Arsenal will be heavily involved in the transfer market this summer, because they offer to sign a new attacker they desperately need and keep an eye on Mikel Arteta in particular
The need for a striker at the highest level is clearly obvious for every Arsenal fan. And now, finally, the club has woken up from the need to get a center at all costs this summer.
Unbelievable, Arsenal has only signed one striker in the last seven years, despite the fact that he spent nearly £ 700 million on new signing sessions during the five and a half year rule of Mikel Arteta.
Gabriel Jesus arrived in the summer of 2022 for £ 50 million from Manchester City and while Kai Havertz was played in front, he was originally signed as a midfielder. It emphasizes a blind spot in the vision of Arteta for his team and has turned out to be enormous supervision and the reason why Arsenal fell so short this season.
They are determined to get a NO9 of top quality and Arsenal's new sports director Andrea Berta is responsible for supplying a center to get the goals to deliver trophies.
Sporting Lisbon striker Viktor Gyokeres is high on their shortlist, while Arteta remains a huge admirer of Alexander Isak from Newcastle and RB Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko is a long-term target.
Isak can be out of reach this summer for Arsenal, because Newcastle does not want to sell and believe that Champions League football will be their asset. Sesko has young people by his side and, as at Isak, is fast, Agile and Arsenal know that he would be interested in having held extensive discussions last summer before he finally decided to sit.
But what Gyokeres offers are goals – 98 in 100 performances for sports – and although the Portuguese League is far from the Premier League requirements, he has Champions League experience and proven quality. This season is very much lacking in the forward options of Arsenal and, to prove it, none of their attackers even got double digits in the Premier League this season.
Unbelievable, Havertz is still the Nine Doal Top Scorer – and not only is he not a natural striker, but he has been out since February. That's just amazing. Bukayo Saka has missed a huge part of the season, while Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli both have eight goals, but his broad players. Jesus is out with a long -lasting knee injury.
It is so obvious where Arsenal's problems are and that raises great questions about recruitment last summer and also their failures to get a striker in January. Arteta became pretty hirty last week in his press conference before the competition when he questioned the Spits search and the failure to get one.
It cannot all fall on him, but the Arsenal manager certainly defended the signing of Mikel Merino and Riccardo Calafiori last summer for a combined £ 75 million and he also wanted Raheem Sterling in the last beats of the window.
Sterling has hardly played and recorded a loan spot that could have been used in January. Calafiori was injury sensitive in Italy and has been again. Merino looks a good squadron player and did a work as a striker for emergency situations, but they really needed a good no. 9.
Yet it is quite comical that their first summer agreement will probably be Martin Zubimendi from Sociedad and, although he is a top class Spain International, he is a defensive midfielder.
After a season in which they shouted at a striker, it is ironic that they will end up with another midfielder. Maybe they can get one left back for a good extent. They also want a left wing player – Athletic Bilbao's Nico Williams is on their list – to offer opportunities for their new striker.
But the pressure has never been greater than now to deliver a new No. 9. The last striker they signed before the seven-year-old bald spell in January 2018 was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
The big irony with that was that many fans asked: “Why do we need him?” Because they already had Alexandre Lacazette. Aubameyang then scored many goals and helped Arsenal to win the FA Cup before he was moved further. Now only one striker will do it. And he can't come soon enough.
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