Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger will be granted £20m to spend in the upcoming January transfer window according to the Mirror. The North Londoners have had a disappointing campaign so far and their fans were hoping for a windfall to spend in the next window.
Arsenal’s resources have been stretched as their terrible injury record seems to continue again and again. The likes of Mesut Ozil, Olivier Giroud, Mathieu Debuchy and Laurent Koscielny were ruled out due to long-term injuries, and it has hurt Wenger as his team have won just four games out of the 11 fixtures they have played in.
The Frenchman had recently revealed that he will spend in January to strengthen his squad, so most of us were expecting a good budget to be given to him. However, considering the fact that how inflated the prices of players really are in January, it’s a bit of a surprise that Wenger has been given just £20m to spend.
The FA Cup holders need to strengthen in almost every department as they lack the necessary squad depth of a Champions League club. With Danny Welbeck, Alexis Sanchez, Lukas Podolski and Theo Walcott, they have enough firepower upfront. The problem lies behind them as Wenger doesn’t have a natural defensive midfielder which has gone against his side. Arsenal’s style of play means that they need a player in the middle of the park to break the play, but with Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini, they have two ageing players who haven’t performed well in that role. There were talks about signing Sami Khedira, and that looks like a possibility as he’ll most likely leave Real Madrid for a cut-price fee. However, should any other club compete with Arsenal and a bidding war starts, things could go out of hand.
The defensive area needs strengthening too after injuries to Koscielny and Debuchy. With the funds provided, Wenger will once again have to go after lesser known names like Virgil van Dijk of Celtic or Aymeric Laporte of Bilbao.