Arsenal: Mikel Arteta rebuild sounds lovely

According to the Daily Mail, Mikel Arteta has already formed plans to rebuild the Arsenal squad this summer. What he plans to conduct sounds lovely.

While Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta has enjoyed a positive start to life at the club he used to captain, there are quite clear limitations regarding the talent, potential, and production of the squad he inherited.

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There are plenty of young players to work with, yes, and the team should be performing at a higher level than it has been for the majority of this season, but the elite limitations of the players has been made quite clear in recent weeks, especially as the Gunners have increasingly struggled to create chances despite Arteta putting them in advantageous positions.

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As such, when the 2020 summer transfer window rolls around, the club will look to conduct yet another rebuild, arguably their third in three years — you might class the Unai Emery experiment as just one rebuild. And, according to Sami Mokbel of the Daily Mail, Arteta has already explained his plans for the upcoming window.

His ideas can be split into two simple ideas: strengthen the spine of the team and do it before the 2020 European Championships — there is also the Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang situation to solve, though that will hang over every decision the club makes.

There are three positions that Arteta views as the most needy: centre-back, which is not a surprise to anyone and central midfield, in the form of a box-to-box midfielder, likely a player who can conduct the possession play, receive the ball under pressure, and knit together the structure of the team, and a creative midfielder, who will be a more energetic, younger replacement for Mesut Ozil.

At present, these are unquestionably the most pressing positions of need. Arsenal are scraping at the bottom of the centre-back barrel — sweating on the fitness of Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis tells you all you need to know. They also look a little light in central midfield with Granit Xhaka possessing insurmountable weaknesses and Ozil only depreciating. Spend, and spend big in these areas, and Arsenal could see quite the resurgence next year.

In addition, Arteta is reportedly keen to get the deals done quickly. This is critical. We have seen this club panic buy their way into oblivion before. We do not need to see it again. And with the Euros both making the logistics of potential transfers more difficult and potentially driving the price of strong performers up, there is an urgency to complete deals.

Finally, the Aubameyang situation will dictate everything. Should Arteta and Arsenal chose to move on, they will obviously have a striking problem to solve but release extra transfer funds and wages to reinvest on a player who is the wrong side of 30, not a part of the long-term project, and set to enter the final year of his contract. On the other hand, he is the club’s top goalscorer and best player.

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All in all, then, Arteta’s plans for the squad seem sensible and productive. But, as always, this is the transfer window, and what is planned and what actually unfolds can often be two very different things.

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