Sporting director Andrea Berta and Mikel Arteta vowed this would be a “big” transfer window for the Gunners but it’s not really got going as yet as they continue to dally in their quest for a new striker and left winger.
Martin Zubimendi will join from Real Sociedad for £51m as a replacement for Jorginho, but some of their reported £300m budget will now likely need to be spent on another new central midfielder.
That’s thanks to the stunning revelation that Thomas Partey believes his talents to be worth more than £200,000 per week, leading Arsenal to spread the net wide this week in a bid to land a replacement as they quite rightly refuse to bow to the Ghanaian’s frankly ludicrous demands for a contract extension.
Here are 10 midfielders rumoured to be on the Arsenal radar.
Christian Norgaard (Brentford)
Reported interest from Arsenal and Tottenham in Norgaard suggests top club scouts are able to differentiate between Nordic Brentford midfielders a whole lot better than we can, though we do wonder whether it might be worth Mathias Jensen, Mikkel Damsgaard or Vitaly Janet (technically not Danish but practically full Dane after five years under Thomas Frank) turning up at London Colney on contract signing day to prey on any possible ignorance.
He’s surely the least exciting prospect of all on this list for Arsenal fans; definitely a squad player at the age of 31 rather than someone pushing for a spot in the starting line-up ahead of Zubimendi or the other members of Arteta’s midfield three.
Eduardo Camavinga (Real Madrid)
There’s hope at Real Madrid that Xabi Alonso can turn what the Spanish press have described as an ‘anarchic’ midfielder – someone who at his best can be everywhere and at his worst not where you need him – into someone who can work effectively in a more structured system with a more defined position.
Where exactly that spot will be as Camavinga battles with Aurelien Tchouameni, Federico Valverde and a possible new addition to the squad isn’t clear, and it’s claimed Arsenal are keeping tabs on his situation and would promise him more consistent game time.
At 22 with four years remaining on his contract Arsenal’s ‘belief’ that it would take no more than €50m (£42m) to sign him is misguided, but he’s the sort of all-action, dynamic midfielder that could really thrive in the Premier League, and even double that outlay could prove to be good business.
Marc Casado (Barcelona)
It’s strange that the 21-year-old’s breakout season for Barcelona, one which saw him play a major role in their La Liga title win with 20 league starts, should end with doubts over his future at the club. The continuity of Frenkie De Jong and the return of teenage sensation Marc Bernal, who started the season ahead of Casado before being struck down with a cruciate ligament tear, means the €60m (£51m) Arsenal target looks likely to be fighting a losing battle for a consistent spot in Hansi Flick’s team.
Casado is said to be ready for that fight but it feels like more a case of when and not if he’s asked to find a new club and given Barcelona’s financial struggles, bids of any note will surely be heard and even encouraged.
A report has claimed Arsenal have already taken the ‘first official step’ towards signing Casado – essentially asking Barcelona if they’re willing to negotiate over his transfer – with Arteta seeing him as ‘the perfect profile for the Premier League’.
Warren Zaire-Emery (PSG)
“The sky is the limit,” said Thierry Henry after watching Zaire-Emery’s two assists in PSG’s 3-0 victory over AC Milan in the Champions League in October 2023, at that stage unaware of the stratosphere that the midfield trio of Fabian Ruiz, Joao Neves and Vitinha would be occupying during the second half of the 2024/2025 season to keep the young Frenchman firmly out of PSG’s starting lineup.
He was handed plenty of game time by Luis Enrique, starting 23 of 34 Ligue 1 games, but found himself on the sidelines when it came to the Champions League crunch, featuring for just 66 minutes during the knockout stages.
Arsenal have made an ‘enquiry’ along with Barcelona and Bayern Munich but like Casado, Zaire-Emery is prepared to fight for his place and PSG have little interest in selling the 19-year-old.
Lucien Agoume (Sevilla)
Agoume only joined Sevilla last summer from Inter Milan for just £3.4m after an initial loan with the La Liga side but has caught the attention of Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham having drawn comparisons with N’Golo Kante.
Sevilla are said to want £20m for the 23-year-old, but it’s thought they may well be open to negotiating over that fee given what are reportedly pretty dire financial straits.
Pablo Barrios (Atletico Madrid)
Two goals for Atletico in their 3-0 win over Seattle Sounders in the Club World Cup on Thursday were ideally timed for the Partey replacement transfer rumour mill on the back of a season in which Barrios has asserted himself as a key cog in Diego Simeone’s midfield, often at the expense of Conor Gallagher.
A €100m (£85m) release clause is quite the barrier to his transfer and Atletico aren’t interested in letting the 22-year-old go for less than that fee.
Ayyoub Bouaddi (Lille)
“It’s not normal to play like that at that age,” effused then manager Paulo Fonseca in October 2023 after Bouaddi became the youngest player ever to start a European game having turned 16 three days before their Conference League clash against KI Klaksvik.
Almost exactly a year on he marshalled the Lille midfield to victory over Real Madrid with a performance brimming with composure and diligence, ahead of a Player of the Match display against Juventus. The secret is very much out and Arsenal are predictably joined by Chelsea, Barcelona and several other European big boys in keeping track of Bouaddi, whose maturity and quality belies his tender age.
Adam Wharton (Crystal Palace)
Though an old-timer in comparison to Bouaddi, at just 21 Wharton patrols the Crystal Palace midfield with the sort of serenity expected of Premier League veterans, with the time he has on the ball a tell-tale indication of his excellent technique, while both his desire and ability to get the ball forward through the lines as quickly as possible makes him a weirdly rare and hugely valuable commodity.
It’s a big, big season for Wharton as he’s surely the obvious fit for England’s midfield and although there’s not quite the same Big Club bias when it comes to England selection as there once was, there’s little doubt a move to Arsenal would bolster his World Cup hopes even if he plays slightly less frequently as he currently does for Palace.
Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal)
Keeping our England hat on, we would ideally like Arsenal not to sign a new midfielder and for Arteta to move Lewis-Skelly into the position he’s played to rise through the ranks at the club before slotting in at left-back.
Actually, we would quite like Lewis-Skelly to play at left-back and in midfield for England, but we’re not sure we can hack another year of speculation over who can play alongside Declan Rice at the World Cup before Thomas Tuchel inevitably lands on Jordan p*ssing Henderson, so we would prefer the Arsenal team to nail down that role, thank you very much.
The Gunners’ supposed interest in another otherwise entirely superfluous centre-back-cum-left-back in Ajax’s Jorrel Hato suggests Arteta may well be considering a Lewis-Skelly role change.
Douglas Luiz (Juventus)
The 27-year-old would not have predicted strong links with Leeds United this summer as he was making his £42m move to Juventus this time last year. But a paltry 516 Serie A minutes for the Old Lady last season appears to have left Luiz with little option but to leave with apparently scant options for a new club if he doesn’t want to take the Saudi Arabia dive.
Juventus are apparently willing to listen to offers of around €40m (£34m) for the Brazilian, who would at worst be an excellent squad/rotation player for Arteta, and could even force himself into the team given his wealth of Premier League experience. He really was brilliant for Villa in his final season for the club.