Arsenal: William Saliba, Alexis Claude-Maurice the perfect solutions

Arsenal have £40m to spend this summer, reportedly, which means that they may have already spent the lot of it in the most perfect way.

Arsenal‘s summer budget, without the benefit of Champions League qualification, was reported to be at a modest £40m. If that is to be believed, then by bringing in William Saliba for around £25m and Alexis Claude-Maurice for £18m, the Gunners have expended those funds, pending any sales.

To some, buying two young French players, one even from Ligue 2, may seem like the antithesis of solutions, but I’m here to tell you that they are, in fact, the perfect solutions for the position that this club is in.

Arsenal are in a unique spot where they have tons of young players desperate for first team action, but not a lot of certainty as far as who might be ready for that more advanced role with the club. But we’ll never know if we don’t give them a fair shot, and thus, guys like Reiss Nelson, Emile Smith Rowe, Bukayo Saka, Xavier Amaechi, Konstantinos Mavropanos and more will all be wondering who they will be competing with for minutes this coming year.

If you go out there and buy Jerome Boateng and stuff him on the defense next to Sokratis, you eliminate all hope for Rob Holding, Calum Chambers, Krystian Bielik and Dinos. Because no matter how well they play, there are two internationally acclaimed defenders in the way.

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Similarly, if you go out there and buy Nicolas Pepe and stuff him into the wings, Nelson, Amaechi, Saka and Smith Rowe are all fighting for one spot, with the rest of them getting left out in the cold with nowhere to go but into the U23s.

What the Gunners would be doing by signing William Saliba and Alexis Claude-Maurice is adding quality to positions of need without monopolizing those positions. If you add Saliba to the defense, he is a competitor with all those other guys.

If you add Alexis Claude-Maurice to the wingers situation, he is a competitor with all those other guys. Neither William Saliba nor Alexis Claude-Maurice block the path for our talented young stars and neither would be expecting to feature every single match.

It’s an exercise of patience, sure, but it also puts faith in the system, in the guys that don’t just want to succeed, but want to succeed for Arsenal. This is how you build a team that lasts a long time, rather than buying a team that’s a flash in the pan.