Arsenal are preparing for the biggest summer in the club’s history, with a record amount of money ready to be spent at the Emirates Stadium.
Manager Mikel Arteta has missed out on the title for a third season running, with semi-final exits in the Champions League and League Cup compounding matters for a Gunners side who have been touted as capable of challenging for the big honours.
But with Arsenal having hired sporting director Andrea Berta in March, it appears that the Italian is set to overhaul the squad and deliver big buys to give Arteta the best chance possible next term.
Arsenal planning huge rebuild that could see seven new faces join
All season long, Arsenal have been criticised for their 2024 summer transfer business in which they spent around £100 million on Riccardo Calafiori, Mikel Merino and David Raya last summer, while making substantial sales in the form of Emile Smith Rowe, Eddie Nketiah and Aaron Ramsdale.
With Arteta clearly needing attacking impetus midseason, the North Londoners failed to sign anyone, preferring to wait until this summer: as a result, their title challenge withered away, with Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher writing in his Telegraph column that prioritising the Merino buy over a forward cost Arsenal a trophy.
While Arsenal needed to sell last summer to comply with Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), their much-maligned plan to hold their nerve in the transfer market may result in huge spending this summer.
Transfer expert Ben Jacobs has told GIVEMESPORT that Arsenal’s spending could well reach a whopping £300m this summer, with seven new buys lined up by Berta and scope for the Gunners’ transfer record to perhaps be broken.
Real Sociedad lynchpin Martin Zubimendi, ranked at no.5 in FourFourTwo’s list of the best defensive midfielders in the world right now, is all but confirmed to join, with the report naming fellow Spaniards Nico Williams and Joan Garcia as serious targets.
The report lists another left-back and a striker as being two priorities this summer, while a backup for Bukayo Saka and an “all-action central midfielder” are wanted, too.
FourFourTwo understands, however, that this spend may look a little different on paper: for example, Zubimendi, Williams and Garcia all have release clauses, which Arsenal will look to amortise rather than pay in full.
It is likely, too, that the figure of £300m is simply the figure Arsenal could invest, rather than a net spend, as a new left-back, for example, will be dependent on the futures of Jakub Kiwior and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
The club are certainly in a promising position when it comes to the amount they can spend, having accumulated good fees last summer for Hale End graduates – while Declan Rice may have inadvertently prevented the Gunners from spending big last summer.
According to Sky Sports, the midfielder’s fee was split into instalments over 24 months: usually, clubs stagger these payments over the length of a contract – in Rice’s case, five years – but this deal would have seen Arsenal around £33m a year up until this summer, instead.
The Emirates Stadium hosts Newcastle United this weekend, when Premier League action returns.
