An exclusive report in The Telegraph claims that Arsene Wenger will be handed a £75million war chest in the summer, and with that money he plans to sign four players.
Those four players are considered to be a left-back, with Kieran Gibbs set to leave, a central midfield, a centre-back and a striker. The left-back is reported to be Ben Chilwell, a young Leicester City defender that the Gunners have been chasing for some time and he is earmarked as the long-term heir to Nacho Monreal. His likely cost would be £8-12million.
The well-informed Jeremy Wilson believes Arsenal are currently scouting trying to find a physical central midfielder, with N’Golo Kante, Victor Wanyama and William Carvalho all under consideration. Up front, Odion Ighalo and Patrick Pierre Aubameyang are both mentioned.
In central defence, no names are mentioned, but it looks like Wenger is looking for a player with similar experience and natural leadership to Petr Cech. Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker are both approaching the end of their careers, whilst Gabriel Paulista still looks a little rash.
A move for Aubameyang looks extremely unlikely, with his current asking price around £60million. Ighalo may make more sense, he’s clinical, Premier League proven and would cost around £20million. With 14 Premier League goals in a midtable Watford team, Ighalo would be a decent addition to the frontline, but is he enough of an improvement?
If Chilwell costs £10million and Ighalo £20million, that would leave around £45million for a central defender and central midfielder to be signed.
A top class, physical and young central midfielder would be my preference. Someone like Granit Xhaka seems the perfect solution, as he is also very confident in possession.
I wonder if Wenger is keeping one eye on the situation of John Terry, as he alongside Cech would produce obvious on and off field benefits for the team.
It’s worth noting that Jeremy Wilson, the journalist who reported this news, is likely to have been fed this information by the club. It’s feasible they have done this to calm the fans down following yesterday’s extremely poor result.
We’ll have more articles on these reported transfer targets coming up over the next week or so, so stay tuned on Twitter @FreshFootball and at fresharsenal.com.