Arsenal plot stunning £180m summer transfer raid

Some will argue that Arsenal didn’t do a great deal over the January transfer window, even if there were seven first team deals struck across the month.

Six of those, however, were departures – including two contract terminations – with three of those moving out on loan and just the one, Calum Chambers, departing for a fee.

Auston Trusty was signed on deadline with the American due to link up with the club in the summer along with Matt Turner, who hasn’t been officially unveiled yet, acting as the Gunners only incoming.

That’s it. Just the one. And most importantly of all, no centre-forward.

Arsenal plot stunning £180m summer transfer raid for Alexander Isak, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Ruben Neves in club record spend

Now it is no secret that this area of the pitch will be addressed at the end of the season, with Mikel Arteta staring at the inevitable situation of having just one senior striker in his entire squad – one who is only 20 years old and has played just two Premier League matches.

Two of the names on their summer wishlist are Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£60m) and Alexander Isak (£75m), and as per Mark Irwin, Arsenal want to bring in both. As well as Ruben Neves (£45m), of course, for a combined £180m.

That fee would trump the previous summer window’s spend of around £150m, making it a club record outlay for a single window. Part of the amount will be raised by selling the string of senior players out on loan, with Arsenal hoping to recoup around £70m from Matteo Guendouzi, Lucas Torreira, Hector Bellerin, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Reiss Nelson, Alex Runarsson and Konstantinos Mavropanos.

Such reports always need taking relatively calmly as they don’t allow for matters to change between now and the end of the Premier League season, while also prey on the supporters’ weaknesses having not secured the players they wanted, but this trio are players Arsenal are admirers of – there are big reservations on Isak’s release clause, though – and the upcoming window is setting itself up to be another monumental one for Arsenal.

However, any amount of spending and planning is so heavily reliant on where Arsenal finish in the Premier League table. While it’s been made clear that finances will be made available to Arteta, and the club have trimmed over half a million a week off the wage bill, they still need to be an attractive proposition to players and another season out of the Champions League would make it the sixth in succession.

The vast riches of that competition are one thing, but if, heaven forbid, it would be Spurs to make the top four this season then targets will value their elite coach and elite European football over Arsenal. It is as simple as that.

Say £180m is being readied for those three, Stan Kroenke will need to delve deeper into his pockets after that. There will be more outgoings and this thin squad requires more than just two strikers and a midfielder.

It’d be a solid start, though.