Mikel Arteta reportedly stamped his mark at Arsenal in January after vetoing the club’s interest in Bayer Leverkusen forward Kevin Volland dating back to Unai Emery’s tenure.
The 27-year-old, who has been capped 10 times by Germany, has bagged 11 goals and nine assists in 31 appearances so far this season, although he suffered an injury at the end of February and could return when the season resumes.
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According to the Mirror, Arsenal had been tracking the forward through 2019 under Emery’s stewardship and continued to monitor him when the Spaniard departed north London with Freddie Ljungberg put in temporary charge.
However, once Arteta arrived at the Emirates, it’s reported that he raised his concerns with Volland to technical director Edu and head of football Raul Sanllehi, and subsequently their interest was seemingly dropped to focus on other areas of the squad.
Arsenal have certainly improved both in terms of results and performances since Arteta took the job, and he’ll be hoping to continue to stamp his mark on the squad ahead of next season by bringing in players better suited to his ideas and plans moving forward.
That process could now potentially be complicated by the coronavirus crisis as spending could be impacted across the board given the financial hit that clubs have taken and continue to take, and so it remains to be seen if reinforcements do in fact arrive at Arsenal this summer.
Based on the report above though, it doesn’t sound as though Volland will be on the Arsenal radar moving forward, although with ongoing question marks hanging over Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s future at the club with his current contract set to expire in 2021, signing a forward could become more of a priority for Arteta than he would like this summer.