Arsenal: Kieran Tierney, Wilfried Zaha complete miracle summer

Arsenal are working on deals for Kieran Tierney and Wilfried Zaha. If they can get those deals over the line, it really would have been a miracle summer for the cash-strapped Gunners.

There was very little positivity surrounding Arsenal when they entered the summer transfer window. A £40-45 million transfer budget. A deplorable squad with a whole slew of major needs. No technical director and a temporary head of recruitment. To say things were looking bleak is a gross understatement.

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The major needs of the squad, in no particular order, were:

• Centre-back
• Wing
• Central Midfield
• Left-back
• Centre-back again
• Right-back

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Realistically, the Gunners were never going to be able to address all of these positions. More likely, they might sign at the most three players at these positions, at least one of which would be relatively cheap. However, somehow, the club is on the verge of performing a somewhat miraculous summer.

This week, Arsenal confirmed deals for Dani Ceballos, on loan, and William Saliba, a central midfield and a centre-back. Earlier in the window, they also acquired Gabriel Martinelli, a young winger with terrific upside. He is very much worth a punt.

According to the Independent, they are now moving onto two final deals, attempting to rush both through before the deadline in a little under two weeks. They are names that have been linked with north London transfers throughout the summer: Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha and Celtic’s Kieran Tierney.

Should Sanllehi and his band of merry men be successful in their attempts to sign both Zaha and Tierney, which is a big if, I admit, I think it would be fair to say that this would be a truly miraculous summer, one that could never have been expected when that dreaded whistle blew to confirm the club’s absence from the Champions League after a heartbreaking Europa League final loss.

In this slightly idyllic scenario, the Gunners would have signed a genuine solution to their wide problems, and a potentially Premier League-leading talent, a left-back who can hold down the position for the best part of a decade, a central midfielder to replace the outgoing Aaron Ramsey on the cheap, even if it is only temporarily, and one of the brightest centre-back prospect from France since Raphael Varane.

There would be problems with this end result, of course. No immediate help at centre-half is worrying. A lack of help for Hector Bellerin on the right side is also a little concerning, especially seeing as he is still recovering from a torn ACL. But given the restrictions that Arsenal were working under, this, I believe would be a terrific summer window.

Would it be enough to catapult the club into the top four? I am not sure. There is a lot of ground to make up. But it would be an ideal start to the Unai Emery rebuild as he begins to add pieces that actually fit into his system. All that’s left to do now is actually seal the deals.