Arsenal are pretty good at taking everybody by surprise in the transfer window aren’t they?
Prior to this January, few of us in the Football Transfer Tavern had even heard of Mohamed Elneny but the Egyptian international became Arsene Wenger’s latest find and awaits his first ever appearance in a Gunners shirt.
When you consider the likes of Danny Welbeck, Nacho Monreal and Gabriel Paulista’s arrivals came relatively out of the blue to boot, it takes a lot longer to second guess what is going on inside the corridors of Emirates Stadium than most!
It looks clearly apparent that Elneny will represent Arsenal’s sole piece of business this January barring anything exceptional coming to the surface for Wenger to snap up but in the summer, many more decisions will have to be made.
Having read earlier this month that Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini and Tomas Rosicky are to be released at the end of the season with their contracts up, more space will open up for central midfield-type arrivals beyond Elneny.
Of those three names, Rosicky hasn’t kicked a competitive ball this season, Arteta has hardly contribute much more than that while Flamini remains in the team at the moment giving his all in Francis Coquelin’s absence.
The overriding notion from the Arsenal fans is that Arteta should be respected for the service he has given Arsenal over the past few seasons but time is surely up for the Spaniard who has been looking tired in his most recent outings.
With this in mind, we’ve devised a list of FIVE summer replacements that should definitely be on Arsene Wenger’s radar, if they’re not already!
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Click on the image below to reveal the five Mikel Arteta replacements for Arsenal to consider in the summer.
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Granit Xhaka
We read in Metro only a couple of days ago that Borussia Monchengladbach’s highly-rated midfielder Granit Xhaka JOKED about wanting Francis Coquelin’s number 34 Arsenal jersey if he moved to Emirates Stadium but we feel Wenger should formalise official interest in the summer.
The Swiss international plays with that number at Gladbach at the moment and has been talked about as one of the most promising talents in the Bundesliga for a long while now.
Somebody like Elneny who isn’t necessarily a defensive midfielder and that alone, Xhaka is more of a box-to-box type and if Rosicky leaves as expected, he could help fill his void too.
Despite joking in his recent interview, Xhaka could be clearly interested in an Arsenal transfer to further his career and the transfer fee is reportedly around the £30.5 million mark but he’s still at the right age of 23-years-old.
Sergi Samper
It seems to us like Barcelona B star Sergi Samper is still relatively content to wait it out for more first team opportunities with Luis Enrique’s La Liga giants given the stories surrounding a potential departure have died down of late.
But is he really going to ever make the step up?
Twenty-one-year-old Samper has been in and around the Barcelona first team set up but still needs to usurp the likes of Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic, Sergi Roberto and even Gerard Gumbau which seems like no mean feat to us.
The most recent reports surrounding his potential whereabouts were conducted by The Independent back on December 30th.
They told us Arsenal would be willing to pay £4.4 million for the young Spaniard’s services although his buy-out clause is still modest at only £8.85 million.
Seems like a bargain to us given the sheer potential he has at a young age.
Adrien Rabiot
£20 million is the fee Paris Saint-Germain want for Adrien Rabiot – that is according to The Independent.
In today’s market, you could say that that isn’t the worst value for a player of Rabiot’s talent and potential and surely the player would be better placed to mull over his long-term goals in the summer.
Having to fight with Blaise Matuidi, Marco Verratti and Thiago Motta for a starting eleven slot in Laurent Blanc’s side, it seems likely that like Marquinhos, Rabiot will wait it out one more time, playing until the end of May before finally making a decision on whether to leave his Paris dream behind.
Given Arsenal have been linked to the 20-year-old for what seems like an eternity, surely there is some genuine interest deep down and Arsene Wenger may hope that no club looks to tempt him away with an irresistible offer in the remaining days of January.
Lars Bender
The Lars Bender rumours are back and this time, he is apparently available in the summer.
As reported by The Telegraph, apparently Bayer Leverkusen’s chairman has alluded to the fact that the German club aren’t arrogant enough to think that they can keep all of their star players at the club long-term with this potentially being the green light on a summer move.
Having only been capped 19 times by Germany, Bender has grown up in an era whereby Bastian Schweinsteiger and Toni Kroos have dominated Joachim Low’s selections but this doesn’t make him any less of a quality player.
Having been interested in him for so long, if Bender is to be granted a departure after all, surely it is then a case of now or never regarding the German joining long-term admirers Arsenal.
Giannelli Imbula
Of all the players on this shortlist, perhaps it is FC Porto’s Giannelli Imbula who is the most prone player to actually moving on in the current January transfer window rather than being available for Arsenal to snap up in the summer.
We read only yesterday in The Mirror that Stoke City are plotting an ambitious £19 million swoop for the uncapped French ace and considering how the Potters’ stock is rising in the modern game, perhaps they can pull off a deal like this nowadays.
More recently today however, we read in the Stoke Sentinel that Imbula is reportedly happy to see how he gets on until the end of the season at Porto with a new manager in the shape and form of José Peseiro having arrived lately, potentially transforming his fortunes.
We’ll have to wait and see on this one but Imbula is a physical presence that would further toughen up Arsenal’s midfield with more bite in addition to Francis Coquelin and Mohamed Elneny.
