Arsenal needs to complete a number of deals this summer to advance to the next level and gain an advantage over Manchester City or any other Premier League club in the title race.
Many have overlooked the midfield position, but it may need further attention. Why the midfield, though?
With Mohammed Elneny, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Charlie Patino, and Thomas Partey (though there’s a chance he’ll stay) departing, is one midfield addition enough to give Arsenal a midfield capable of competing on multiple fronts? I do not think so.
A sensible Mikel Arteta and Edu should realise that if they want the Arsenal midfield to be truly competitive, they may have no choice but to recruit two elite midfielders. This is because, even if they recruit one top midfielder, it will still leave a void in the Arsenal midfield, as it would only replace Partey, and the departure of Elneny, Sambi Lokonga, and Charlie Patino would result in the absence of an additional midfielder. An injury crisis could expose this void, leaving the Arsenal midfield without options, a risk Arsenal cannot afford.
All of the emphasis may be on weaponizing the attack, but the Arsenal midfield may require further attention. If Oleksander Zinchenko had stayed, he may have been the ideal midfield option in addition to the big acquisition, but the Ukrainian international is reportedly likely to join Bayern Munich.
That said, if you were to sign two midfielders for Arsenal, who would you choose? I’d go with Bruno Guimaraes (£100 million) and Youssouf Fofana (£25 million).
Darren N
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This has exactly been my thoughts too.. I’m glad someone’s thinking same thing lve been thinking. We can’t rely on partey not getting injured and one replacement isn’t enough,despite rice not getting injured last season, to be forewarned is to be forearmed they say.
Youssef Fofana and Khephren Thuram, both are exceptional players, Thuram playing the box to box roll, both a good age, both players nearing the end of their current contracts, could pick up both for sensible money.
Makes sense. We absolutely need 2 midfielders with Partey, Neny and Smith Rowe set to leave. Arteta doesn’t play Smith rowe a lot; so he should leave for his own good.
But especially we need a sitting midfielder because our attack functions really much better when Rice plays as 8. He’s very aggressive in that role. We have ardly lost a game with him playing as 8.
If Partey leaves, Arsenal must get two new midfielders: one to replace him and another more attack- minded one who could replace Rice or Odegaard if and when the need arises.
I would go for Fofana and Koopmeiners of Atalanta for the respective positions
I agree that we probably need a no.6 AND a no.8 but I don’t see us spending £125m+ on 2 midfielders this season, yes we may have spent £105m on Rice last season but that doesn’t mean we’ll do it again this summer I expect we’ll look for options that might total around £75m for two CM’s considering we’ve still got to fork out for a forward (probably Sesko at this point) a full back, a no.2 keeper and hopefully a winger. I wouldn’t be surprised if we spent the same overall amount as we did last summer but I don’t see us going much over that mark.
i think both Arteta and Rice himself now see Rice as our #8, they both spoke about growing and developing Rice’s game from the beginning, particularly goalscoring, and we have seen that we Rice moving further forward, pushing him back to #6 takes his game and Arsenal backwards, may be the odd game but not long term
so that leave just Jorginho and Partey in the defensive midfield #6 role, both are aging and need replacing over the next season or two
as much JA loves Partey the facts are he is injury prone and form is patchy (he was not great vs Man U or Everton for instance), likely to go this summer, so that requires 1 midfielder in for sure
given Jorginho has a year or two maximum then could be wise bring that replacement in this summer, to give time to settle and develop if a younger option from an outside league
also the top level PL experienced like Guimerars and Douglas Luiz may be too expensive or not for sale, if we are then forced to gamble on someone else then could reduce that risk by buying 2
so yes I can definitely see a scenario where we buy two defensively minded midfielders, may be one in the summer and one in winter window
that being the case then budget does not stretch far enough for a £100m Osimhen/Gyrokeres style striker, and personally I think Edu/Arteta see the inevitable midfield rebuild as a higher priority than striker so will not sink all our eggs in to the striker basket