Arsenal: Aleksandr Golovin another media mistake

Unai Emery has reportedly given the go-ahead to pursue Aleksandr Golovin with an alleged £25 million. This is another media mistake. Arsenal simply don’t have the cash.

Arsenal have made plenty of early moves in this transfer window. It is not even the end of June and they already have two deals officially completed and another two all but secured bar the crossing of the t’s and the dotting of the i’s.

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Last summer, Alexandre Lacazette, the only paid transfer of that window, wasn’t officially announced until July 5th. This summer, the Gunners have already agreed to three paid transfers, their fourth addition, Stephan Lichtsteiner, being a free-agent acquisition. We are not used to that efficiency from this club.

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And neither is the media. They are used to preying on the desperation of the Arsenal fans for the club to spend to garner interest in their work. Their engagement, their page views, their traffic depends on it. But this year, the fans aren’t so desperate. Even if they disagree with some of the work that has been undertaken, as I myself do, they at least can see that is work is being undertaken. An attempt to address the needs of the squad is taking place.

That attempt, assuming the moves for Lucas Torreira and Sokratis Papastathopoulos are completed as is widely anticipated, has seen much, if not all, of the reported £50-70 million budget disappear. The signings of Bernd Leno, Sokratis and Torreira will come to an approximate £62 million total.

It is in this context that Express Sport reports that Unai Emery has given the go-ahead for Arsenal to pursue Russian breakout star Aleksandr Golovin with an alleged offer in the region of £25 million. Without commenting on the quality or the need of the player, the simple maths tells me that this deal will not happen without player sales.

Simply put, the cash is not available to splash a further £25 million on another midfielder, taking the spending to £87 million, which is more than almost any figure that has been reported during the past couple of months bar the outlandish suggestions of the ‘£200 million war chest’ that are bandied about every year. It’s a very simple income vs expenditure equation.

This is not to say that a player could be sold to fund the move for Golovin. Perhaps Aaron Ramsey is stalling on a contract and Emery sees the CSKA Moscow man as the ideal replacement for the Welshman. Or maybe Shkodran Mustafi will be allowed to leave with Sokratis arriving, entrusting the centre-half position to the blossoming trio of youth that is currently at the club.

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But the Express report has no mention of player sales. In all honesty, it has little mention of anything. It is vague, non-descript and non-committal. It is, in my opinion, a mistake. Don’t hold your breath on this one.