Arsenal sit top of the table and eight points clear of second-placed Manchester City. Their season has surprised everyone and the business done in both the summer and January transfer windows has directly benefited the club’s ambitions for the season.
Mikel Arteta has been able to unify a group once fractured by bad characters and wantaway players to a side captained by the embodiment of his footballing philosophy in Martin Odegaard and filled with young rising stars and experienced world-class leaders. No matter how the season ends, the challenge is to make this season far more than a surprise and establish the club back at the top for seasons to come.
The summer transfer market will be the first indication of how this stunning campaign will impact the potential changes to the group. Both regarding the potential stars now attracted to a project that, as predicted, has gone, “Bang!” But also how sporting director Edu Gaspar reworks the group with some difficult decisions to be made regarding outgoings.
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With all that in mind, football.london is playing the game of managing Arsenal themselves and looks at the decisions that we think should be made to achieve the goal of cementing the club’s place back at the top. You can check out the inspiration from The Mirror’s managing Man Utd here.
Making the tough calls
Had you said a year ago that Arsenal would be looking to maximise the potential sale of Kieran Tierney many might have questioned your judgement. However, after the arrival and establishment as the starting left-back of Oleksandr Zinchenko, the Scot’s departure almost looks like a foregone conclusion.
A number of clubs such as Newcastle United, Aston Villa and even Real Madrid have been mentioned as potential suitors for Tierney. Yet Edu needs to ensure the Gunners make a profit on the £25million they paid for him in 2019 and consider the impact of allowing him to move to a rival.
There are a number of players returning from loan who the club need to find permanent pathways out of the club. Nicolas Pepe, the record signing, has not lived up to expectations and a recent injury at Nice has stunted his progression back in Ligue 1 but with eight goals in the league to his name perhaps there is some money to be made, but with one year remaining on his deal it is going to be a challenge.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles returns from Southampton where he has been used by as many as three different coaches on the south coast this season in a disappointing relegation-threatened campaign for the Saints. With one year on his deal too, Edu might need to assess a limited number of options with a likely low financial reward for securing his exit.
Alex Runarsson, Cedric Soares, Nuno Tavares, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Auston Trusty are all likely to need to be found exits in the summer after returning from loan deals. Pablo Mari, with Monza 15 points clear of relegation should see an obligatory purchase clause in his contract activated for helping the Serie A side avoid the drop.
Outside of the obvious candidates though there are some players whose exits might split the fan base. Reiss Nelson’s deal is up in the summer and although football.london understands the club have opened discussions, there’s yet to be progress on that front; with Marquinhos enjoying a good early start to his loan at Norwich City, would Nelson’s renewal block the Brazilian’s potential progression?
Then there’s Folarin Balogun who is close to becoming the highest-scoring English player in Ligue 1 history for a single season. With Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah on long-term deals, it is difficult to see a way back unless Arteta promotes him above at least one of them and then that raises questions about the other.
Should a very flattering bid come in for Balogun, upwards of £35million in my view, it should be seriously considered with the potential to add a stylistically different option in place to provide variation in the options available up top. Otherwise, give him a shot and see what happens.
Rob Holding is the final one. The club has benefited from his substitutions as a ‘closer’ helping to secure points and wins in the final ten-to-fifteen but as the club looks to sit at the top table for the foreseeable future, William Saliba needs a player who can push him and fulfil the role closer to that of the Frenchman leaving Holding as a sellable asset this summer.
Promotion and chances
Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Nketiah and Nelson. If you look at the current Arsenal squad you find it littered with talent that has earned promotion from the Hale End academy.
Every season the club must look to its own burgeoning starlets and assess who deserves the chance to make the step into the first team. With the aforementioned potential leavers, this opens up gaps in the defence and midfield in particular.
The most obvious candidate is Charlie Patino. The England youth international has spent the season on loan with Blackpool where he is trying to help the club avoid relegation.
He has already made his senior competitive debut for the club and even has a start in the FA Cup under Arteta. This summer the preseason will be critical to showing he can make that step, or a loan to the Premier League might be the better pathway at this stage but his contract situation does not make it easy.
Other loanees include attacking midfielder Marcelo Flores (Real Oviedo) centre-back Omar Rekik (Wigan Athletic) right-back Brooke Norton-Cuffy (Coventry City) and Miguel Azeez (Wigan Athletic). The Gunners have plenty more but this quartet are the most senior in the group.
Flores had a two-year extension activation in his deal but another loan makes the most sense now. Whereas Rekik and Azeez at Wigan continually see a potential future at Arsenal slipping away somewhat after a number of disappointing temporary spells away.
Norton-Cuffy is an interesting one and could provide the variation at right-back that does not exist with Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu. However, he remains quite raw and the Championship level is testing him well, therefore, perhaps another loan but to the Premier League next season will provide the best indication of whether he will make it with the Gunners.
Within the youth sides, Ethan Nwaneri, Lino Sousa, Reuell Walters, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Amario Cozier-Duberry are the highest rated. Should Arsenal secure their futures then loans to the senior level could be the next step needed to test their futures.
Silly season and incomings
Right then, this is where we get to do some informed extrapolation. Or, put more simply, smart guesswork.
Although there’s some information regarding the potential transfer targets Arsenal have in mind, often how the window concludes and what plan the club might have, ends up diverging somewhat. football.london understands that Declan Rice is the club’s primary target and that the Gunners remain interested in Moises Caicedo despite their failed January pursuit and his subsequent contract renewal.
Martin Zubimendi remains on the club's radar and there’s also scope to reinforce the forward line and defence. The potential exits of Tierney, Tavares, Holding and Cedric would create a necessity to bring in players to rival the existing starters.
Interest was present in January for exciting young full-back Ivan Fresneda. Described to football.london as a midfielder masquerading as a right-back, the similarities to Zinchenko are obvious and so the links make sense and therefore a move for the youngster with White and Tomiyasu ahead of him would be a great opportunity.
Should Arsenal sell Balogun as discussed earlier it could open up a slot in the forward line. With the injuries to both Jesus and Nketiah, it has arguably revealed how thin the squad can look with just two options; although Leandro Trossard’s arrival has helped that.
But the squad has always lacked a greater physical presence since Olivier Giroud moved to Chelsea. Perhaps the sale of Balogun, or Nketiah even, could open the door to a move for a budding young striker who offers some verticality and the dominant name right now is Rasmus Hojlund.
The 6’1 Dane is grabbing headlines for his hat-trick for Denmark on his third senior appearance. The 20-year-old has got seven goals in Serie A already despite only moving from Austrian side Sturm Graz in the summer.
Lastly is the centre-half position. Should Holding leave, finding a player who can provide greater competition whilst knowing that the Frenchman is almost certain to play the majority of games so Edu effectively needs to find a right-sided Jakub Kiwior whose done exactly this job for Gabriel Magalhaes.
With Holding out though, there’s an argument the backline lacks some experience and maybe targeting a player in the latter stages of their career would make them more amenable to being a competitor with Saliba. As opposed to convincing another young star in desperate need of regular game time to come in and sit on the bench.
Chelsea have had success with Thiago Silva and perhaps Arsenal could take a leaf out of their book. Perhaps looking into the free agent market might be the way to approach it financially with Inter Milan’s 31-year-old Stefan de Vrij out of contract this summer and 33-year-old Nacho Fernandez of Real Madrid who has impressed this season and earned his spot but also sees his contract expire in the summer and could be tempted by a new experience.
Although last year’s window was seen as the most important in the club’s history, arguably the season that follows this monster of a season could be even greater. Ensuring the long-term survival of the club’s competitiveness at the top will be the mission and one that must not fail.
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