Considering Arsenal fans’ normal experience of January transfer windows, where we are used to seeing very few arrivals but lots of peripheral players being taken off our books, why is everyone expecting to see the Gunners spending zillions this coming window, especially considering how much our outlay was during the summer?
Yes, we all know that we have needed a holding midfielder since the year dot, and we now ‘need’ a striker to replace Jesus, but didn’t we need both of those last January as well?
The facts at the moment is that there is clearly interest in bringing in Mykhalo Mudryk, with the Shakhtar Donetsk vice director Nicolini finally confirming that the Gunners are involved in discussions for the obviously very talented winger.
But the Ukranian winger will not come cheap, and it still remains to be seen whether our budget will stretch any further than that.
Of course, I should also mention that in the summer, Arsenal had a few players out injured, but now we have Elneny as cover for Partey and Xhaka, and it looks like Arteta is confident that Nketiah and a newly-recovered Smith-Rowe will be able to cover for Jesus. As Arteta said: “I think [Jesus] is a unique player but Eddie [Nketiah] has incredible qualities as well for the way we want to play. We have other alternatives in that we can play Martinelli up front as well. We are currently a little bit short in terms of up front positions but getting Emile [Smith Rowe] back is going to be a big one.”
We also have Fabio Vieira now integrated into the squad, and if we get Mudryk as well, surely we will have enough forward and midfield options to cope until Jesus returns to the squad in February?
Should we all be very happy if we bring in one truly exceptional player in January for a big fee, and then keep our powder dry until the summer, when there will be many more ‘exceptional’ players for Arteta to choose from?
Darren N
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