I love this time of year when the speculation over who Arsenal are going to buy bubbles up. It’s laden with hope and expectations, frequently unrealistic expectations. Let’s face it, Mbappe and Haaland are unlikely to arrive So the question is who can Arsenal expect to be buying in the real world?
One major achievement of Arteta’s over the last couple of windows has been to reduce the wage bill by approximately £100 million per annum. This is huge, as it gives scope to purchase quality players both in terms of available transfer and wages costs.
Also allowing for the fact that there should be an estimated incoming £70 million from transfers of players deemed surplus to requirements, – Guendouzi, Torreira et al. It would be fair to assume that the transfer pot should be similar to what was spent last summer, around the £130 -150 million mark.
Using past years output as a template it is not unreasonable to expect Arsenal to purchase both expected first teamers and young squad members with future potential.
If we consider the positions that require filling are Right Back (squad), Left Back (squad), Defensive Midfield (first team) Attacking Midfielder (first team/squad) and two Centre Forwards (first team and squad), I would be interested in hearing how you Gooners would fill the required positions within the available budget?
Peter Doherty
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The narrative of how much Arsenal will need to spend on new players in the summer will be determined by if we qualify for Champions league or Europa. Let’s first focus and talk about how we can do well against Spuds. For me it’s a win or a draw.
@Sylva smart talk, a win tomorrow cements our UCL spot, then JA can focus our new season signings, then Darwin Nunez can lead the front line,
A draw/ defeat tomorrow means we fight till the last day,
I’d take Jesus instead of Nunez .. Always liked him
If manage to get a draw then we would just one win after that but both matches after spuds are pretty tough because Newcastle has gained new life under Howe and Everton are fighting for survival..
HAVE YOU NOT DEEPLY LOOKED INTO, as I and clued up other Gooners have done, at the likelihood that by the time we play Everton, they will be safe!
That likelihood changes your argument utterly! Agree? Or not!
Yea Dawin Nunez actually make sense if we can rap up the deal and he is willing to come. A win seals our top4 dream. But a draw won’t be bad as we shall only be needing 1 more win. I am certain we can get a win in New Castle or Everton especially if our players stayed fit. I remain hopeful tomorrow.
Wow!!A 150 million budget? Are you certain? I think it’s more than enough to cover two of the weaker positions and take the club forward.
Darwin nuñez, new contract to nketiah.
Tchoumeni/tielemans, new contract to elneny.
Rb (an attaking mind one), young, not expensive one
Saliba.
Thats all we need.
I forgot martinez, as an striker option and gravenbech as a cm option.
I hope those neves reports are false, since i think neves is nothing more than xhaka
Of course Haaland is unlikely to arrive as he signed for City yesterday😊. But I don’t see why we need fullbacks when we have very adequate back ups in Cedric and Tavares. Defensive mids? If you you mean the pairing of Xhaka and Partey, backed up by Elneny and Lokonga, then no, not needed. Goal scoring centre forward, yes. Attacking mid, yes. Therefore, just two players required.
Oh I forgot, of course Saliba is coming back too so there will be lots of options in the defence and DM positions.
Striker – One of Nunez, Jesus, L. Martinez.
Central midfielder – One of Bissouma, Tchouameni, Ruiz.
New back up left back to Tierney. Send Tavarez on loan.
It’s simple
By improving our sales and stop paying players to leave and represent other clubs.
150m plus champions league qualification money coupled with few sales is more than enough ammunition and every managers dream
I don’t think money is the problem
Arsenal needs quality 2 players in every position
We need 4 forward players and 1 mature DM and send Lokonga on loan
That will cost big money and J Kroenke knows that
I think the money will come as needed
I am always intrigued to know why clubs publicize their transfer budget for the upcoming window, since I am sure it will tempt teams to increase the price of their players when Arsenal come calling.
However,
Inter are short of cash at the moment and consequently need to sell players, so we might be able to get Martinez for a reasonable amount ($50m). He is a good all round player who scores goals.
I believe we are after the Bologna Scottish left full back Hickey, and he should be cheap at around $15m. Back up to Tierney.
Bissouma, or someone like him as another DM, should cost around $40m.
Keep Elneny for another year, keep Xhaka and Soares and bring Saliba in. That should sort out our defense and most of our midfield issues
So we have possibly $50m left in the kitty. Do we buy say Jesus as another forward and let Eddie go?
Do we buy a right winger to back up Saka and sell Pepe for what we can get?
Do we buy Tielemans, Neves, Madison or someone of that ilk to help/backup Odegaard?
What I sincerely hope we do not do is buy Sterling!!!!
PS, I am still concerned over a back-up keeper. I know nothing about Turner, but I suspect he is not as good as Leno, or he would be first choice for the US national team. Currently Man City’s shaky reserve keeper is keeping him out.
JW, no club publicise how much money they are going to spend or which players they are going to sign, it’s all press speculation.
Well with the new UCL format to kick off in two years time its safe to say Arsenal will be a regular at the tournament . No matter how we much we intend to spend in the summer , if we do not get the right players then I’m afraid we will not be title contenders. Another middle east money merchants have arrived , this time at Newcastle , and they’ve already indicated that they are willing to spend big. Soon we would not be able to compete with them like city and Chelsea and even united.
It would go down to our scouts and an increase in length and width of our ‘fishing net’ to get high potential players who will get good resale value. Then we also need to invest more in our academy , if possible build new academies and /or patner with existing ones in other countries and continents. This will aid in making us first choice for young prospects .
From putting up with some fake professor of economics to a Dr. Of Economics Mikel Arteta. What a transformation on and off the pitch. for me it would be Gab J., Fabian Ruiz and Aaron as LB and Norwich Aaronfor RB back up. We do have AMN, Elneny, Nelson, Eddie for domestic cup games.
Well a bit outside this thread….
The derby tomorrow will hold a lot of suprises…for us or Tothenham.
I mean…. Tothenham seems calm waiting, while we are all over the internet with our sheninigan…which o hope pays off, cause our team seems to disappoints when we expects them to turn up and turns up when we’ve written them off.
Should we loose, then next two games are must win…no draw…
Anyone thinking …….we are beating Tothenham tomorrow, might just need some sleeping pills, should the obvious be the case.
As a gunner, I hope I am wrong….but on history….it’s the white chickens on their turf
Right back (squad) Ben White
Left back (Squad) Tomiyasu
Extra cover Harry Clarke
First choice 4
Tomiyasu, White Gabriel Tierney.
If one gets injured in comes Saliba, if 2 are injured in comes Holding, if 3 get injured in comes Clarke if 4 get injured in comes Ballard. How likely is it that all 4 of your first choice defence are injured at the same time?
Midfield: Partey & New signing, back up Xhaka and Elneny if 3 of our 4 CMs are out we bring in Azeez, Eddine or Patino.
Attacking Midfield: obviously Odegaard, Smithrowe is very different to odegaard. Personally, I would like to see smithrowe given a chance through the middle, but not sure we have time to experiment.
Striker? Not sure who? Who are we going to get?, Will it be 2? Will Nketiah stay? Will balogun get a chance?
Saka and Martinelli must stay out wide, but we need back up there.
I don’t think money is an issue. I don’t like Kroneke but he has given a lot of money 💰🤑 for transfers over the years
The issue is not spending wisely 🦉. Like, over 70 million for Pepe, 50 million for White (nothing against him. He’s a good defender but I think we could have found a good CB for less), getting BOTH Lacazette and Aubameyang, etc
I think we should be more careful when spending money.
Just my opinion
Very sound opinion, indeed.
Armed with the top 4, plus 150M transfer kitty, plus over 700K per week in wages, we are ideally placed to dictate terms in the transfer window.
With this in mind, I would allocate 100M for two strikers and the rest to one more midfield targets. Why should be put all our eggs into one basket: spending 80M plus on one striker, when the risk of long term injury can’t be ruled out.
Deepening our squad should be the main focus.
Let’s wait until either CL or Europa is decided before we find out how much money and what areas Edu and Arteta plan to address.
Striker is a sure bet, maybe two if Nketiah walks. Balogun is simply not ready, and to move Martinelli to a reserve striker seems to lessen the team overall.
I think a goal scorer up top will help Saka and Martinelli grow and maybe reach another level next year as they are often double teamed when they have the ball.
Will he stick with Cedric at backup RB? I think its ok for another year, we need the money elsewhere.
A DM is a MUST in my opinion, whether he moves White (my hope) or dips into the market, we need one to solidify the midfield and not get overrun by the top sides.
As far as backup LB, hopefully a bit of defensive coaching with Tavares will go a long way, a deficiency in his game, but correctable with proper coaching up and time spent.
Lastly, an upgrade on Xhaka is overdue in my opinion. He is not horrible, but his lak of pace, creativity, and goal threat is keeping us from reaching that next level.
We REALLY need a top striker, a top DM, and a top B2B midfielder to see us compete with the top sides. If that was all we addressed, along with a plan B striker, I would be happy with the Summer business.
As someone commented on JA that we need £400,000,000 to be competitive, it seems we might fall a little short of target.
Welcome to the world of being an Arsenal manager under Kronkie MA – money is everything, as city and Haarland just proved.
Still Mikel, two decades of top four, fifteen CL quarter finals, seven fa cup wins, three PL titles, a team of Invincibles playing attractive attacking football will keep the realists amongst us more than happy with your results….even if the players are dross, lazy, mentally frail and can’t defend!!! COYG’s
Ken1945, we’ve never reached the CL quarterfinals 15 times. We’ve only ever won 8 KO ties in the 19 years we were in it.
Sorry K/O stages – two semi finals and a final – plus seven Charkty/Community Shields.
That about sums it up for MA to compete with… let’s hope he can.
You have to be in it to try and win it.
Is that straight up? Wow, that is God awful stats.
I thought 15 CL quarter finals sounded a bit much? But only 8 wins in the knock outs?
I hate checking stats, particularly when I was probably at everyone of those matches, lol.
Yes Atid, terrible stat. We moved to the Bowl to compete with the best in Europe apparently.
Max Aarons/Hickey
Ruiz/Tchoumeni
Barnes/Nkunku/Gakpo
Nunez as number 1 and one of either Martinez/Watkins
Nice Article, Enjoyed the read.
If we secure champions league football it will also mean the club not having to spend that much of our own money from revenues etc…
Incoming money;
– UCL £40m or so?
– 4th position League money £?m+
– Player sales of around £70m?
That’s more than enough for a top striker and midfielder.
Plus I didn’t know we have saved £100m in wages the last 18months with a few more heading off that bill in Laca, Elneny & Leno, plus all the other on loans to be sold Lucas, Matteo, Hector etc…
We are in such a strong position heading back into the Champions League with the fans in the Stadium in full voices, no high debts to pay off this stadium, a squad full of talented youngsters shining already & have found an identity again as Arsenal Football Club.
This is only the start of the rebuild and we are in a great financial position along with the league position to strengthen this talented team even more with even better quality.
Well done Mikel, as I type this I realise how much work has been done when I think about it. Top 4 and this will have been a very successful season considering the circumstances we have been under at times.
Let’s beat the spuds at the toilet bowl & flush away their UCL dreams at our expense.
On the presumption we make top 4. RB-Spence LB-Cucurella /Hickey DM/DLP-Grillitsch(free) CM-Tielemens RW-Gnabry ST-Nunez+ Jesus.
If we only finish in EUL then. RB-promote Norton-Cuffey LB-Cucurella/Hickey DM/CM-Grillitsch RW-Give Nelson another chance ST- Toney+Giouri
Dyabala on a free has to be done
Sell Xhaka, Leno, Pepe, Bellerin, AMN, Mari, Torreira, Guendo, Mavro, Laca
Extend Nketiah, Elneny
Buy Hickey, Frenkie/Tielemans/Neves, Gnabry, Jesus/Osimhen/Darwin
Bring back Saliba, Runarsson
Loan Balogun, Azeez, Patino, Ballard, Tavares, Nelson, Hein, Okonkwo