Arsenal: It’s time to get out the panic buttons

The start of July has come and gone and Arsenal is now less than a month away from the start of the new Premier League season and along with it the close of the transfer window in England.

Other than the signing of young striker Gabriel Martinelli, recently given the first-team number of 35, and the sending out of a few academy players on loan, Arsenal is yet to do anything significant this summer.

A few weeks ago I wrote about how it wasn’t time to hit the panic button yet, and that if the past was anything to go off of we’d be bringing in new players after the kit launch. Well, July 1st has come and gone, and the squad that boarded their luxurious Emirates aircraft in beautiful Adidas gear and took off to lovely Los Angeles looks extremely similar and arguably worse off than the team that was embarrassed in Baku at the end of last season.

Arsenal had been connected with many names this summer but over the past few weeks, when one would think the bulk of our summer transfer action would be happening, things have drastically slowed down.

There have been no updates on the talks to acquire Kieran Tierney from Celtic when a deal looked to be almost agreed upon. The deal to sign, and immediately loan back, William Saliba from St Etienne was said to be close to being finalized but recent reports that Spurs are trying to hijack the move has everyone’s nerves on edge.

Other than the Saliba reports and the crazy player plus cash bid the Gunners are said to be preparing for Wilfried Zaha from Crystal Palace, there are no other reports of any players being close to joining Arsenal.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

Edu was recently announced as their new Technical Director and has joined up with the squad in LA on the US tour, but it is highly unlikely he will have much to do with any signings this summer. Edu will still need to meet with Emery and discuss what Arsenal’s style of play will be moving forward so that he can identify the appropriate players to target.

To add to the frustration and unease that Arsenal fans around the world have been feeling for weeks, our club captain and “loyal servant” Laurent Koscielny has rebelled against the Arsenal hierarchy and refused to go on the pre-season tour of the United States with the first-team.

With last year’s defense already extremely shaky, no imminent defensive signings coming in through the door and now our best option at center back looking to force a move away from the Emirates, things are not looking very optimistic. If, and hopefully when, Arsenal do get defensive reinforcements in to help the squad this season, they will miss out on much of Emery’s preseason preparations and will be rushed to be acclimated into the starting lineup.

The plan that Raul Sanllehi said he had before the transfer window opened doesn’t seem to be working and it might be time for plans B, C, and D to save this club from one of their worst transfer windows to date.

I said a few weeks ago that if “July 16th comes rolling along and Arsenal don’t have any new players to field in Denver for their first preseason match against Colorado Rapids, then we can start to look for the panic button.” Well, the time has come, and it means that fans should start hitting the panic button.