Emirates Stadium side look to bring in new additions within the next week to ten days.
Having thus far failed to spend a single penny on summer additions Arsene Wenger is ready to step up efforts to bring in a trio of talents to significantly boost his Arsenal squad.
CaughtOffside understands that the Gunners boss has been encouraged to spend by the club’s board who have handed Wenger a large transfer fund with which to lure new signings to the Emirates Stadium and have accepted his request to increase the club’s wage ceiling to further aid the push to secure big name players this month.
Having failed with two previous bids for Liverpool striker Luis Suarez Arsene Wenger is ready to make a third and final offer for the 26 year old Uruguayan.
Such is the Arsenal boss’s determination to bring in the lethal Premier League striker that he is willing to break the British transfer record to land the forward. Though Arsenal are of course not well known for ‘splashing the cash’ Wenger is willing to offer £51m for Suarez, a fee that Liverpool will struggle to turn down given the situation they find themselves in.
Suarez is pretty much burning all his bridges at Anfield and it’s hard to imagine the former Ajax man ever playing for the club following accusations he has leveled at Liverpool regarding promises he feels he has been made in relation to a summer exit.
Arsene Wenger doesn’t have many striking options of note in his Arsenal squad, indeed given the fact that the Arsenal manager likes to play Lukas Podolski and Theo Walcott in wide roles he can really only turn to Olivier Giroud to lead the line at present and after managing a decidedly average total of 11 goals from 34 Premier League appearances last season it’s fair to say that a more prolific marksman is needed, hence the continued push to sign Luis Suarez.
Arsenal are believed to have already agreed a five year deal with Suarez, said to be worth £150k a week, during talks the club underwent with the Liverpool man after their £40m plus £1 bid triggered the clause that allowed talks between the Gunners and the player to take place.
Luis Suarez scored 30 goals in all competitions last term and will miss the first six matches of the new campaign, the remaining portion of the ten match ban he received for biting Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic.
Arsene Wenger will look to strengthen his defensive options by making an £11m bid for Swansea City centre-back Ashley Williams, an offer that is said to meet the South Wales side’s valuation of the no nonsense 28 year old defender.
On hearing of Arsenal’s interest Williams is thought to have made it clear to his Liberty Stadium employers that he wants to move to the North London club. It’s a step-up that the Welsh international can not afford to ignore at this stage of his career.
Wenger sees Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker as his first choice centre-back pairing but has not been all that pleased with the form shown by Belgian Thomas Vermaelen, who was frozen out of first team action in the final months of 2012/13 and as such is keen to bring in Williams to offer him stronger fall-back options.
Though a move to Arsenal is with a view to filling a supporting role Ashley Williams may feel he can force his way into Wenger’s plans and over the past 18 months the tough tackler has been in fine form and is a reliable defender who never shirks a tackle.
Perhaps more in keeping with Arsene Wenger’s usual transfer approach is his interest in German wonderkid Julian Draxler, an approach that the Arsenal manger is ready to make official with an offer of £21m for the 19 year old midfielder.
The rangy German international is very much a box to box operator, able to add steel to the Arsenal midfield whilst also offering a very real attacking threat.
The teenager has already amassed over 100 appearances for Schalke and has half a dozen national team caps to his name and is very much considered one of the hottest prospects in European football.
Arsenal will hope to persuade Draxler to make a move to the English top tier this summer though Schalke may well ask for a bigger fee for a player of such potential.
Arsene Wenger has successfully culled a great many underperformers from his squad, helping to adopt a quality over quantity ethos that will help reduce the wage burden to the extent that will allow Arsenal to offer higher salaries to the very high end of his first team playing staff.