Mikel Arteta has warned Arsenal’s rivals that the club has long been planning for this summer’s transfer window to be “a big one”, as he revealed his “excitement” at the prospect of strengthening his squad.
Arsenal are preparing to invest heavily in increasing the depth of their first-team and the quality of their attack, with a new centre-forward high on the agenda after consecutive windows in which they were unable to recruit a striker.
They are also expecting to sign Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi, who could cost around £50 million, and are regarded by sources in Spain as the strong favourites to sign Espanyol goalkeeper Joan García. Norwegian teenager Sverre Nypan, a target in January, is also understood to remain of interest.
RB Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko, Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak, Sporting CP’s Viktor Gyokeres and Athletic Bilbao winger Nico Williams are all players who are either long-term targets for Arsenal or could become options this summer.
Arsenal’s financial firepower has been significantly boosted by their return to the Champions League in recent seasons, and they posted record revenues of more than £600 million in their latest financial accounts. They were restrained in their spending last summer, when their net spend on transfers was only around £20 million.
Arsenal’s recruitment efforts will be led by new sporting director Andrea Berta, who has now officially started in his role as the replacement for the departed Edu Gaspar. The Italian was working from Arsenal’s London Colney headquarters on Monday.
“We want to increase the depth of the squad but as well we want to increase the quality and the skills that we need to go to the next step,” said Arteta. “It’s going to be a big one [summer] and we are very excited about it.”
Arsenal have undergone a near-complete overhaul of their squad since Arteta’s appointment in 2019 and the Spaniard said the plan is to now improve the fine margins of the team rather than transform the entire squad again. He admitted, though, that it could be a costly process.
“In the beginning there were a lot of players with three-, four- or five-year contracts, so the turnaround of the squad and how you visualise the next three, four, five years, are very dependent on what is going to happen here [with those players],” said Arteta.
“So I think they were very different [windows, compared to this summer]. The way you start to evolve, you start to master certain things and compete for certain things, then the changes cannot be that much. That’s where we are. The line now is thinner, the margins are smaller. But the cost of that, as well, increases.”
Among the priorities for Arteta and Berta will be new contracts for their key players. From the end of this season, Bukayo Saka, William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes will all have two years remaining on their contracts, while new deals are also required for teenage stars Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly.
“It’s a big summer ...
