Arsenal: Overspending detrimental to numbers

The Arsenal squad is in need of some serious investment this summer. However, overspending could be detrimental to numbers of the current players. Investment needs to come, but it needs to be done intelligently.

The new manager, alongside the brain trust of Head of Recruitment, Sven Mislintat, Head of Football Relations, Raul Sanllehi, and Chief Executive, Ivan Gazidis, has a lot of work to do this summer. There are some major holes in this Arsenal squad that are in need of filling.

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It remains to be seen how much money the club actually has to spend. There have been reports that it is as little as £50 million, which would be somewhat concerning. However, what is more important than the amount of money spent is the quality of the money spending.

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In essence, overspending could be detrimental, not only to the betterment of the squad, but also to numbers of individual players already at the club. Take Sunday’s 5-0 win over Burnley and the 2-1 loss to Manchester United the week prior as examples. Four of Arsenal’s best players over the two games were centre-half pairing Calum Chambers and Konstantinos Mavropanos and central-midfield pairing Alex Iwobi and Ainsley Maitland-Niles.

While there is certainly a need to bolster the squad in these areas, especially if the club has aspirations of returning to the top four, the Champions League and potentially even challenging for the title, the investment that comes need to be smart, aware of the talent that already exists in north London, talent that is vying for greater playing time next season.

It doesn’t really make sense to go and spend lavishly on players who don’t offer a significant upgrade on what is already in the squad. Now, if there are players who substantially improve the team and fill a need, then such spending is sensible and nigh-on necessary.

But there is no real point in bringing in players who simply fill out the squad and only block the progress and development of the young players that are already at the club. Chambers, for instance, is ready to be the established starter at centre-half. Similarly, Maitland-Niles needs to be starting, either at full-back or in midfield, while Iwobi already faces competition for playing time in his preferred central attacking-midfield position.

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This is not to say that the Gunners do not need to spend. Of course they need to. It would be utterly foolish to suggest that they do not. But they need to be smart in their spending. They already have a surprising amount of talent that is worth dipping into.