The Arsenal team of Mikel Arteta will look a bit different next season and the manager works together with the higher ups of the club to bring the Gunners in good condition for a title TILT
A dive of £ 51 million for Martin Zubimendi will not be the end of the big decisions of Arsenal this summer, where the Gunners want to follow the new signature with a contract extension for one of their most important men. The current deal of the Center-back Gabriel Magalhaes runs until 2027, but the side of Mikel Arteta is fast to agree on new conditions.
Zubimendi is supposed to have performed a medical medical for his great movement this week. La Real's Top Brass has made a desperate last attempt to change the mind of the midfielder, but he seems to connect to come back with former colleagues Mikel Merino and Martin Odegaard in North London.
It would be the first major deal of the Andrea Berta era, after the new sports director arrived halfway through the season. However, there is also work underway behind the scenes with Gabriel, with BBC Sport who reports that an agreement is now close.
Efforts are made to speed up Gabriel's expansion to get rid of one potential headache. His colleague-back-back William Saliba is without a contract that same summer, and the Gunners seem determined to prevent both players from running his deal.
Saliba has attracted the interest of Real Madrid. The Spanish side has already landed Dean Huijsen this summer and it is still to see whether this has an impact on their pursuit of the French International.
Gabriel missed the run-in due to injury, but is expected to be back in time for the new season. A hamstring injury kept him out of the knockout matches of Champions League against Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, where PSG eventually eliminated Arsenal in the semi-final stage.
The club also had significant problems with the injury to attacks and there could be more investments there. Benjamin Sesko and Viktor Gyokeres seem to be the most likely recruits, with the qualification of Newcastle's Champions League that makes an Alexander Isak -so harder.
“In the coming days we will have enough time to discuss the topics that you probably suspect, and we will do it in the right environment. Today it was about the game,” Arteta said reporters on Sunday after being asked about his conversations with co-chairman Josh Kroenke at Arsenal's last game of the season.
He also discussed the attacking needs of the club and said: “To achieve that, many things have to happen. The team must offer, that player must play a certain amount of minutes and games.
“Believe me, we are on it,” he continued. “We will try to squeeze and think and turn every stone that we can, to make this club even more successful. But I think what these guys did, the team did, with regard to everything that happened, I repeat myself, I think they earn a lot of praise.”