Fabrizio Romano claims that Arsenal’s striker search will continue until the summer, but that a midfielder’s arrival is ‘the focus’.
The Gunners are linked with a number of targets as we are ahead of each transfer window, but our striker situation has many convinced that our next big signing will be coming up front.
With rumours of potential exits for all four of Eddie Nketiah, Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Folarin Balogun, with the latter’s departure most likely to be on a temporary basis, you could be forgiven for believing our front-line would have to be the priority in the coming window, but the ‘In the know’ journalist claims otherwise.
“The focus for Arsenal in January is the opportunities in the midfield,” Romano told the Here We Go podcast.
“We’ve said about the striker situation. They already started to look for a new striker for 2022.
“There is a possibility [of a signing] in January if they find the right opportunity but the January transfer market is difficult. For summer 2022, Arsenal’s plan is to find a new striker.
“Let’s see what happens with Aubameyang. They’ll look for opportunities in January but I don’t expect anything big from Arsenal. They signed many players last summer so the focus is the 2022 summer transfer window to go for a new midfielder and a new striker. This is the plan of Arsenal.”
I think we would all love to see another central midfielder brought in, but we also want to see more of Lokonga who has shown plenty of ability in his opening months in north London.
A new striker on the other-hand something that we need desperately however, and while Lacazette is currently in form, his cconsistency in front of goal has left a lot to be desired since his arrival at the Emirates.
Patrick
A top quality defensive midfielder should be our first priority ,but as Arteta seems settled on the current 4-2-3-1 set up , that is unlikely to happen.The current midfield of Partey, Xhaka and Odegaard is in my opinion lacking in pace and energy, which is why our performance invariably drops off in the second half of matches.Arteta needs to recognise this and make substitutions in this area much earlier than he has done.Lokonga is a very promising box to box midfielder whilst AMN has at least pace and energy.These guys, should be trusted to take over from Xhaka and Odegaard whenever they tire.To keep Xhaka on the pitch, particularly after his horrendous tackle on Raphina, was to me crazy and was asking for trouble.
100% we need a top DM, haven’t had one since Gilberto.
Who would he replace though? I know who I’d replace but I’m 99.99% sure MA won’t replace him so who would make way in your opinion Grandad?
This is the main reason I want Xhaka gone…it’s not that he’s a bad player but at the same time him being here is stopping us upgrading where we need to upgrade. If Xhaka became a squad player no problem but that will never happen.
I would certainly replace Xhaka ,who ,despite having a good first half against Leeds, showed his true colours in the second.Personally I favour the 4-3-3 system used by Man City and Liverpool which rotates around a dedicated DM.In this way we could use Partey , Lokonga,Tavares and perhaps ESR on occasion in box to box roles.The players are there but will Arteta use them in these roles, or will be persist with Xhaka and Odegaard who cannot cover the ground quickly and are very limited defensively.
Grandad I hope Arteta uses the cup games to try out different variations of the said system because to some extent we have the personel to execute that system. Although young and untested, we never can tell
Grandad i disagree with your assessment of Odo, but agree with the rest.
If we are going to transit into a 433 We seriously need an upgrade on xhaka. Because he doesnt suit that system for the level we all aspire this team to get to. He is a good player but shouldnt be a starter if we seriously want to get to the next level
Xhaka’s enemies whining, one thing they all said that impresses me. They all agreed he’s a good player, meaning they hate a good player. Maybe they like a bad player, someone worse than Xhaka. LOL !!!
and what impresses me is that none of them can understand that Arteta doesnt keep Xhaka cause he is top player but cause he is or at least was the only “man” among “babies”
I do not feel any hate whatsoever towards Xhaka. I just feel he is not good enough for a team which has aspirations to regain its top four status.
Was this comment written by a 6 year old?
Xhaka is good, against average and bad teams….he almost always struggles against the good teams.
Why have someone that’s just average/good when you could have a great player…or maybe you don’t like great players?
Explain how we climbed up the table so well without Xhaka? Or is he bigger than the club?
I watched Xhaka against Leeds, and he was slow on the ball in the second half, and was frequently dispossessed.
I think that several teams in the EPL are just too quick for him.
So, I will repeat again, we need a good ball playing DM.
It was a pity we could not get Neves from Wolves, I think he would have been perfect.
I heard a frightening rumor that we might go for Ramsey in January, talk about slow.