It has been an extremely frustrating transfer window for Arsenal fans so far, with just the free transfer of Sead Kolasinac to cheer about so far, and with the continuing uncertainty about the contract situations of many of our best players. So there was an air of hostility from some quarters when Ivan Gazidis met around 250 Arsenal fans at the Emirates yesterday.
I hope Ivan wasn’t just trying to avoid conflict, but he promised the crowd that Arsenal were aiming to buy some ‘top quality’ players to try and improve on our alarming showing in the League last season. Ivan said: “It was a bit disappointing, we were in the mid-70s for points and our ambition is to win the Premier League and to do that you have to be at least mid-80s, probably upper 80s. So there is a gap. We have to close that gap and that’s not just about spending, although that’s obviously a big part of it.
“So we’ve already signed one of the players of the season from the Bundesliga team of the season last year, we’re very actively in discussions on a variety of different players at the moment. On the squad side, we’re not looking to add more squad depth now, we’re looking at players who can come in and compete for a starting position.
“We want to raise the quality of the starting XI with top quality players, we feel we have good squad depth. There have been other appointments behind the scenes and there will be more as the summer plays out, which you’ll see if you pay very close attention.”
There will be many cynical fans saying that Gazidis says this every year, but it rarely comes true and, as Ivan pointed out, we spent £110million in last summer’s transfer window.
Can we expect the same level of commitment this summer?
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