Arsenal have made mistakes with their recruitment for some time up to and partly during the tenure of Mikel Arteta as manager. A lot of effort has been put into improving the quality of players that the club has signed, and this has been evident in the past two summers.
Much of the work has focused on moving out players from previous Arsenal regimes and assessing where the needs to ensure the same mistakes are not made again. The signing of Nicolas Pepe from Lille for a record fee of £72 million has unfortunately proven not to have been a success.
Speaking recently, Pepe discussed one of the biggest barriers preventing him from reaching his maximum at the club. Prior to the end of the season, Pepe admitted that communication had proved a challenge.
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“I am focused on how well we do until the end of the season and the club’s target, which is getting into the Champions League. Then we will see what happens.
“Mikel Arteta has explained that to me and the coach knows what I think and how hard I’m working. It is also about communication. Sometimes it’s not easy to communicate with the language barrier. It has been a tough season for me.
“Of course, it is frustrating not to play. No player enjoys not playing but I have to respect the coach’s decision and the team is doing well at the moment.”
football.london understands that Pepe’s change of agent was designed to aid in a move away from north London this summer. Perhaps a return to France is possible considering the language factor in Pepe’s concerns.
This is relevant to the work being undertaken by Arteta and Arsenal this summer. Whilst it is impossible to sign players that only speak English, there appears to be a strategy emerging at looking toward players who speak similar languages.
Brazilian and Portuguese players have been and look to be more so part of the plan for Arsenal. Under Arteta Arsenal have signed Nuno Tavares, Cedric Soares, Gabriel Magalhaes, Willian and Marquinhos so far. Pablo Mari was also signed from Brazil playing for Flamengo.
There are expected to be further additions with Portuguese attacking midfielder Fabio Vieira expected to be announced as an Arsenal player very soon. Two other of Arsenal targets are Gabriel Jesus and Raphinha, the two Brazilian internationals are thought to be high up on the club’s list of priorities.
The trio have a combined reported total cost reaching £131.2 million. With moves for further players such as Lisandro Martinez and Youri Tielemans a possibility, it looks set to be an expensive summer for the club.
However, the trend of Portuguese-speaking and English top flight-experienced players is a continuing thread of the work done in the market by Arteta and Edu. Perhaps any potential surprise additions between now and the end of the window can also expect to be in this mould.
