Three Top Players Arsenal Almost Signed This Summer

Whilst Arsenal did manage to get a sizeable amount of business done this summer, many of the key weaknesses in the squad were not addressed, leaving fans with a feeling of ‘here we go again’. The opportunities were there, but Arsenal could not get all the necessary deals over the line. Here are three players Arsenal should have signed this summer:

1. William Carvalho – Sporting Lisbon

William Carvalho is a young, powerful and talented Portuguese defensive midfielder, who enjoyed an outstanding campaign for Sporting Lisbon last season. As such, his stock rose considerably, and William Carvalho was linked with transfers to many different teams, including Manchester United and Chelsea. Arsenal were the most strongly-linked however, and there was a profound sense of disappointment amongst the fans when it became clear that Carvalho would not be heading to The Emirates.

The deal appeared to be complicated from the start, with Carvalho being subject of a third-party ownership deal. However, if Arsenal really tried to push the deal through, this should not have been a problem, so cannot be used as an excuse. An altogether more likely reason for the transfer not going through is Arsenal’s unwillingness to match Sporting’s asking price, which started at around £30m, but was reported to have decreased to £25m towards the end of the transfer window. Wenger was clearly interested in the player, but his stubbornness once again shone through.

Arsenal were and are in desperate need of a powerful, combative defensive midfielder, and Carvalho certainly fits the bill. In games such as Manchester City, Liverpool, Everton and Chelsea away last season, it was almost as if the opposition players didn’t even need to try in order to get past Arsenal’s defensive midfielder, which was in most cases Mikel Arteta. Arteta has been a wonderful servant to Arsenal Football Club, but the 32-year-old has clearly not got the legs to be able to be a successful Premier League defensive midfielder any more, which makes Arsenal’s failure to secure William Carvalho all the more disappointing. Click the page numbers below to view the rest of the article.