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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Mark Jones

Managing Arsenal as Declan Rice signs, nine leave and Mikel Arteta raids Leicester

For Arsenal, the focus is clear.

This current set of Gunners players find themselves heading into this weekend eight points ahead of Manchester City in the table, and possessing a golden opportunity to win the club's first league title since 2004.

No-one of an Arsenal persuasion will be thinking too much about the summer transfer market right now, so we've done that for them.

Because while Mikel Arteta's squad have been superb this season they can certainly still improve in a number of areas, and there is plenty of business to be done in the summer.

So after we ran the rule over both Liverpool and Manchester United in recent weeks, it's time to play Managing Arsenal .

Saying goodbye

There are several players that the Gunners have loaned out this season who should now be deemed surplus to requirements at the club.

Their sales should be able to raise some valuable transfer cash for Arteta, who should easily be able to find buyers for most of them.

Nicolas Pepe needs to call time on his association with the club, with a permanent move to Nice surely a likely possibility, with Ainsley Maitland-Niles is another who needs to go and play some football after his loan spell at Southampton.

Nicolas Pepe is likely to leave permanently in the summer (AFP via Getty Images)

Cedric Soares , Nuno Tavares , Alex Runarsson and Pablo Mari are four more who are Arsenal players in name only and can go, and while selling Albert Sambi Lokonga is something that needs to be thought about long and hard given his high ceiling, it might just be better if he goes given who'll be coming in.

Kieran Tierney is one that could certainly stay and be a valued member of the squad, but he's had his injury issues and has been completely usurped by Oleksandr Zinchenko at left-back.

Takehiro Tomiyasu can cover there too, so if there is a sufficient bid for the Scotsman then I'd look at selling him and raising some cash.

The most difficult goodbye could well be that of Reiss Nelson , but there are times when clubs need to show that they don't stand in a player's way, and he deserves to go and get game time somewhere.

Incomings

And so to the headline act.

Getting Declan Rice out of West Ham won't be an easy task, but it is something that the Gunners look to have made some progress on already and it would clearly be an excellent signing.

The England man could operate either at the base of the midfield or as a No.8 in an upgrade on Granit Xhaka, who I'd still keep around, and at the age of 24 this would appear to be the perfect move for him at the perfect time.

He won't be cheap, but Arsenal should move heaven and earth to make the signing happen.

Timothy Castagne could be a useful addition from Leicester (Getty Images)

Elsewhere there isn't too much major surgery to be done on the squad, and while some may want a forward I'd commit to the return of Folarin Balogun and trust in him to add to the striking ranks.

That only really leaves the full-back positions to ponder, and if we're saying that Tomiyasu can cover for Zinchenko on the left and Ben White on the right, a specialist attacking right-back might be a handy addition.

It's here that I'd borrow from the Leandro Trossard playbook and look at his Belgium teammate Timothy Castagne from Leicester, who gets forward frequently, has an occasional goal in him and looks to me as though he can step up play for a bigger side, having already tasted Champions League football with Atalanta.

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