When the bulk of Mikel Arteta's Arsenal squad show themselves at the Sobha Realty Training Centre in just over a week's time, it will be the first time for most of them that Thomas Partey has not been there. His exit, which becomes official on July 1 when his contract goes from expiring to expired, is one of several changes this summer.
Kepa Arrizabalaga and Christian Norgaard could soon take Partey's place in the dressing room. Martin Zubimendi will join them. Arsenal hope to have all three wrapped up before the initial pre-season preparations start on July 7.
Cristhian Mosquera may well make it a quartet of new signings. Kieran Tierney and Jorginho also departing means that a decent amount of fluctuation has already been confirmed.
With six weeks until the start of the Premier League season, and two months left of the summer transfer window, it is a strong position for Arteta and Co to be in. Things will be relatively settled ahead of a key period.
This all allows for just under a fortnight of acclimatisation and settling in for Zubimendi, Kepa, Norgaard, and Mosquera before Arsenal fly out to Asia for matches against Newcastle United, Milan, and Tottenham. Across Singapore and Hong Kong, Arsenal will play three times before returning.
The worry is that despite making good progress on key positions, things are moving a lot slower in attack. Viktor Gyokeres and Benjamin Sesko remain the two main striker targets but moving forward with either is proving hard.
The cost of the deal is one sticking point, whilst reservations over both of their games remain. Narrowing down wingers has also proven frustrating.
Rodrygo, Morgan Rogers, and Eberechi Eze are among the names. Nico Williams is off the table now Barcelona are advancing for him. The most important area of the pitch is yet to look any clearer.
Whilst there is ample time to change that, Arsenal will be keen to have as much done before jetting off for pre-season as possible. Moving the dates back, they will be aiming to have the main chunk of incoming transfers completed before even the July 7 return date.
That does not give long for plenty to be done around wingers and strikers. It is the sort of timeline that Arteta will be working to, though.
He knows the importance of doing business early, especially in such vital areas of the pitch. Arsenal's big issue last season was scoring goals and creating chances, so amending that with their forwards over the summer is understandably the centre of most attention.
The four transfers so far will cost a combined £81million but that number is likely to grow significantly if high-priority players are brought in from here. Gyokeres will cost more than £60million, Sporting CP's president has said, and Sesko is going to be comfortably more than his £55million release clause from last year.
The winger could be cheaper, but not by much. Eze is a £60million player at least, as is Rogers. Rodrygo might be the most expensive of the lot.
With differing circumstances at their various clubs, there is no telling just when deals could be achieved, if at all. For Arteta, that makes his summer pre-season work increasingly hard to plan for.
Arsenal are expected to head over to Spain for a training camp ahead of their pre-season games with several players already working in Marbella during their holidays. Gabriel Magalhaes, Partey, and William Saliba have all been spotted together.
Not all of them will be back in England as things as things start to ramp up for the new season. They will be able to meet at least some new teammates shortly, but the bigger names might have to wait.
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Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus with the Arsenal Therapy Dog Win during the Arsenal Men's team group shoot at London Colney on September 18, 2023
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