Arsenal identified more than 20 potential forwards in their pursuit of reinforcing the attack, yet the club ultimately missed the mark on adding an elite striker. While Mikel Arteta received reinforcement in defence and midfield, the search for an attacker proved futile due to a series of missed opportunities and valuation disputes.<\/p>\n
Ollie Watkins was the primary target, with Aston Villa initially asking \u00a3100m. Arsenal valued him at \u00a380m, but when Villa raised their demand to \u00a3120m following Chelsea’s \u00a3116m move for Morgan Gibbs-White, the gap widened. Arsenal were offered the chance to match Chelsea’s final bid of \u00a3117m but refused, maintaining that their valuation was fair. It remains unclear if quicker action from sporting director Edu Berta could have changed the outcome.<\/p>\n
The failure to secure Watkins was part of a broader pattern of disappointment for Berta. The club held genuine belief they could sign Vinicius Jr, with both Berta and Arteta fully backing the move despite expectations of a British record fee and massive wages. However, concerns emerged that Arsenal\u2019s interest was being used to leverage a better contract at Real Madrid. Vinicius subsequently signed a new long-term deal in Spain.<\/p>\n
Arsenal also persisted with Julian Alvarez despite clear signals he preferred Barcelona. Atletico Madrid rejected a sale to Barca, prompting Arsenal to wait until the final days of the window in hopes Alvarez would reconsider. He chose to stay, though his relationship with Atletico is reportedly strained.<\/p>\n
Questions have been raised about Berta’s reliance on agent networks over internal scouting data. Last summer, the club shifted from Benjamin Sesko to Viktor Gyokeres due to Berta’s connections. This window saw a late interest in Malick Fofana through Roc Nation, an agency representing Vinicius and Gabriel Martinelli, who has since departed. Alternatives such as Bradley Barcola, Kenan Yildiz, Yan Diomande, Nico Paz, and Joao Pedro were also considered, with Yildiz and Paz expected to remain targets.<\/p>\n
The lack of a proven goalscorer comes as a significant concern with Martinelli and Leandro Trossard already departed, leaving Arsenal’s attacking options thinner heading into the new season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal pursued over 20 strikers this summer, but failed to secure a top-level attacker as Berta pivoted between targets like Watkins and Vinicius Jr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1552,39,2216,318,2214,663,2215,10],"class_list":["post-1050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-arsenal","tag-breaking","tag-edu-berta","tag-football","tag-ollie-watkins","tag-transfers","tag-vinicius-jr","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}