Arsenal are expected to sign a striker this summer as they look to finally assemble a title-winning side for the 2025/26 campaign.
Last season, the team’s lack of a reliable goal source in key moments proved costly. Now, after three near misses, the Gunners appear determined to go into the new campaign at full strength, and that starts with reinforcing their attack.
Behind the scenes, there is growing confidence that a serious push is underway to land a proven goalscorer. Names such as Viktor Gyökeres, Benjamin Šeško and Hugo Ekitike have all been linked, but the identity of the preferred target remains tightly under wraps, much to the frustration of some fans.
When will the striker deal be done?
Many supporters feel Arsenal should have made their move by now. A signing of such importance ought to have been wrapped up early, giving the player time to integrate.
According to Charles Watts (via caughtoffside):
“Arteta will certainly want his new striker on board before the squad jets out to Singapore.
So I’m sure he’ll be knocking on doors at London Colney, reiterating how important it is that a deal is done sooner rather than later.
Who that will be, however, remains to be seen.”
With Arsenal flying to Singapore on 19th July, clarity is expected in the coming days regarding who Mikel Arteta is backing to lead the line next season.
A crucial pre-season for Arsenal’s new No. 9
Arsenal will play two fixtures in Singapore, facing AC Milan on 23rd July and Newcastle United on 27th July at the 55,000-capacity National Stadium. The tour concludes with a high-profile clash against Tottenham Hotspur in Hong Kong on 31st July at the new Kai Tak Stadium.
A full pre-season with his new teammates will give the incoming striker a vital opportunity to settle. That will be especially important given Arsenal’s difficult start to the Premier League campaign, which includes matches against Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool within the first five rounds.
Which striker do you think Arsenal must prioritise before the pre-season tour kicks off?
Daniel O
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Let wait for one of those striker to come
With reports of so many strikers now supposedly in the frame – getting on for a virtual team’s worth now I would have thought – it’s impossible to know which one Arsenal has prioritised amongst all the media “chatter”.
Personally, I wouldn’t be that surprised if our old friend Gyokeres was the one to arrive at the end of this.
I think what we are witnessing is Berta’s Modus operandi. It appears to me that his strategy is to engage multiple targets in the same position. With this approach, it’s difficult to tell who the main target is. I’m also not sure as to the advantages of this strategy even though I’m sure there are.
Could be, but I’m not sure that was what he did at Atlético Madrid.
I suspect (hope) he knows very well which players he has in mind and it’s the media that is generating the storm of names that’s circulating now. I assume he’ll have more than one player on his list of strikers though as he can’t be sure of securing the top choice.
This case in particular may call for a smoke screen, can’t fault Berta if that’s the case.
Apparently it is exactly what he did at Atletico.
Here’s how it works:
1. The number of clubs actively looking to buy players in the same role you’re recruiting for, in the price range and at the level needed for a top club, is naturally limited in any given window. There’s maybe 15 clubs across Europe that meet the general criteria of big-spending clubs. Only a couple of those will actually be serious competition for a player at any given time, due to factors like club strategies and budgets, or player/seller-side preferences.
2. Identify a few players for the position needed who are, or might be, on the market from selling clubs.
3. Make it known that you’re going for more than one target, so the selling clubs are put on the spot – they know that they will risk missing out on a killer sale if they make it too difficult. You’re now the customer, effectively generating competition from the selling clubs.
5. If one of the preferred targets is acquired by another of the buying clubs, there is suddenly less supply available from the few remaining other buyers for the remaining players on the market – and you can probably negotiate a better deal.
Now, you might think that the sudden “restricted supply of top players” pushes the price of the remaining player up, as the remaining buyers compete for them. But of course most buying clubs won’t want to get into a serious bidding war over a player OPTION (obviously there are exceptions…). So from the perspective of a selling club, it’s most often the opposite, simply because the supply of funds for *them* is with the buying clubs. Those clubs don’t absolutely NEED to buy their player. They will almost always have a certain budget, and a list of potentials. If the seller tries to bully the competing buying clubs, those clubs can easily just switch to other targets, and they miss out on a deal.
That’s why we have more than one rumoured top target for the striker role. If we can’t get ANY of those somehow, we can always fall back to another plan, whether that be buying a stopgap, a development player, or not buying anyone at all.
Of course, it won’t always work. But it helped him get a lot of top players for Atletico…
Gyokers maybe on strike to force through a move, but he has changed his position so often like a cat on a hot tin roof.
I am so tired of these rumours now, I think I am going to ignore all articles regarding Sesko/Gyokeres until there’s concrete reports.
It’s feeding too much into my procrastination!
Same here. There’s an illustrative article on Football365 which about sums it up. Their catchy headline is:
Arsenal: Romano reveals key next step for Gyokeres deal amid ‘agreed contract’; one detail to ‘clarify’.
However, when you read the article, the “one detail”, a trifle really, I suppose, is his price tag!