Insider Charles Watts has claimed that he isn’t expecting any further Arsenal signings before we kick-off our Premier League campaign against Crystal Palace on Friday.
The Gunners have moved to bring in five new additions this summer, seemingly strengthening the squad in key areas, and after moving to wrap up a number of signings swiftly, we could well be done in regards to incomings this summer.
Watts certainly believes that we could possibly have all our signings wrapped up, but admits that we still need to offload certain squad members.
“I can’t say for certain if there’s going to be any more incomings,” Watts told his YouTube followers. “I’d be surprised if there are any more incomings before the Crystal Palace game.
“Outgoings? Yes, I do think there probably will be before the Palace game. Bernd Leno, I imagine, will probably go before [the] Palace game. I’d be surprised if he’s still here.
“Nothing’s done yet with Fulham. Those talks have been going on for a long, long time now, but it’s getting towards the stage where I’d be surprised if it doesn’t end up happening.”
It makes sense that we would have to work on outgoings at present after so many signings, as Alexandre Lacazette is the only first-team squad player to have departed thus far, while the likes of Matteo Guendouzi and Dinos Mavropanos have also sealed permanent transfers away.
I’d love for us to add another forward, but that could depend on what happens with Nicolas Pepe, while we have the likes of Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Lucas Torreira and possibly one of Rob Holding or Pablo Mari to offload also.
If you could strengthen one area of our current squad, where would it be?
Patrick
A good defensive midfielder and we are good to go, if not I will suggest our coach to give Toriera a chance in that position cause he has the attributes
We need a physically strong and tall striker … otherwise we r good
We should keep Leno to the end of his contract. If Ramsdale were to get injured it would be a massive blow to our season without Leno to cover for him. The new guy is untested, it’d be crazy to gamble in this area
Agree in pure football terms, but he wants to be No.1 somewhere (especially since it’s a wc year).
The story seems to be that he wants away now he’s behind Ramsdale, but we don’t get 100% information of course.
I think we’re really at the point where we can’t sign any more players without selling a few first, so not surprised to read this. There are limits to what can be done in a single window, and we’ve already spent a huge amount. Glad that the purchasing was done relatively early this time!
Didn’t MA and Edu say that they are looking to bring more players in?
But the article is saying “by the start of the season” not “the end of the window” – and they are very different since the start of the season is only a week away and the end of the window is more than a month from now.
In that sense, it’s a bit of a non-statement, a bit like saying “I don’t think aliens will invade Earth in the next 10 minutes”.
EXCELLENT CONTEXT AND SO TRUE WHAT YOU SAY!