Crowned champion of England last season and unfortunate finalist in the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal did not intend to be satisfied with their squad. The Gunners have decided to take advantage of the summer to renew several sectors, with the departures of Gabriel Martinelli to Al Hilal, Leandro Trossard to Besiktas or Gabriel Jesus to Barça, but also those of Fabio Vieira and Reiss Nelson, while Ethan Nwaneri was loaned to Dortmund. The serious injury to William Saliba also pushed the club to strengthen its defensive sector. Despite an already very convincing European campaign and a Premier League title won, Arsenal has therefore displayed very great ambitions on the transfer market, with in particular the Vinicius Junior file, which animated the transfer window for several weeks before the Brazilian finally stayed at Real Madrid and extended his contract.
In total, Arsenal recruited well this summer, even if spending remained lower than that of several direct competitors such as Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City and Liverpool. The Londoners notably paid 87 million euros for Bruno Guimarães, 60 million for Ezri Konsa and 40 million for Christos Tzolis, while Illan Meslier arrived for free from Leeds. Operations which are part of a broader strategy, since the Daily Mail now reveals that Arsenal had established a list of 21 players targeted during the transfer window, with particularly prestigious names. In addition to Vinicius Junior, the Gunners had notably ticked off the names of Julián Álvarez, João Pedro, Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Bradley Barcola and Yan Diomande, i.e. several players whose value exceeded or very well approached the 100 million euros mark.
Arsenal absolutely wanted reinforcements in attack
The list obviously didn’t stop at the big stars. Arsenal also followed Sandro Tonali, Elliot Anderson and Morgan Rogers, who respectively left for Tottenham, Manchester City and Chelsea, as well as Kenan Yildiz from Juventus. In addition, the Gunners had identified two players from Como, Nico Paz and Jacobo Ramón, but also Malick Fofana from OL, Jeremy Monga and Louis Page from Leicester City, Ivan Fresneda from Sporting and Tarik Muharemovic from Sassuolo. Finally, three other leads concerned the Premier League: Eli Junior Kroupi and Alex Scott from Bournemouth, as well as Amadou Onana from Aston Villa. A particularly broad list which illustrates the extent of the work carried out by the Arsenal recruitment unit, while certain avenues went very far in the discussions without ever coming to fruition.
Among all these files, that of the attacker was probably the most revealing of London’s intentions, since the Viktor Gyökeres case is starting to seriously worry. Arsenal attempted to recruit a new attacking star, with Vinicius Junior and Julián Álvarez at the top of the list, while Bradley Barcola and Yan Diomande were also among the solutions considered. The Gunners also explored João Pedro, who was declared untransferable by Chelsea, as well as Lautaro Martínez, contacted at the end of the transfer window by Gabriel Heinze, without success. In the end, Arsenal did not add this additional big attacking name, but Mikel Arteta assures that the club achieved its objectives: “satisfied with our transfer window? yes, 100%. »
