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Despite the rumoured £45 million transfer budget available to them, it has been a surprisingly busy summer at Arsenal.
This week they broke their transfer record to sign Ivorian winger Nicolas Pepe from Lille in a deal worth over £70 million. The 22-year-old scored an impressive 22 goals in Ligue 1 last season, as well as providing 11 assists.
The Gunners also completed the signing of Dani Ceballos on a season-long loan deal from Real Madrid, as well as bringing in 18-year-old Gabriel Martinelli from Ituano for £6 million. William Saliba is the other major deal, with the centre back joining from Saint-Etienne for £27 million, but he will return to France for the coming season.
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It hasn’t all been positive though. They failed to agree a fee with Crystal Palace for Wilfried Zaha, and that deal now looks dead given the signing of Pepe. They have also failed to get any deal over the line for Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney, though there may still be a chance that deal gets done.
One man who may be on his way out of the Emirates is Laurent Koscielny, who refused to go on the Gunners’ pre-season tour of the US in an effort to complete a move to France.
If he does make the move, then no doubt Arsenal will need to replace him before the season gets underway, given how weak their backline was at times last season. Here are four men who could replace Koscielny at Arsenal.
#1 Daniele Rugani (Juventus)
Earlier this summer, Juventus won the race to sign Ajax centre back Matthijs de Ligt, beating off competition from across Europe for the 19-year-old. The signing of de Ligt adds to their embarrassment of riches at centre back, where they already have Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci and Daniele Rugani. Because of this, Rugani may find himself struggling to get into the side, so it may be that he wants a move away to find first-team football.
The 25-year-old is very highly rated at Juventus and has shown that he has the potential to be a top centre back. However, he hasn’t found opportunities easy to come by and has therefore appeared just 69 times in Serie A over the last four seasons. Arsenal’s transfer budget means that they may not have the funds to bring in Rugani, but reports say that Arsenal are willing to get a loan deal done.
#2 Ruben Dias (Benfica)
Although we have been told that Arsenal only have a transfer budget of around £45 million, there is clearly some inaccuracies in these reports given that the Gunners have paid over £70 million to sign Nicolas Pepe, and continue to pursue a move for Celtic’s Kieran Tierney. There is also the chance that Arsenal could raise more funds with the sale of Shkodran Mustafi, who has been linked with a move for Monaco and has been a bit of a liability over the last couple of seasons.
A player who has been linked with a move to North London is Benfica’s Ruben Dias. The centre back has also been linked with a switch to Manchester United, and has a release clause of £57 million, though it has been suggested that Arsenal will look to negotiate that fee. He did show in Portugal that he is a very capable defender, but the question will be asked as to whether he can adapt to English football, and whether he is worth the risk for that sort of money.
#3 Gary Cahill (Free agent)
With Arsenal’s transfer budget already stretched, particularly after the club-record move for Pepe, it may be that Arsenal choose to sign a player who they can pick up on a free transfer. That man may be former Chelsea man Gary Cahill. The former England centre back found his first-team appearances limited last season, as former Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri favoured Antonio Rudiger and David Luiz as his central defensive pair, and even when either of those two were unavailable, Andreas Christensen was preferred.
In letting Koscielny go, Arsenal will be losing an awful lot of experience, and they may be able to replace that by signing Cahill. At 33, he may not quite have the pace that he used to, but he still reads the game exceptionally well, and he is a proven winner. While at Chelsea, he won all there was to be won, including the Premier League on two occasions, and the Champions League in 2012. That may just be the sort of winning mentality that Arsenal need.
#4 Presnel Kimpembe (PSG)
It has been an uncharacteristically quiet summer on the transfer front at PSG. Idrissa Gueye, Abdou Diallo, Pablo Sarabia and Ander Herrera have all moved to Paris, but they haven’t quite had that marquee signing that they have craved in recent years. Those signings, and the signing of Diallo, in particular, may allow some of the club’s fringe players to move on this summer though, and one of those players could be Presnel Kimpembe.
The 23-year-old found his opportunities limited at the Parc des Princes, as he started just 23 times in Ligue 1, finding himself stuck behind Thiago Silva and Marquinhos in the pecking order, with Thilo Kehrer also waiting for an opportunity. With the current state of the Arsenal backline, he would without a doubt be guaranteed more football and would be a more than useful addition to this Arsenal squad.
