Newcastle legend, Alan Shearer, reckons that Arsenal can ‘kiss goodbye’ to the Premier League title this season if they don’t spend big this summer.
Despite Arsenal spending a club record fee of £52m on Alexandre Lacazette, who Shearer pointed out was sharp against Chelsea in the Community Shield on Sunday, the former Newcastle striker reckons that the Gunners need to spend even more in order to be competitive this season.
“Away from Chelsea’s woes, I am no more optimistic about Arsenal’s hopes this season. It’s nice for them that they won yesterday — another trophy following their FA Cup success over the same opposition in May,” Shearer wrote in his Sun column.
“But I still don’t think it gives them any advantage, psychological or otherwise, over Chelsea in the league.
“And it will hardly stop any criticism that will come towards manager Arsene Wenger and Arsenal if they stutter midway through the season.
“One positive I think they can take from the Wembley game is the performance of Alexandre Lacazette.
“He looked sharp, his link-up play was good and the ball stuck to him.
“The Frenchman will give them something different this season, going in behind, with a bit of pace.
“But Lacazette and yesterday’s goalscorer, Sead Kolasinac, are their only two signings this summer.
“That is not enough for the Gunners if they want to be challenging for the title, which is ultimately what their supporters want.”
The pundit went on to speak about Alexis Sanchez’s contract situation and claims that ‘even if’ the Chilean does stay at Arsenal, which Arsene Wenger insists he will, he still doesn’t see the Gunners winning the title unless they make signings.
So, what signings are there to make?
While I’m very much of the opinion that our weaknesses lie in our tactics and not personnel, a couple of signings this summer would be beneficial.
For example, Monaco winger, Thomas Lemar, has been heavily linked with a move to north London for weeks now. He’s an exciting forward who scored 14 and assisted 17 goals last season and could give the Gunners an edge despite being just 21.
Another player that Arsenal were loosely linked with was Southampton centre-back, Virgil van Dijk. However, that’s looking unlikely.
In a perfect world, Wenger would also sign a replacement for Santi Cazorla.
Arsenal have been linked with Nice midfielder, Jean-Michaël Seri, who’s highly rated and could definitely add something to the current squad.
However, as I said, this isn’t a perfect world and Arsenal don’t have money to burn like some other clubs. Therefore, now that we’ve almost spent £52m on Lacazette, we have to be reasonably careful where our funds go.