Arsenal have renewed their £70m credit facility with Barclays bank, according to documents submitted to Companies House last week.
The Premier League leaders submitted the "registration of a charge" form on December 23, with the potential borrowings secured against guaranteed future broadcasting income. But supporters taking it as a hint towards a possible splurge in the January transfer window as Mikel Arteta's team seek to maintain their title push should not get too excited.
The renewal does not mean that the club is borrowing the £70m, merely that an agreement is in place to loan up to that amount in the next 12 months should the club, for example, face a rainy day or be presented with an investment opportunity that had not been initially budgeted for. Such credit facilities are common across the game.
It will have little impact on Arsenal's plans for January as Edu looks to advance talks with Shakhtar Donetsk around a deal for winger Mykhaylo Mudryk. An initial £55m bid for the Ukraine player was rejected by Shakhtar, who say they want about £80m. But talks are continuing with the north London club hopeful of a breakthrough and comprise around an eventual fee.
Arteta has refused to speak about Mudryk in recent press conferences but the 21-year-old had been on their shortlist before Brazilian forward Gabriel Jesus was injured at the World Cup. Shakhtar have gone public about the interest, though.
"Talks for Mudryk are on," chief executive Sergei Palkin said last Thursday. "We receive offers but not the ones we would like to see on our table. I'll speak again to Arsenal. So, yes, we are open to discussing fees and ideas.
"If we will agree, then let it be so. If we will not, then let it be another time. Now, literally in five minutes, I will have a new phone call conversation with Arsenal for the Mykhaylo Mudryk deal."
Talk of deals for Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic and his clubmate Adrien Rabiot are less certain. While Arteta swerved direct questions about Mudryk, the head coach has confirmed the club will aim to be active early in this window.
"We knew the importance of getting players early in the summer and that is the same we want to do in January," he said last week. "This is idealistic. Sometimes it is not realistic.
"But obviously, if you ask my opinion, as quick as possible we want the players in to get settled. In this league with the competition, where the bar is and what the standards have been for the last four or five years — something the Premier League has not experienced in the past — we know that every point is going to be massively important."
