Arsenal are tentatively favourites to claim the coveted Fourth Place in the Premier League, and it is important not only to give us a long-awaited return to the Champions League, but also to help us to attract top players in the summer.
The most talked about striker target for the Gunners is the Man City hitman Gabriel Jesus, who scored four goals for his club last week, and our chances of landing him will be greatly enhanced if we win the race for Top Four.
There has been many details in the media about how the personal terms are all but agreed, but Arteta and Edu are still waiting to commence negotiations with Man City, but now the Arsenal expert Chris Wheatley, has revealed in Football.London that the club are preparing a bid of £35million for the Brazilian.
Now I know that the 25 year-old only has one year left on his current contract at the Etihad, and he has struggled for game time under Pep Guardiola, but with his prolific goalscoring record in his 4 years at City and his relatively young age, I would have expected a price more in the range of £50million for Jesus.
In my opinion, if we can get him for that price then it is a no-brainer, but with other clubs sure to be interested it is more likely to just be an opening bid.
But as I said at the beginning, surely we need to guarantee a Champions League place before we can expect to get such a high-profile signing at whatever price.
Darren N