Arsenal: Two signings that would make a successful transfer window

Arsenal have a lot to solve this summer, but if they can make these two transfers, then I don’t care what else they do, they’ve won the window.

If you look at the needs of Arsenal, you will see a list of items, all of which require strengthening and boosting. Even positions of strength figure to weaken over the summer, as no position is free from speculation or weakness.

But for me, if you spend £100m on this defense, you can call it a successful window and stop right there. Yes, I’m serious.

Samuel Umtiti is being heavily linked to a move to the Gunners in the range of £40-50m, and Matthijs de Ligt is supposedly available for £60-70m. That’s all I want, give me those two and let youth fill in the rest. A strong defense changes everything and youth will grow.

Think about it, the other biggest need is on the wings, right? Give me Reiss Nelson and Bukayo Saka. Done.

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We need creative attacking midfielders? Give me Joe Willock and Emile Smith Rowe. Honestly, you stick these youth players around the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette and they are going to produce. They are going to learn. They will grow into their roles and all that don’t can be corrected on later.

But give them a chance. They want to be here, they won’t leave anything on the pitch. They’ll leave nothing up to chance. If anything, they’ll try too hard.

If they are backed by a midfield of Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira, and if they have a defense with the likes of Umtiti and de Ligt, then guess what? We have what might be the strongest young backbone in the league. So sturdy and reliable that the attack will be fed so much and so often that they have to convert some of it, simply by the law of averages.

And even if they don’t, well that’s okay too, because one goal will often be enough for a defense like this to see through to a clean sheet.

It may sound crazy, but we’ve been deprived of a solid defense for so long that I wonder if we’ve forgotten just how game-changing it can be.

Just kidding, of course we haven’t forgotten, but to see it again, and to feel the shift in power, that would turn the tides here at the Emirates. So give me those two signings, make some sales, and close up shop. And maybe snag a left back too.