Mikel Arteta has hinted Arsenal could do more business this summer despite already spending over £ 200 million on new players.
Kai Havertz, Jurrien Timber and Declan Rice have all arrived within the first few weeks of the transfer window as Arteta attempts to get his Arsenal squad ready for another Premier League title charge. Although Arsenal have splashed the cash ready for the new season, Arteta hasn’t ruled out another one or two players coming through the door before the end of the window. Speaking during the club’s pre-season tour in the United States, Arteta admitted the Gunners will be ‘alert’ to any potential incomings.
Arteta said: “Let’s see, there is a lot of time still in the market. There is a lot of expectation with some of our players. We will have to see how things develop in the next few weeks. We will be alert, there is still time to do things, there is still time for exits obviously, so I am sure things will move.”
Arsenal announced Havertz as their first summer arrival last month in a £65million deal from Chelsea. Timber’s proposed move from Ajax was finally confirmed on Friday, a day before Rice signed from West Ham for a club record transfer fee.
Havertz and Timber will offer Arsenal extra depth and quality within their squad, but the arrival of Rice, in particular, has been branded as a marquee signing for the Gunners. Arteta was asked about his new midfielder and sees him as a “lighthouse” in their Premier League title push.
Arteta added: “First of all he is a person and what he is going to bring to the team. I see him like a lighthouse, that he is willing to put light in others and improve others and make the team better and that is a huge quality.
“For me to be a midfielder you have to have that and he’s got it 100% and the way he talks and presents himself and the ambition he has and the passion towards the game and that is exactly what we needed.
“It’s his leadership, his aura, the experience he already has in the league he is going to bring and the team to a different dimension I think. He has the physical qualities we were missing for a while as well. That is why we had to do what we had to do to get him because he was really important for us to get him
“I think every transfer window we are trying to improve and every season we are trying to develop our players to a level and when we don’t reach with that level we have to recruit and I think what we have done this summer improves the squad significantly.”