Arsenal: Has the budget stretched far enough?

Arsenal are close to securing goalkeeper Bernd Leno, midfield Lucas Torreira and defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos, maxing out the £50 million budget. Has it stretched far enough?

Arsenal had a lot of work to do this summer. There were five or six different positions that desperately needed investment, with another three or four that could be argued as in need of spending. That is a revolutionary amount of change in one transfer window.

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Obviously, that was never going to actually happen in one window. But it does paint the picture of how far the club needed to stretch a reportedly tight budget.

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The wide-range rumour claimed that Arsenal had approximately £50 million to spend prior to any money that was earned through player sales, the most likely of those being Aaron Ramsey who could perhaps garner a fee as high as £40 million. In today’s market, £50 million net-spend is not a lot. Manchester City signed three full-backs for that price alone last summer. It is not likely to go very far, which is concerning considering how far the Gunners needed it to go.

Nevertheless, Ivan Gazidis, Sven Mislintat, Raul Sanllehi and Unai Emery have endeavoured to work with what they have got. And, if the reports are to be believed, they have been able to address the three key positions with new signings, all for £52 million. They have already wrapped up a £20 million deal for goalkeeper Bernd Leno. They have all but secured the £16 million addition of Sokratis Papastathopoulos. A £26 million deal for Lucas Torreira will be completed in the coming days but is being slightly delayed because of the World Cup.

It begs the question, then, has the budget stretched far enough? Is this trio, supported by the free signing of Stephan Lichtsteiner, sufficient for this team to challenge for a top-four position next season?

Quite possibly. Leno should be an improvement on the disappointing season from Cech. Sokratis will certainly provide a steel and aggression to a defence that was painfully soft last season. Torreira brings energy, legs and balance to the midfield that relied on an out-of-position Granit Xhaka to anchor it and protect the defence.

While it is impossible to say for certain whether these will be successful signings or not, it is still nice to see this club recognise the needs that it has and then work efficiently and effectively to try and address them. It remains to be seen whether they will be successful in solving their many problems, but they have given it a damn good shot.

Next: Arsenal: 2017/18 player rankings

The tight budget may be too much to overcome. But Arsenal have done some good work in this window already that deserves to be recognised.