wrong.

“Jonny was outstanding in France,” O’Neill said. “He can switch in and out of systems.

“He’s a top-level player and could play in a top-four Premier League club. The interest from Arsenal doesn’t surprise me.” 

Tony Pulis doesn’t want to let him go but has admitted that it could happen.

“The most important thing is that Jonny is with us and we want him to stay because he’s an outstanding player,” he said.

“You don’t want to lose your best players, but in football sometimes that happens.

“If it does happens, you need to make sure you know where your replacements are.

“The thing is with Jonny, I think he could play anywhere.

“He’s very well respected within the dressing room, he’s a lot quieter than a Fletch (Darren Fletcher) or people like that but he does his work and he gets tremendous respect because of the way he plays.”

With Arsenal rumoured to be considering allowing Calum Chambers to leave on loan before the window shuts, they must be confident of landing another player for that to even be on the horizon.

With the Mustafi deal going nowhere fast, we could see a last minute scramble that ends up with us paying a whole lot of money for not a lot of player.

Still.

At least there are only seven more days before it’s over.