Arsenal Must Find Balance In Transfer Market

Arsenal have gotten off to an exciting start in their summer business with the impending signing of Swiss ace Granit Xhaka. However the Gunners need to maintain balance throughout the summer window.

Arsenal have a long summer ahead, and the North London club we love have already strengthened in midfield, but they certainly need to add potency to the point of attack. As the Gunners look to find balance on on the pitch they will need to ensure that they remain balanced in the market as well.

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What I mean by this is that spending money for the sake of spending money must be avoided. Teams like Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United love to splash cash on players in the summer, but as last season showed us that is not always a formula for success. Furthermore Arsenal must find the perfect balance between potential and ready made players.

Granit Xhaka is an acquisition for the present and the future. He comes in as the heir apparent to Mikel Arteta’s holding role. With a transfer fee of around £30m, we can assume that Xhaka will be in the starting XI at the start of the next season. He is a fantastic player but you probably would not call him one of the top ten midfielders in the world just yet, although he can obviously get there in a season or two. The 23-year-old Swiss pass master surely has the potential to grow into one of the best midfielders in the world. However that does not mean that Arsenal should look to replicate that mold in other areas of the pitch.

For example, it is no great secret that Arsenal need a striker. With the somewhat admirable but ultimately inconsistent contribution of Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck’s injury woes, Arsene Wenger will have his hand forced in the summer. Selecting the correct candidate will be difficult but it is hugely important to get this selection correct.

Some names that have popped up are Romelu Lukaku of Everton, Alvaro Morata of Juventes , Alexandre Lacazette of Lyon, Vincent Janssen of AZ Alkmaar and Gonzalo Higuain of Napoli. These five options represent players at various levels of development.

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Janssen is  very young and exciting  prospect who could one day grow into a lethal scorer. However he is not the ready made article that Arsneal need by any stretch of the imagination. Lacazette and Morata are both clearly skilled players with a lot to offer right away, but both of their price tags will be in the £40-50m range at least. These two players would embody the Xhaka-esque skill level. But if Arsenal are already going to pay possibly over £50m then they need to acquire the finished article.

Higuain and Lukaku are the two players who really fit that bill. Higuain recently shattered the Serie A goal scoring record with 36 goals in 35 games in the competition last season. Lukaku is only the fifth player to ever score 50 premier league goals before the age of 23 and he is the fourth fastest to do so (Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler , Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney). Lukaku may be young but has been getting the job done in England for years now and there will be no transition period for him.

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While Lacazette and Morata have tons of potential, Arsenal can not keep buying potential. The Gunners must balance their transfer strategy, and the team can not acquire the striker equivalent of Granit Xhaka. They need a player who is considered world class right now.