As Arsenal continue to put last season’s ‘oh so near’ disappointment behind them for another campaign , Gunners fans are watching on eagerly for what kind of moves the board sanction for manager Mikel Arteta as he again looks to improve our first team options so that we can make a much closer push for top spot in the coming 2025/26 Premier League campaign and hopefully, finally, lift that title that we all want.
Naturally, most of the talk again last season was our need for a died in the wool striker, particularly as we all know our league form was hamstrung by a falling goals scored count and just way too many tight and narrow draws that really should have resulted in all three points when you consider the chances that we had wasted in those matches. For those who like a flutter and use the top site for betting online, they will know how those draws effected our odds of taking top spot and nobody wants to see that happen again.
The transfer window speculation rumour mill has long been full of links claiming that we had an interest in the likes of Newcastle striker Aleksander Isak, Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins, Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres and RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko.
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With us seemingly priced out of a move for Isak, with the summer window now open (properly) again after the Club World Cup nonsense, it is now being claimed that the club are in agreement that Gyokeres and Sesko will be the top two striking targets that we pursue in the coming weeks, and that we have now stepped up the behind the scenes work that will be necessary to secure one of their signatures.
Recent reports suggest that sporting director Andrea Berta has now held preliminary talks with their representatives to sound out potential deals ahead of formal negotiations beginning with their parent clubs, and that internally talks are now at an advanced stage when it comes to what kind of terms and transfer fees would be authorised in order to enable a deal to be greased through. The club are said to be firm that they do not want to be held to ransom, or get into an open bidding war for either target, as every one and their dog knows that an attacker would have to be our top priority this summer given our known failures in the January window given everything Arteta had been saying to the press at the point.
The line from the club is that although we are now more actively chasing deals for both players, it will be a first past the post deal and the most financially sensible move that we ultimately agree to as we have no intention of bringing in both players this window. Therefore, at this moment in time, Villa’s Watkins stays on the list as a backup option should a deal for one, or both, ultimately prove futile to progress to the end. We have Watkins as the backup so if one deal falls down, we do not suddenly find the other club try and dig in further to play hardball.
With tensions building between Lisbon and Gyokeres over the supposed gentleman’s agreement that was in place this summer, and their President Frederico Varandas accusing him in the press of ‘playing games’, we will have to see how this impacts on our chase of him.
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