Arsenal came incredibly close to winning their first Premier League title in 19 years during the 2022/23 season. The Gunners were eventually beaten by a brilliant Manchester City side and must recruit in the summer transfer window to close the gap on the champions.
Sporting director Edu and manager Mikel Arteta have already held conversations about transfer targets and plans are well underway to improve the squad for the 2023/24 campaign. "Mikel and I talked, and we believe we can raise our performance to a new level," Edu told ESPN Brasil.
"Now we have to do good work in the transfer window, we have to understand what we need, get the right athletes, the right traits, and the right athlete mentality so we can raise our squad’s level again."
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football.london understands that Declan Rice has been made a priority for Arteta this summer, with the West Ham United midfielder seen as the ideal player to bolster the Gunners' central midfield. An opening bid could be submitted some time in June, and with strong interest from Bayern Munich, Arsenal will want to get any potential deal over the line sooner rather than later.
West Ham do not want to do business before their Europa Conference League final against Fiorentina next Wednesday, however. The Hammers face the Italian side in Prague in seven days' time and if they win the competition it will be their first European trophy since 1965.
Ahead of the vital match, West Ham's first-team squad have flown to the Algarve in Portugal for a three-day training camp. As well as training in warm weather conditions, Rice has also been spotted enjoying himself with some of his Hammers teammates.
Sharing pictures on his Instagram on Tuesday, the England midfielder enjoyed a round of golf with Flynn Downes, Danny Ings and Aaron Cresswell. Rice first put up a picture with his playing partner Downes, before another image showed the four players standing shoulder to shoulder.
While speculation is rife around his future, it seems Rice is concentrating on nothing but West Ham's clash with Fiorentina next week. With the Gunners reportedly having a budget of £200 million to spend this summer, it will be interesting to see if the Europa Conference League is Rice's last in claret and blue before moving to north London.
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