The 2023 summer transfer window has already produced excitement for Arsenal supporters.
Kai Havertz became Mikel Arteta’s first new arrival from Chelsea for a fee worth around £65 million on Wednesday. The Gunners have also taken the best possible steps to sign priority target Declan Rice from West Ham, with an offer worth £105m accepted in recent days.
The deal for Jurrien Timber is also edging closer to completion, with the Ajax centre-back already agreeing personal terms ahead of a deal that could reach just over £40m in total. The three deals all-but-complete sporting director Edu Gaspar's checklist for the summer transfer window ahead of the 2023/24 season.
More deals are likely to follow should Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey both leave the club, meaning the North Londoners could see their spending surpass £250m.
For many, Arsenal's investment in the playing squad is a reaction to them missing out on the Premier League title to Manchester City last campaign. However, the business is a perfect example of Josh Kroenke, son of Gunners owner Stan Kroenke, keeping a promise made nearly two years ago to invest in their Premier League team.
In November 2021, Kroenke promised supporters that the club would be "aggressive" in the transfer market following the fallout from the European Super League project.
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After spending over £140m in the summer of 2021, Kroenke assured fans of the ownership's intentions to continue spending on the right players. "Since 2018 we have been as aggressive as we can in our singular ownership of the club," he told the Daily Mail.
"We've refinanced multi-hundreds of million pounds of stadium debt, we've broken transfer records and this past summer we had the highest net spend of anyone in the Premier League.
"Does that mean we're going to keep doing it? I'm not 100 per cent sure. But we're going to continue to be aggressive and when we see areas where we can improve the club on and off the pitch we're going to keep doing it."
And the Kroenkes certainly have. £160m was spent in 2022 bringing in the likes of Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Jorginho. This summer, the Gunners' net spend could easily be within touching distance of the £300m mark.
