Manchester City have identified Kalvin Phillips as their main summer target. Arsenal have £150m to spend, £60m to raise and players to pursue.
THE ART OF THE DEAL
After their extreme weight-cutting in the January transfer window, Arsenal’s summer plans were always going to be intriguing. An excellent market 12 months ago put them on the brink of the Champions League and Mikel Arteta hopes to build on those foundations.
The Spaniard is planning yet more upheaval in north London. Arsenal have £150m to spend but want to raise around £60m through selling peripheral squad players to counterbalance the cost.
Offloading Matteo Guendouzi and Konstantinos Mavropanos has already raised £12.5m, but The Sun say Hector Bellerin, Lucas Torreira (£12.5m), Bernd Leno (£8.5m), Ainsley Maitland-Niles (£8m) and Pablo Mari are also in the ‘Emirates yard sale’.
Arteta wants a squad of 22 players to cope with the added strain of Europa League football, with loanees William Saliba and Reiss Nelson, and academy graduates Charlie Patino, Miguel Azeez and Omari Hutchinson all earmarked for first-team opportunities at Arsenal next season.
But the target is to make ‘four top quality signings’ of two strikers, a central midfielder and a full-back. Gabriel Jesus, Tammy Abraham, Youri Tielemans and Ruben Neves are on the shortlist.
YOURI SO VAIN
The Tielemans link seems sound. John Percy of the Daily Telegraph corroborates the rumour, describing the midfielder as one of the ‘leading summer targets’ for Arsenal after Arteta completed ‘a number of background checks’.
Tielemans has one year remaining on his Leicester contract and would prefer to join a Champions League club but has responded positively to the idea of at least one more season of Europa League football. After being scouted extensively by the Gunners, it has been deduced that the Belgian ‘has the qualities and versatility to flourish’.
There has been no official contact between Arsenal and…
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