BREAKING: Arsenal announce the signing of £90m attacker with Medical completed and contracts sealed with attacker joining joining Arsenal for £90m as fee from champions League Club – official unveiling tomorrow morning
BREAKING: Arsenal announce the signing of £90m attacker with Medical completed and contracts sealed with attacker joining joining Arsenal for £90m as fee from champions League Club – official unveiling tomorrow morning
Arsenal are being linked with a Premier League winger as they look to strengthen their attack this summer. Mikel Arteta has plenty of business to do this summer, although that business will be led by Andrea Berta, who is hard at work on new recruits.
The Gunners are expected to make Martin Zubimendi as their first signing of the summer, with the midfielder expected to join on a deal worth around £53million from Real Sociedad. After that, Arsenal are expected to bring in a back-up goalkeeper and then prioritise attacker deals, with a striker and a winger high on the list of needs.
Out wide, Arsenal need a starting-calibre player who can genuinely challenge Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli. Arteta did not get the best out of Martinelli, in particular, last season, and that was likely down to the fact he was never really in fear of being dropped. Leandro Trossard is a good option, but he is not a starter for a title team.
Arteta and Berta will look to address that this summer, although there aren’t too many top-level wingers available, and that means most options will be very pricey. Nico Williams looks likely to join FC Barcelona, and the situation with most players is made complicated by the fact other top clubs like Chelsea and Bayern Munich are also shopping for wingers this summer.
According to The Athletic, one player Arsenal are considering is Newcastle United winger Anthony Gordon, who is being looked at alongside Real Madrid wideman Rodrygo. The issue in both cases is the likely asking price, and in Gordon’s case, the asking price could be around £100million, according to reports earlier this summer.
That should come as no surprise, especially given Newcastle see Arsenal as a direct rival, making business between the two clubs harder to pull off. Such a fee would surely be too much of a stretch for the Gunners given the amount of money they will likely have to spend on a striker and other positions this summer.
Gordon scored nine and assisted seven across all competitions for Newcastle last season.
Gordon and Howe’s strong relationship
Another factor in a possible deal is the strong relationship Gordon has with his manager Eddie Howe. The winger said after the club’s Carabao Cup win over Arsenal last season: “Everyone knows that we don’t change too much and that we like to press, but the gaffer altered it slightly and it worked to perfection. They struggled with us on the counter-attack because they couldn’t really pick me or Murph [Jacob Murphy] up.
“Alex [Isak} just does what he does and is always a threat. The gaffer deserves all of the credit. It was also probably the biggest game of my career and now it will be my first game at Wembley at club level, so it is really exciting. I live for the big moments in the big games because it does bring the best out of me.”
Howe said in response to that: “I didn’t know Anthony had said that – I’m pleased he did because he’s not mentioning himself in that, so he’s passing the praise somewhere else, which I always think is a good thing.”
