Arsenal tempted to spend entire budget on Koscielny replacement

Arsenal is reported to already be looking at a replacement for disgraced captain Laurent Koscielny but it could cost them their entire transfer budget.

According to the latest reports, the club has resurrected their interest in Benfica defender Ruben Dias, who they targeted at the beginning of the transfer window.

However, with a release clause said to be £54 Million it would effectively wipe out the transfer budget and mean that any further signings would be wholly reliant on player sales.

The reason that the club decided to drop their initial interest was financial but with Koscielny basically ending his career at the Emirates it means that Arsenal have no choice now but to splash the cash on a central defender

The defence is now in a parlous state and barely fit for purpose, especially in the centre with only Sokratis truly reliable.

It would be a huge risk for Unai Emery to spend his entire budget on a single player but the transfer window does not have long to go and the club may be forced into a truly unenviable choice.

Either go with a defence that basically has a central defence of Sokratis and Mustafi with limited cover or pay significant money to bring in an establish centre half.

As for Diaz, he seems capable but £54 Million for a player with no Premier League experience does seem a little erratic, surely there are alternatives at home.

Lewis Dunk anyone?

19 Comments

  1. Rather this done than blow it all on Zaha. Still not ideal to have a 45mill transfer budget to begin with when we know we have more money than that to spend.

    1. RSH re.Zaha. Maybe the club are waiting to see how our young wingers get on in the upcoming pre-season games before they buy one. Hope Nelson and Saka do well myself.
      Similarly maybe Holding, Chambers and even Mavropanos can show they have what it takes in defence. Great pity about Krystian Bielik as I had high hopes for him. Arsenal don’t think he’s ready but for me he’s already better than both Mustafi and the Greek wrestler.
      I don’t know if any of the youngsters in the tour squad are right backs but if they are I hope they play so AMN can move to midfield.
      Because we are playing good teams this tour should be a good test.

  2. We can’t afford to blow all our transfer funds on one signing. We need to address 5 positions in this transfer window. LB, RW, RB, CM and CB, the most critical being the last 3. For heaven’s sake we can’t start the season again with Xhaka, Mustafi and AMN. That is a solid recipe for Europa League 20/21.

    1. The most serious areas required to be strengthen are CB & LB, the rest could be at least covered by our youngsters.

  3. We can’t spend all the money on one player

    But we can’t spend £45 mil on several positions either

    If we can’t sell any of our players we will need to spend the money on two players and sign free transfers (mostly in their 30’s like Yacine Brahimi, Sturridge, Balotelli, Cahill, Vermaelen, Pererya, Ben harfa, Welbeck, Markovic, etc)
    And make good use our young players: Reiss Nelson, Smith Rowe, Holding, Guendouzi, Chambers, Niles, Bielik, Nketiah, Saka, Martinelli,etc)

    Beggars Can’t be Choosers!

    That’s the position Wenger, Gazidas and Kroenke have put us in.

    1. Leave Wenger out of this, does he decide how much Arsenal should spend? Rather direct your anger on Kroenke, who own the club. Wenger being a quiet man never say much about money released to buy players. Maybe we are seeing what Wenger went through, when we were lambasting him of not buying world class players.

      1. I don’t pity wenger because he was defending the board by saying we will only buy players that improve us when he knows there was no money available. Atleast now we know we don’t have much to spend.

  4. I think it is a good idea to get 1 awesome player than 3 average players. If he is that good and defence requires upgradation then why not. But 1 question still remains why not at least try beileik for once. Or get Saliba and ship kos other way.

  5. Another speculation, this club is getting more frustrating each day, no plans, until they bid for every player on earth and end up buying nothing.

  6. It such a pity that club like Arsenal act childish whenever it comes to transfer windows, with their inappropriate budget every transfer windows. It seems they bid for every single good players but ending up signing flops, bench warmers, like Denis Suarez of last season. I’m pretty sure by the end of the transfer window the gunners will end up signing another bench warmer. The transfer market has changed from what it used to be in 2000’s. Arsenal boards need to change their mentality about this. If you need a quality players you need to spend big money nowadays. You won’t get a quality player without good funds now. There’re lots of bench warmer Arsenal FC need to offload and use the funds to get a quality player. I don’t mind if they spend £45 million on a quality player and who worth it. Let’s be sentimental here, if you want good players and trophies you need to spend money. the club need funds to get quality players and they need to offload some liabilities, likes of musta, miki, enemy, Jecki. these guys need to try their luck somewhere and use the funds we recovered to purchase for quality player who will bring in solutions..,.

  7. The club is paying for poor transfer dealings these past 5 years.
    Gabriel cost 16m and left for 9m.
    Chambers cost 16 mill but is on loan.
    Welbeck cost 16m and left on a free.
    Wilshere cost 30m in salary and left on a free.
    Alexis Sanchez cost 36m and Man City offered us 60m but the club said no.
    Sanchez went on strike and eventually left on a free.
    Lucaz Perez cost 16 mill and we got 4.4 m for him.
    Ramsey who was worth 50m+ left on a free.
    We are paying Ozil 350 k p/w
    We payed 60m for Auba just after we bought Laca for 50m.
    Auba is 30 Mkhitarian is 30 we need to cash in now or we will get little for these two.
    Jenkinson is still on the books.
    Monreal is just waiting for a replacement before leaving.
    Koz wants out but the club is hanging on to him to keep a replacement’s price down.
    Holding is just back after major surgery.
    Bellerin may or may not be ready in August.
    To be fair none of this is Emery’s fault.
    He inherited this mess and to be fair did very well last season.
    The mess should be sorted now not wait for another season at least.

    Sell. Auba 50m Mkhitarian 17m Chambers 17m Jenkinson 6m Koz + Monreal Free.

    = 90m + 50m “Budget” = 140m.

    Buy.
    LB. 25m CB 30m Winger 30m AM 30m Striker 30m

  8. I agree with Admin that Arsenal should look a EPL proven CB’s like Lewis Dunk from Brighton & Hove Albion or good prospects from the lower leagues. With regard to Dunk, he now appears to be on Leicester City’s radar.
    The concern with Raul Sanheili is that he appears to Spain centric, where there appears to be better value elsewhere.
    Upgrading the defense should be Arsenal’s highest priority.

  9. How you can suggest Socratis is “truly reliable” is beyond me unless of course you are referring to his reliability to concede free kicks?He is basically no better than Mustafi.Give our young centre backs a chance for God’s sake.Holding, Beilik, Chambers and Mavroponas cannot be worse than our trio of aging experienced centre backs who failed so miserably last year.As for Diaz,a decent player who we simply cannot afford.

  10. Glad some people are starting to realise that Socratis is actually a worse option than mustafi. Offer Kos in the deal to get Saliba this season, sign tierney and a winger preferably Zaha but beggars can’t be choosers. Go back to 4 at the back and play Leno Bellerin Holding Saliba Tierney Chambers Torriera Xhaka Zaha Abameyang Lacca. Try and flog Ozil Mkhi ElnenyJenkinson monreal for a loss just get them off the books. Accept good offers for Bielek Nelson Mustafi. Then buy a creative cm if we can afford one of real quality.

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