Coach Mikel Arteta has broken his silence, demanding that Arsenal continue to spend money to upgrade the squad in preparation for the new season. The impatience is palpable in the Spanish strategist.
Last summer, Arsenal spent a lot of money to recruit Arteta with 3 new players including Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber. After that, they also borrowed goalkeeper David Raya from Brentford. The results are clear to everyone when the Gunners with quality players created a fair competition with Man City until the last round of the Premier League. Although they once again won the runner-up position, Arsenal showed that as long as they have a good enough force, they can absolutely make things happen.
That’s why many Arsenal fans expect their favorite team to have another explosive summer transfer window, with many quality new players aiming to conquer titles in the 2024/25 season. However, Arsenal have been relatively quiet so far in the summer of 2024. They have only spent £27m on goalkeeper Raya, and are trying to complete the signing of defender Riccardo Calafiori from Bologna.
When asked about the need to upgrade the squad, Arteta said: “We have to. Perfection in this league requires different standards. To turn that perfection into winning the Premier League, that’s what we have to do.
We need to improve everything we do. We have to improve in every aspect and that’s what we’re trying to do. I don’t know if there will be any new players. There’s still a lot of time in the transfer market but I think that’s a question for Edu and the board.”
In addition to Calafiori, Arsenal are said to be interested in a few other players in the Premier League, notably the striker trio Viktor Gyokeres (Sporting Lisbon), Alexander Isak (Newcastle) and Ivan Toney (Brentford). However, so far, everything has only stopped at the level of rumors and there has been no progress. This clearly makes coach Arteta impatient because if you look at other competitors in the Premier League, most of them have new players.
Except for Liverpool who are also “standing still”, other clubs in the “traditional Big Six” group including Man City, MU, Chelsea and Tottenham have all made additions. With Man City, they recently announced their first contract, winger Savio from Troyes. MU has also been very quick to get themselves 2 “new soldiers”, center-back Leny Yoro from Lille and striker Joshua Zirkzee from Bologna.
Chelsea is not worth discussing, because this team is always ahead in the transfer market. So far, The Blues have brought in 6 new players including Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Omari Kellyman, Renato Veiga, Caleb Wiley, Marc Guiu and Tosin Adarabioyo. Of these, only Adarabioyo arrived at Stamford Bridge on a free transfer. Finally, Tottenham – Arsenal’s “neighbor” – welcomed 2 new players, the central midfielder duo Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray.
Looking at this, it can be seen that most of the top Premier League teams are relatively well prepared for the new 2024/25 season, while Arsenal seem to be somewhat out of sync. If they successfully recruit center-back Calafiori, the Gunners will have a quality reinforcement for their defense. However, that is certainly not enough for coach Arteta to feel secure.
If we watched Arsenal last season, even without much expertise, we can easily see which positions they need more new players. First up is certainly the attack, where Kai Havertz’s late-season brilliance has not been enough to cover for the Gunners. Gabriel Jesus has been inconsistent, while Eddie Nketiah has never been a reliable option.
Moving down into midfield, Arsenal need a quality midfielder to back up Rice. Last season, the former West Ham star had to plough through one arena after another without rest. Arteta would certainly like to give Rice “time to breathe” but he simply lacks good enough cards. Luckily Rice has been fit and injury-free, otherwise who knows what could have happened to Arsenal.
In 2024/25, Arsenal certainly cannot continue to gamble with Rice’s health like that, especially in the context of having to play more matches due to the expanded Champions League format. In addition, Arsenal also need to have a backup plan for the wings, especially on the right wing, where Bukayo Saka is currently the only quality name.
The 2024 Summer transfer window is just over a month away, and Arsenal need to speed up before it’s too late.
