Arsenal are looking to move decisively and early in this shortened summer transfer window…and their plans are exciting.
With the season set to get under way at Crystal Palace in early August, the pressure has been on sporting directors, managers, and transfer wheeler-dealers to get their negotiations up and running quickly.
And it looks like Edu, Vinai, Mikel and the Kroenkes are doing just that.
With the arrival of Fabio Vieira, the Gunners signalled their attacking intent and the reported £30million fee is no token amount. Brazilian youngster Marquinhos is set to join from Sao Paulo and American stopper Matt Turner is also new on the books – making for a fast start for the Gunners.
But it doesn’t look like it’s going to end there.
It’s no secret that negotiations for Gabriel Jesus are well-advanced with Manchester City and an official bid has also been submitted to Leeds for Raphinha, albeit having been swiftly rebuffed. There is also widely reported interest in Leicester’s Youri Tielemans and left-back Lisandro Martinez from Ajax.
It’s incredibly unlikely the Gunners have the funds and the time available to pull all of those deals out the bag but the scale of ambition is admirable and exciting.
More than mere squad fodder, the majority of those signed will add genuine quality and be fighting for a starting berth. After a serious and sustained run at the Champions League places last season, expectations will be heightened.
It’s been clear for the last 18 months that Arteta and Edu have been pursuing a particular transfer strategy and the targets so far identified and, indeed, those already brought on board, point to a continuation of that strategy and over-arching plan.
In his most testing periods last season, belief in that plan bought the manager in particular some extra time and it served to unite the fans behind the team in a way rarely seen over the last decade. Clearly, this summer, Arsenal are looking to build on those foundations.
Of course, there’s still a lot of hurdles to clear and wrangling to be done and we should avoid the trap of counting on a transfer before it has happened but, to Arsenal’s credit, the impetus is there and they have got the tempo right.
Deciding against bringing anyone in during the January transfer window was arguably the defining factor in Arsenal’s ultimate failure to stay the course in their hunt for a top four spot. At that time, we were told that the club would not be rushed or panicked into sacrificing the longer-term plan on a shorter-term gamble.
Now it’s time to make good and show us that that decision, while painful in the immediate term, was exactly the right call for the future.
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