Mikel Arteta has already revealed that he expects Arsenal to be busy in the summer transfer window and recent history indicates he will be backed by club owner Stan Kroenke once again.
If the Gunners are to reclaim their status as a top-four side in the Premier League next season, they'll certainly need to add to the signings of Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Benjamin White, Nuno Tavares, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Martin Odegaard from last summer.
As reported by football.london there are plans to do exactly that with Gabriel Jesus, Youri Tielemans and Aaron Hickey on Arteta and Arsenal technical director Edu's radar whilst talk of re-signing Serge Gnabry this summer - or next - has resurfaced with his Bayern Munich future reportedly up in the air.
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Having seen his side miss out on Champions League qualification by two points, Arteta knows how crucial the upcoming summer transfer window will be in order to close the gap between themselves Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, thus sending a clear message to Stan and Josh Kroenke about his plans.
"Overall look back you have to be clear with what we have to do, but very clear as well that this is not where we want to be," Arteta said in his final pre-match conference of the 2021/22 season earlier in the month. "We want to be in a completely different position, challenging with the top teams. That’s the aim. This is not going to stop here.
"This is another step that was very necessary because it wasn’t only about where we are in the league table. We have much deeper issues than the club in the league table in my opinion that now have been resolved and look very, very strong. Now we have the real strong foundations now to build what we want to do
"We are going to have certain resources. Not unlimited resources, certain resources. With those resources, we have to do what we have to do in the best possible way. We don’t know what the rest are going to have in terms of resources, which I assume is going to be challenging because now it’s not a top-three, or top-four league, there’s a top eight, or 10 teams that are involved. That’s why we have to find a way to do again what we did last summer."
The good news for Arteta is that as previously reported by football.london, the club are planning a significant transfer outlay and he is set to benefit greatly. Now, how much the Spaniard is given to spend remains to be seen, but looking at the business the Gunners have done since the American owner became the club's sole shareholder in September 2018 may indicate another big spending spree this summer.
Not including loans for Dani Ceballos, Denis Suarez, Mat Ryan, Cedric Soares, Pablo Mari and Odegaard, in almost three years and seven transfer windows under the full ownership of KSE (Kroenke Sports and Entertainment) Arsenal have completed as many as 18 deals.
What's even more interesting is the money spent on 15 of those players. In the summer of 2019 there was an outlay of £138million with Nicolas Pepe arriving for a club-record fee of £72million in addition to deals for Kieran Tierney (£25m), William Saliba (£27m), David Luiz (£8m) and Gabriel Martinelli (£6m).
Then the following summer Gabriel Magalhaes (£27m), Pablo Mari (permanently for £6.8m) and Runar Alex Runarsson (£1m) cost Arsenal £34.8million in total whilst Kroenke stepped in to help fund Thomas Partey's £45m move from Atletico Madrid. In addition, when factoring in last summer's well-documented £150million spend on six new signings, that's over £350million spent across the three summer windows under KSE's ownership.
With the Gunners seemingly favouring the summer windows to get their big deals over the line, this trend could be a clear sign that the Kroenkes are willing to spend at least £100million again and perhaps that could allow Arteta and Edu to complete deals for Gabriel Jesus, Gnabry, Hickey and Tielemans.
