Why didn’t Arsenal sign a central midfielder this summer?
Karan Tejwani
- 3 Sept 2022 17:05 BST
- 3 min read
Arsenal were linked with moves for several midfielders across the transfer window, right until the final day, but have made no moves for anyone in that period.
It started with strong links for Leicester City’s Youri Tielemans and until the end, they made offers for Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz, but have not signed anyone and continue with their current options.
Arsenal currently have the likes of Granit Xhaka, Mohamed Elneny and Thomas Partey, amongst others, to carry them through the season, and decided against signing anyone else.
That came as a result of them prioritizing other positions and believing that the return of midfielders from injury should ensure they’re fine until at least the January transfer window.
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Arsenal prioritised other positions
It’s been revealed by The Athletic that until a week before the transfer deadline, Ajax hadn’t made signing a central midfielder a priority, with other positions analysed.
They wanted to sign a creative wide player, which had been one of their objectives since the start of the summer transfer window, as evident by their chase of Raphinha, who is now at Barcelona.
The Gunners were also interested in a move for Wolves winger Pedro Neto, while also keeping an eye on the progress of Shakhtar Donetsk’s Mykaylo Mudryk, and that was their goal.
Arteta on Douglas Luiz: “We tried… and at the end of the day, we have to bring in the players we feel are right - but we didn’t manage to do it”. ⚪️🔴 #AFC
Arsenal had three bids rejected, last one £25m 40 minutes before the Deadline — then decided not to overpay. pic.twitter.com/2Ehnq5cOUj— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 2, 2022
Mikel Arteta’s side ended up getting neither of those players and in Neto’s case, they felt the price set by Wolves was too high at that stage of the window.
They analysed Tielemans but felt that he didn’t fit the right profile as they were looking for an option who was more secure in defence – similar to Partey or Elneny.
Arteta also made it clear that his side were unwilling to make late panic buys and would not overpay for players if he felt they didn’t fit the billing, as evident by their pursuit of Aston Villa’s Luiz.
Arsenal made three bids for the Brazilian on deadline day – all of which were rejected – and they were unwilling to meet Villa’s high asking price for the player.
