North London club on the verge of landing three exciting new recruits.
Arsenal will complete the triple capture of Bayern Munich’s Luiz Gustavo, Liverpool front man Luis Suarez and Swansea City defender Ashley Williams by the end of next week.
The north London club have so far been busy trying to secure a number of marquee signings during the summer transfer window ahead of the new Premier League season, which gets under way next weekend.
However, as yet Gunners head coach Arsene Wenger has been stymied in all his various attempts to sign a big-name player, despite the fact that chief executive Ivan Gazidis confirmed earlier this summer that the Frenchman had a whopping £70 million transfer war chest at his disposal.
But now the club’s long wait to land a new recruit this summer is set to come to end with the purchase of three exciting internationals, who all should be Arsenal players by the time they take on Aston Villa at the Emirates next Saturday.
The first of those new arrivals will be Bayern’s hugely rated Brazil international Gustavo, who Wenger has been keeping close tabs on all summer long after the 26-year-old shone for the Bundesliga champions on their run to winning last season’s Uefa Champions League at Wembley.
The defensive midfield player has a current contract at the Allianz Arena that now only runs until June 2015 and as such is set to join the Gunners for a cut-price £14m, much to Wenger’s relief as the manager has been targeting a new holding midfield player ever since Alex Song left the club to join FC Barcelona last summer.
Next to sign on in the capital will be Swans skipper Williams, another player that Arsenal have been monitoring since the end of last season, although Wenger first wanted to check on the fitness of club captain Thomas Vermaelen during preseason before deciding on whether or not to make a move for the Wales international.
However, with the Belgium having been forced to miss Arsenal’s summer tour of the Far East with a recurrence of his long-standing back problem that he picked up on international duty earlier this summer, the Gunners’ boss has now decided that he cannot rely on Vermaelen going forward at the Emirates.
As a result, the club are now expected to tie up a deal for Williams by the end of the week after meeting the South Wales club’s £10m valuation of their centre back, who was one of the stand-out defenders in the Premier League last season.
All of which leaves Arsenal’s long-running pursuit of mercurial Liverpool forward Suarez, which Gazidis now expects to be wrapped up by Friday after the Merseysiders themselves moved a step closer to signing a replacement for the Uruguay international in the form of Juventus striker Alessandro Matri.
And with Arsenal now prepared to finally meet Liverpool’s £50m valuation of Suarez, that transfer will be the third and final one of the summer for the Gunners.