Arsenal are looking to sign a winger, a centre-back and a box-to-box midfielder this summer, amid reports that their transfer budget will be slashed by Europa League football.
The Mirror write that Arsenal are looking to sign players in all three positions this summer, with Ryan Fraser the only named target at this stage.
A midfielder is a necessary acquisition given the departure of Aaron Ramsey, the wings look very empty with Denis Suarez’s loan spell failing and Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan having inconsistent seasons, whilst the defence is clearly in need of any help it can get.
According to the Mirror’s report, however, offloading a centre-back or two is going to be key. Given the reported £45m budget and a packed wage bill, offloading the likes of Shkodran Mustafi is the only way they’ll be able to afford a new signing. Clearly, the problem isn’t quantity, given all the centre-backs currently at the club:
- Laurent Koscielny
- Sokratis Papastathopoulos
- Shkodran Mustafi
- Nacho Monreal
- Rob Holding
- Konstantinos Mavropanos
- Calum Chambers
- Krystian Bielik
- Youth centre-backs like Zech Medley, Daniel Ballard and Ben Sheaf
The problem is that there’s hardly one defensive trio in there you really feel Arsenal could rely on. It would be best to make at least three or four sales and invest it all on one big upgrade.
Clearly, Arsenal have to be intelligent in the way they do business this summer, or they’re just going to fall further behind the other top clubs.