It is evident that Arsenal will move for a striker in the summer transfer window considering the lack of options that will be available to Mikel Arteta if they do not.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has already left Arsenal and Alexandre Lacazette in addition to Eddie Nketiah will follow him out the exit door when their contracts expire at the end of the season. Leaving only Folarin Balogun as a semi-senior orthodox option.
Considering that no player joined in January, there is an expectation that money is available to be spent and football.london understands that the club is planning a significant outlay in the summer with the backing of owner Stan Kroenke.
However, just because money is available, it does not mean the club can afford to simply overpay for players or spend big for the sake of it. Clubs will be in the know regarding the Gunners’ potential spending power and will want to maximise the sale price.
This will be the case for Chelsea again this summer who have made a large amount of money through player sales from their loan network. Meanwhile, football.london understands Arsenal are monitoring the progress of Armando Broja, on loan from Chelsea at Southampton.
Broja has scored 9 goals this season across all competitions in 28 matches despite still being only 20 years of age and having his first taste of senior English football.
However, according to Tuttomercato, Chelsea are planning on setting a €70m (£57.8m) price tag on the Albanian international this summer. If sold for this price, only Eden Hazard would represent a bigger sale for the Blues.
This fee is frankly mad to consider from an Arsenal perspective. Broja is a talented player and not many would bank against him having a big future.
However, on the evidence of what has been seen so far, the striker simply would be too much of a risk to invest this much into him.
Considering the reported price associated with the impressive Jonathan David has maxed out at €55m (£45.4m), Arsenal would be much better off looking to the Canadian instead after two impressive seasons, including a Ligue 1 title with Lille.
However, Arteta has provided some insight into what he is looking for that may suggest Broja is not yet near the top of his list of options.
“He puts the ball in the net, that’s priority number one,” Arteta said when asked about what he wants from his future star striker.
“Goal threat. Any successful team needs enough goal threat in the squad. Without it, you have nothing. You can play good football, but you need enough goal threat in the team.”
The six Premier League goals so far for Broja may be more than Lacazette has managed this season, but it is not enough to convince the club into an aggressive pursuit of the striker.
Mikel Arteta will be looking to the most prolific forwards in the world. It was evident in January in the attempts to sign Dusan Vlahovic that the Gunners are looking in the upper echelons of the market. The summer will give them greater scope to follow through on this.
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