How the next Arsenal manager could spend a tight £50m budget

Having spent much of the last decade calling on Arsene Wenger to “spend some f****ing money”, Arsenal fans must feel that they are the butt of a cruel cosmic joke at the moment.

No sooner has their longest-serving manager announced that he will step down at the end of the season than reports have emerged that his successor will have to work on a much tighter budget.

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According to The Telegraph, the next Arsenal manager will have be limited to £50m of spending this summer. In the modern market, that’s roughly the cost of a 16-year-old left-back with four appearances in League One.

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Okay, so that might be a slight exaggeration, but Wenger’s successor will certainly have to be shrewd and strategic when it comes to recruitment.

Here are three key areas in which Arsenal need to strengthen and where £50m would be best spent.

Centre-back

Probably the biggest problem position for Arsenal at the moment, the team desperately needs reinforcements in the centre of defence. Per Mertesacker is retiring at the end of the season, Laurent Koscielny isn’t getting any younger and has suffered with persistent Achilles injuries in recent years, Shkodran Mustafi has been disastrous at times this season while neither Rob Holding nor Calum Chambers inspire confidence as regular starters.

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Arsenal have already shipped 46 Premier League goals this term, miles more than any of the top seven and two more than they conceded over the entirety of 2016/17. Considering that Virgil van Dijk cost Liverpool £75m in January and Aymeric Laporte moved to Manchester City for around £57m, centre-backs are anything but affordable these days.

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So who could Arsenal get for a relatively sensible fee? The club were rumoured to have made a late bid for Kostas Manolas back in January, the Roma defender who scored the decisive goal as the Giallorossi overcame Barcelona in the Champions League.

In November, Football Italia reported that Manolas had agreed a release clause with Roma of around £32.5m. That would be well within Arsenal’s budget but would leave little leeway for spending elsewhere. A cheaper option, though potentially more difficult to negotiate, would be Dutch defender Stefan de Vrij. He’s available on a free transfer having run down his contract at Lazio, but is reportedly wanted by a host of other clubs and has been heavily linked with Inter Milan.

Defensive midfield

Despite needing an out-and-out defensive midfielder for some years now, Arsenal have singularly failed to sign one. Where fans briefly thought Mohamed Elneny and then Granit Xhaka would be assigned the position, both have instead been deployed as largely ineffective central midfielders while their defensive contribution has been erratic at best.

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Meanwhile, the one genuine holding midfielder at the club, Francis Coquelin, has been allowed to leave.

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Wilfred Ndidi of Leicester City has been mooted for a move to the Emirates, his friendship with Nigeria teammate Alex Iwobi cited as a major factor in him agreeing to a transfer. Generally impressive this season, strong in the air and in the tackle, Ndidi is still only 21 and could cost much – if not the entirety – of Arsenal’s summer transfer budget.

Watford’s Abdoulaye Doucoure is another mid-table overachiever who, at 25, might be a little more affordable. As reported by Sky back in February, Doucoure responded to a question on French media channel Telefoot about interest from Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool with the answer: “It’s true that these clubs are interested in me. But I am at Watford and my focus is on finishing the season well and to maintain their Premier League status.”

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Meanwhile, other players who could potentially fill the role and have regularly been linked with Arsenal include: William Carvalho at Sporting, Geoffrey Kondogbia at Valencia and Mario Lemina at Southampton. All would most likely be mid-range signings in terms of price – Kondogbia is currently valued at around £22m for instance – while Garth Crooks said of Lemina back in February: “Mario Lemina is an Arsenal player if ever I have seen one. For far too long in my opinion, Arsene Wenger has faffed around with the likes of Mohamed Elneny and Francis Coquelin. Wenger should have invested in Lemina during the summer and got in there well before Southampton did.” High praise indeed.

Goalkeeper

Though nobody really wants to say it, Petr Cech’s performances have been on the decline over the last couple of seasons. Arsenal could do with a long-term successor to their iconic goalkeeper, even if they have to compete with him for the No.1 spot in the short-term.

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With high-profile options like Jan Oblak and Alisson out of their price range at a reported £87.5m and £62m respectively, Germany international Bernd Leno might be a possibility. Previously linked with Arsenal by German tabloid Bild, the 26-year-old has been a stalwart for Bayer Leverkusen for the last seven seasons and according to The Mirror is valued at around £25m.