Arsenal, Ryan Fraser and Yannick Carrasco: Underwhelming is what you get

Arsenal have little money to spend, are starting a rebuild, and will not be in the Champions League next season. Throw all that together and underwhelming transfers, like Ryan Fraser or Yannick Carrasco, is what you get.

Arsenal are trying to buy a whole new team. Seeing as their current one is overpaid and underperforming, it makes a lot of sense. They are plenty of positions that need to be addressed. And the wing roles are perhaps chief among them.

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But thus far, the two names that lead the pack are Bournemouth’s Ryan Fraser and Dalian Yifang’s Yannick Carrasco. There is interest in both, with the Carrasco rumours beginning to motor in the past few days and Fraser admitting that he does not know where he will be playing next season, and the reaction from the fan base has been similarly intriguing.

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For different reasons, the two acquisitions seem a little underwhelming. Carrasco is certainly the more exciting prospect of the two, his talent undeniable, but there are questions regarding his attitude and commitment. Fraser, meanwhile, is safer, more productive, and proven in the Premier League, but comes with hesitations as to what level he can potentially reach. As such, there is not quite the buzz that you would expect over the prospect of a new attacking player being added to the squad.

And the problem, for me, lies with the expectations — you could perhaps label them hopes with the recognition that hopes over an extended period blindly lead to expectations — that are being laid at the feet of the club. Even given the current situation, Arsenal should spend like a top-six club challenging for a Premier League title. But that is an expectation that they will never meet.

Given the vast array of positions that require investment the summer, the limited budget — transfer and wage — that they have to invest with, and the lack of Champions League football, which both diminishes the budget substantially and the attraction of the club to potential signings, Fraser and Carrasco are the calibre of player that Arsenal can feasibly target and acquire this summer.

Wilfried Zaha or Nicolas Pepe or even Matthijs de Ligt would be wonderful signings, and I am sure Raul Sanllehi and Unai Emery understand that as much as anyone, but the club simply is not in the position to make those type of moves, either from a financial or reputation standing.

And that leads to one, inevitable, sour feeling: disappointment. Arsenal are almost doomed to disappoint and underwhelm this summer. They won’t be able to avoid it. There is plenty of criticism to be laid out for this, primarily for Arsene Wenger, Ivan Gazidis and the previous regime, but it is the new era that must deal with the slighted public perception as a result.

Carrasco and Fraser are inherently underwhelming signings. But when you throw in the number of positions of need the team has with the lack of wage and transfer budgets and the absence of Champions League football, that is precisely what you get.