Five Players the Gunners Should Sign this Summer

No one can deny that this was a pretty disappointing season for everyone connected to Arsenal Football Club. Though the ending was hilarious, it was ultimately undeserved on the basis of how we played for the majority of 2016, and though there is still plenty to be positive about amongst the players that we have at the club, it is clear that some significant additions are needed in order to compete with what will surely be a far more competitive league next season. With that in mind, here are my five picks (not that we’ll sign five players, we’re Arsenal after all) that I think would give us a much needed boost, and hopefully set us on course for a proper title challenge once the Euros are over and done with.

Granit Xhaka

The easy option, given that he appears to be undertaking a medical with the club as I write this, but the Borussia Monchengladbach captain seems by all accounts to be a very shrewd addition to the squad. I’ve not seen him play much, though I think both times that I did last season he managed to get himself sent off, but from what I’ve read, Xhaka can do a bit of everything in midfield, and will hopefully inject a bit of class into proceedings in the centre of the park.

We badly missed Santi Cazorla throughout his injury this season, and no combination of Francis Coquelin, Aaron Ramsey and Mohamed Elneny quite worked when relied upon, though each had their moments, so it is reassuring to see Arsene looking to add a player who by all accounts is tactically astute, technically gifted, and with the potential to get even better.

It has been widely reported that Xhaka has had his disciplinary problems in the Bundesliga, but after an apology to the fans in January, that does generally seem to have dried up, and though you of course have to be sensible in order to avoid unnecessary bans through accumulating cards over the course of the season, it might benefit us to have someone alongside the more attacking central midfielder who isn’t afraid to throw themselves into a tackle. One potential concern that I do have is that Xhaka recorded his first assist of the season in Borussia’s last game this past weekend, and for all his clear skill when it comes to passing, he is not a Mesut Özil who will wrench open even the staunchest defences.

That being said, we do already have one of those, so it probably doesn’t matter too much that our potential newest addition makes his impact further back on the pitch, and I can only imagine that Ramsey or Wilshere would benefit greatly from the support offered in front of the defence, allowing them to maraud forward to their hearts content, as we have seen work from time to time with Coquelin in the team.

Xhaka seems a great addition, and I look forward to welcoming him to the Emirates when the deal does eventually become official.

Alvaro Morata

It has been clear for a while now that Arsenal are in need of a ‘top-class’ striker up front (whatever that means). In our 4-2-3-1 formation, we are always going to be heavily reliant on the man leading the line to put the chances created by our attacking trio away, and though Olivier Giroud is far from a poor player, I can at least now admit that he is probably not in the same bracket as those at our competitors. He certainly has the skill, but there is little consistency to his scoring, and his tendency to lose form when we need him most is upsetting to say the least.

Therefore, this summer will almost certainly see the addition of a striker that can put an end to the excuse that we didn’t have enough firepower up front to win the league. For my money, Alvaro Morata is the most promising player of that ilk currently on the market. We know that a deal is more likely than not, in terms of him moving somewhere at least, because Real Madrid have made it pretty clear in the press that they are looking to utilise their buy-back clause in order to facilitate his return to Spain from Juventus, and then sell him on to the highest bidder, sort of like a Carlos Vela deal except involving a striker who people actually want.

At just 23, Morata has a long way to go yet in his career, and with prices like £40m being thrown around in the rumour mill, you could be forgiven for expressing a healthy dose of scepticism, not least as his last three seasons have seen 7 league goals in 34 appearances, and 8 in 29 for Juventus, with 8 in 23 the year before that for Real Madrid. What those numbers hide however is that Morata is one of the most promising young strikers plying his trade in Europe currently, and we might get to see a bit of his immense potential this summer as he represents Spain at Euro 2016.

Those 8 for Madrid were scored in just 559 league minutes, explaining just why he was so highly sought after at the time. This season he played just 1,990 of the possible 4,140 minutes in the games in which he featured, and actually was more clinical than his replacement in the side, Mario Mandzukic, during that time.

Too often we hear that someone is a ‘big game player’, but Morata most certainly is that, his best performances this season coming against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, and both Milan sides in Serie A, whilst scoring the winner in the Italian Cup Final this weekend presumably to bring the curtain down on his Juve career.

Though a great header of the ball too, we know that crossing is not a huge part of our plan of attack anyway, but a more mobile striker up front could release the wingers, Alexis and maybe one of the Alex’s (Oxlade-Chamberlain or Iwobi), to have more impact in and around the box. He’s quick, and makes intelligent runs, meaning that he could link up well with Mesut, someone with whom he has actually played before, and if he can find the ability to turn his game up one more notch, he could be the striker that we’ve been looking for.

Raphael Varane

The final position in dire need of help this summer is centre back. We saw Per Mertesacker’s performances fluctuate hugely this season, and at 31, we’ve probably enjoyed the best his career has to offer now. Laurent Koscielny is still brilliant for the most part, but Gabriel has unfortunately flattered to deceive when in the side. Though he has a good chance of improving his performances, there’s simply no time next season to continue to take risks, and with centre back such a crucial role on the pitch, we can’t really afford to take the chance that he develops a successful partnership with Kos sooner rather than later.

In my view, Raphael Varane is the perfect (if slightly optimistic) answer to this puzzle. Again, he is at an early stage of his career, but far enough along that he has gained significant experience at the very top level. Again, he is not getting the playing time that he really needs at this point, and again, Real Madrid may be tempted to cash in this summer. Manchester United were credited with interest in the press a few weeks ago, with a price of £25m mooted, and if that really is the going rate for a player who is still one of the top young defensive talents in Europe, then we should bite their hand off.

Two of his strengths, as listed on WhoScored.com, are aerial duels and blocking the ball, two things which Gabriel has failed to achieve with much regularity during his appearances this season. Varane is six foot three, but you rarely hear about any issues to do with his pace or ability to keep up with the play, and he has his fair share of fans amongst highest respected individuals in the game.

Varane has been given more of a chance under Zinedine Zidane since he took over at the Bernabeu, so it remains to be seen whether he will in fact be permitted to leave this summer, but that is not an altogether unlikely eventuality, and I hope that we’d make sure we were right at the front of the queue if that did occur.

Romelu Lukaku

I don’t want to spend too long talking about Lukaku, because Arsenal are not going to sign two top quality strikers this summer, and it looks like the Everton man is most likely going back to Chelsea at this stage of the window anyway. What I will say is that though exceptionally hit and miss this season, anyone who watches the Premier League knows that Lukaku can best any defender of your choosing on his day. We need someone up front who is explosive, and can make things happen from nothing, so though unlikely, I wouldn’t mind seeing a bid lodged as a speculative plan B.

Calum Chambers

I’m taking a bit of a liberty with this one, especially since Arsene loves to refer to players coming back into the side as ‘like a new signing’, but aside from actual transfers (which as always will probably be fairly limited this summer), I would love to see one of those young players who has been frozen out of the squad this season given another chance with the first team. When he first signed for the club in 2014, Calum Chambers looked like he had the potential to go on and be a staple of our backline for years to come.

The hype was completely overblown at the time, but was somewhat understandable to an extent, given his confident and assured performances against teams such as Manchester City when moved across into the centre of defence. The England call-up for the early season qualifiers was well-deserved on his form back then, and it is just a shame that the return of our preferred partnership of Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker brought an end to his run in the side.

After that, Calum was more regularly deployed in his ‘natural’ position of right-back, and regularly looked anything but natural there. This seemingly is why the boss lost confidence in Chambers, and there has been a severe lack of game time for the young defender since, with his name nowhere to be seen on the team sheet at all for a lot of the second half of the season. With Gabriel looking pretty out of place when stepping in for the injured Mertesacker as already mentioned, I see no harm in trying to integrate Chambers back into the team ahead of the Brazilian at least for pre-season, and seeing whether he can’t return to the kind of form that had plenty calling him a future captain of the club.