Today, Arteta gave his prematch conference in the lead up to Brighton at the weekend where he faced an array of questions over Luiz, his future, Ozil, his future and more… read the full transcript.
Toward the end of the press conference, Arteta was asked about the financial future of Arsenal and the effects it would have on big transfers.
“I think there is a lot of uncertainty in how the transfer market is going to look. You hear very different things and people are going to go all in, clubs are already spending a lot of money and others may be much more conservative and wait to assess the situation before they move. Our position at the moment is that we have to see and be cautious. Our ambition is still intact and I know from the owners that their ambition is still intact as well. We will try and do our best to improve the squad, maintain the players we want to maintain and move forward.”
With this amount of uncertainty and the questions surrounding Aubameyang and Lacazette’s futures, journalists naturally asked about the club’s ability to retain their stars during this period of losses.
“I don’t know. Today I cannot answer that unfortunately because there is too much uncertainty.”
It’s an answer that is may be understandable, but will certainly give Arsenal fans a moment for pause. Yesterday, many witnessed the gap that exists between Arsenal and a team that is currently in second place but has achieved a lot together. That gap is wide and startling.
Arteta was very direct about his concerns that this gap would only continue to grow if nothing was done to address the situation, which makes this hesitation a little bit worrisome when it comes to how large of an overhaul Arsenal have in front of them.
There are clearly 2-3 positions that require sizable amounts of work and real injection of quality. While Arsenal may never be a club that has a Roman Abramovich-style sugar daddy, owner – they have a large amount of business in front of them to move specific players along and look to bring in the next wave.
Eyes ahead to Brighton for Mikel, but fans will no doubt be keeping tabs on the movements of the front office.
Gunner Thoughts 