Arsenal: Man. Utd Matthijs de Ligt offer shows difficulty of Unai Emery’s task

Manchester United have made a massive money offer for Matthijs de Ligt. The potential signing shows the extent of Unai Emery’s task as he attempts to rebuild Arsenal.

Unai Emery is attempting to make Arsenal relevant again. For all of the fancy words that surrounded his arrival a year ago like ‘progress’ and ‘project’ and the latest phrase from Raul Sanllehi, ‘outsmart the market’, ultimately, it is all building to the same goal: to once more be competitive at the sharp end of the Premier League and European football.

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The problem for Emery and his team is that they are competing in perhaps the most difficult period since the Premier League’s inception. There are now six very good teams, including the Gunners, some of which are bankrolled by flush-spending owners, others of which are already excellently run and are years ahead of Emery’s burgeoning rebuild.

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Arsenal fans were sent a stark reminder of the difficulty of Emery’s task this week when it emerged that Manchester United were set to rival Barcelona for the signing of Ajax captain fantastic Matthijs de Ligt, one of the best centre-halves and leaders in the world, all at the depressingly tender age of 19.

It was presumed that de Ligt would follow his teammate, Frenkie de Jong, to Barcelona, with the Catalans believing that he would be the ideal successor for Gerard Pique. But in the last couple of days, United have emerged as real contenders to steal the Dutchman away, primarily thanks to the massive offer they have put together, a reported £65 million fee and £350,000-a-week wages.

Where de Ligt ends up remains to be seen, but this is the sixth-best team in England spending record amounts on a centre-half even when they have no Champions League football to attract him. Of the two teams to finish outside the top four last season, it is United, with that kind of spending power, not Arsenal, who are more likely to break back in.

And this outlines the extent of Emery’s task. Not only has in inherited a lacking squad with a deplorable number of needs, but he is handed a pittance to try and address those holes. De Ligt would blow the whole transfer budget and then some. How can Emery be expected to keep up when his direct rivals are spending two or three times as much every single summer?

Then when you consider that they have to actually make up ground on teams like Manchester City and Liverpool, not just keep pace with them, it is easy to see that extent of the task at hand for the Spaniard. What he is expected of him is really an impossible job.

It is a sad fact of the matter, but until Arsenal start spending in comparison to their rivals or far more efficiently than their rivals, neither of which they are currently close to achieving, they will lose ground. Unai Emery’s task really is nasty, and Man. Utd’s move for de Ligt is proof.