Speaking on The Transfer Window Podcast, Duncan Castles has shared what he’s heard about Arsenal’s transfer budget this month.
The reliable journalist is well-connected at Arsenal, and he’s heard that the Gunners don’t have a massive transfer kitty to play with this month.
It’s been well-documented that Arsenal want a creative midfielder through the door in January, but they won’t be able to spend big on that type of player.
“Arsenal, their priority in this window in midfield has been a creative midfielder, basically someone who is a cross between a number eight and a number 10, so a box to box midfielder with creativity and pass creation skills,” Castles said.
“I’m told they’re working on a pretty limited budget to do that of around €20 million (£17.8m), so you want a player who will take a fundamental role in the team, and change the midfield in an important way, but you’re trying to do it for a price that is very difficult to achieve.”
Arsenal need to be savvy this month it would seem.
Of course, you can still get quality players for that sort of fee, but you need to do the right scouting and negotiate the right kind of deal.
Unfortunately, it seems as though this discounts any chance of the Gunners landing a superstar midfielder who is going to immediately make them Champions League contenders.
This will be a real test of Edu’s skills as a Director of Football and it will be very interesting to see how he operates on this sort of limited budget.
Hopefully, the Gunners can find a bargain in the next few weeks.
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