Going into this transfer window, Arsenal fans were led to believe that the club’s spending would be very minimal.
Over the years, this is something that has frustrated Arsenal fans as the same problems have seemed to crop up every year. With these problems mostly coming at the back end of the pitch, there was yet again demand for players in that area, and thankfully for Arsenal, fans that demanded have been supplied thus far.
As you can see from the image above, Arsenal haven’t had a particularly bad time in the transfer market since the arrival of Unai Emery if you look at the money spent. So far, the likes of Stephan Lichsteiner, Bernd Leno, Sokratis, Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi have entered the club.
However, with these arrivals, it’s most likely that Emery didn’t have as much say as Arsene Wenger would’ve had when it comes to transfers. Instead, along with Ivan Gazidiz who’s been heavily linked to a move to AC Milan, Sven Mislintat and Raul Sanllehi, whose influence on transfers became very apparent upon arrival last season.
With Mislintat, who was dubbed as the ‘diamond eye’ at Dortmund, we’ve seen a mixture of results with his scouting. Since he came in just before the January transfer window last season, we’ve seen three ex-Dortmund players arrive at Arsenal in Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Sokratis.
When looking at the first two of those arrivals, although they are both pushing 30, they have been very sound signings at this moment in time. Aubameyang’s half-a-season was very encouraging as he scored nine and assisted three goals in his 13 Premier League appearances, allowing most to believe that with a full pre-season behind him, a big goal-scoring season is on the way.
The next, however, is Sokratis who comes with a very good reputation as a centre-back. A no-nonsense type that could help strengthen the core of the back-line, this was clearly another Sven signing. Even though this is a signing that, at first, seems very safe, it’ll be interesting to see if Sokratis is able to slot straight into the starting 11 or not.
In his short time at the club, Emery has seemed to take a liking to the prospects already at the club, including Calum Chambers and Rob Holding, so this pre-season could create a great sense of competition for places at the back.
In the images, you can also see Guendouzi who is a youngster who arrived from Lorient for around £7m. He’s believed to be another Sven signing and in midfield, definitely looks like an investment for the future but we are yet to see is true quality having seen very little of him in an Arsenal shirt.
I guess that is the case with all of these signings, however, for those that contributed a heavy amount to that £71.1m, it’s fair to say a lot will be expected of them as the season moves on and how they deal with that expectation will determine whether spending the fifth-most in league was a waste or not.
Surprisingly, when looking above, Arsenal haven’t had to move a whole lot of players out to make these signings, as we might’ve in the past. However, if we are looking to make any more signings, it seems like that would have to be the case as the rumoured amount in the bank was said to be £50m-£70m.
Who makes way could be debatable, but in recent days, we’ve seen that it’s very likely that fan favourite Jeff Reine-Adelaide could be heading on his way out of the club. Also, speculation around Petr Cech, David Ospina and Shkodran Mustafi always seems to hover.
Either way, Arsenal having a negative net spend isn’t a familiar sight, so it’ll be interesting to see if anything changes, as a result, this season.
