Arsenal remain ‘active’ in the transfer window as described by Mikel Arteta in his pre-match press conference leading up to the opening game of the Premier League season against Crystal Palace. Who the club will go for remains the headline topic of discussion even with the season starting.
Fabrizio Romano teased Arsenal supporters with the mention of a mystery winger that the club were looking at. However, when asked more recently on the Que Golazo Podcast if he had discovered anything more he remained coy.
“Good question, I will try to find out and tell you in the coming days,” Romano said. He mentioned links to Moussa Diaby but the identity of the target, it appears, remains cloaked.
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Adding: “So we will see. I’m sure that Arsenal will go with their own ideas, as they did with Vlahovic in January. They wanted Vlahovic, but it was impossible, because the player only wanted to join Juventus, and I think Edu was perfect in that situation. Not wasting money on a striker they weren’t trusting, but waiting and signing Gabriel Jesus in the summer because he was the main target.”
Arteta and Edu have remained very coy about who they are after. The club technical director did speak openly about their prior interest in Raphinha before he moved to Barcelona.
It is clear a winger is on the agenda and interesting the latest insight from the Amazon Prime All or Nothing series supports this. In a clip in episode one, Edu is describing the plan for the remaining part of the summer window in 2021.
He talks of rebalancing the squad and ensuring that there is enough quality and cover in all areas. He references ensuring players move out on the right and that a creative midfielder, Martin Odegaard, was brought in.
“So, we still of course as you’re going to see here, we still think there’s a lot of things to do and when you see that kind of situation (too many options at right-back & right-wing), that’s what I want to do. So, by the end of the transfer window try to clean and rebalance the position.
“As you see Martin is in the building already which is a very important position because before we just had Emile in that position before. Martin gives us a lot of flexibility.”
Fast forward to this summer and Arsenal are needing reinforcement in the attack. On the left, Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith-Rowe are the primary options. On the right, Bukayo Saka and Nicolas Pepe remain although the latter along with Reiss Nelson could still leave.
Up front, Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah provide the number nine options. It feels that there is still room for another winger, especially one with the running and pressing that the current starting front three, who kicked off the games against Chelsea and Sevilla, offer.
Smith-Rowe, Pepe and new boy Fabio Vieira are different to the aforementioned trio. Adding the high-energy attacker could be the ‘rebalance’ that Edu wants to ensure for this summer and Romano’s ‘mystery winger’ suggestion appears to be just that.
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