Arsenal technical director Edu has confirmed that he is 'excited' for the club's plans in the summer transfer window. The Gunners spent £150million on six new signings last summer as they became Europe's biggest spenders.
football.london understands that Manchester City forward Gabriel Jesus and Roma frontman Tammy Abraham are among the shortlisted profiles who could arrive at Emirates Stadium this summer. Jesus in particular remains open to leaving the current Premier League champions, with his representative holding talks with Edu throughout the past few months.
Former Chelsea forward Abraham has scored 15 goals in Italy this season and was previously the subject of enquiries from Arsenal in January. It's expected that the Gunners will focus on bringing in two marquee names this summer, although football.london understands that Edu has not ruled out bringing additional players in.
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"The budget we used last summer, we prefer to use it to rebalance the squad, there was no point in hiring one or two players [in January], the squad was not prepared to absorb two players, we needed to rebalance the squad," Edu told ESPN Brasil. "Maybe next season we can go to one or two players.
"Today we find a much more balanced squad. Our planning has already been done, it has already reached the owners.
"It's a matter of step by step, how we are going to finish the season and to put in plan the planning that I'm very excited about." Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta wants to bring in a new forward, central midfielder and winger with several first-team players set to leave the Emirates Stadium in the coming months.
"The Champions League and the Europa League both require a much larger squad because the amount of games is much bigger," he said.
"If we can afford it financially and we don’t have to do the turnaround in the squad that we’ve had to, what I want is 22 outfield players and three goalkeepers. A lot of things have to be put in place and that takes time, so I am expecting a busy summer.”
