Arsenal: 5 surprise transfer window moves ahead of deadline

Arsenal find themselves in a position of real danger: results are faltering, performances are insipid and work is still underway to forge a squad with finer symmetry and a higher floor. It’s getting there. Hope rests on a storming West Brom victory.

Less than a week remains until the August 31 summer window deadline and despite a considerable amount of shifting having been completed since January – the number of first team exits could reach beyond double figures by the end of the month – there is still more to do.

Five new faces have made their way through the Emirates Stadium doors, all within a very distinct age profile. Ben White is the oldest of all the additions. He’s 23 years of age.

A clear strategy is in place and there is no denying that Mikel Arteta has been backed financially by those in charge, with more possibly in the offing as the clock ticks down on another memorable window. They’re always fairly unique across the continent.

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5 surprise transfer window moves that could happen at Arsenal as the August 31 deadline approaches for Mikel Arteta’s side

Sales, or at least departures, have to be be sanctioned in order for new arrivals, with the most likely of those being a right-back. Arsenal would surely want more – the fans certainly do – but overhauls of this scale aren’t completed overnight. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and so on and so forth.

But the window is far from closed.

Did anyone think Tottenham would pay £40m for Adama Traore? Did anyone think Real Madrid would offer £135m for Kylian Mbappe when they can just wait 12 months and get him for free?

While Arsenal aren’t, obviously, anywhere near the Madrid conversation, there is definite scope for some activity to take place between now and August 31 that might raise a few eyebrows. With a few moves heavily mooted and expected to come off – Willian among them – what about some left-field pieces of business?

While nothing is out of the realms of possibility, there is a reason these would be surprising.

1. Mohamed Elneny is Sold

It’s not likely to happen. But stranger things have happened.

Faint murmurs of Watford making an offer for Mohamed Elneny began to emerge of late but were immediately shot down by Fabrizio Romano who claimed there was no such bid.

The situation is that the Egyptian has not been offered a new contract at Arsenal despite preliminary discussions taking place at the end of last season, and with nothing new on that front since, it does raise a few queries.

Every player has a price and if someone were to come in with an acceptable offer for the 29-year-old, Arsenal would certainly sell so long as they could secure a replacement. That could come internally. It applies to near enough the whole squad.

Interestingly, Arsenal have continued a trend of tying players down to new deals so as the protect their value, something that hasn’t taken place with Elneny. Given he only has a year left on his deal (there isn’t exactly much in the way of value anyway) it may be that Arsenal are keeping him in the shop window until deadline day in the hopes of attracting a buyer, and if they don’t, then they may offer him a one-year extension.

If he did go, it would have a knock on effect with this move…