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The Daily Telegraph reports that Unai Emery’s Arsenal career has received an early boost with the news that the club’s majority shareholder Stan Kroenke has agreed to release an extra £20 million pounds in transfer funds.
The club’s board had set a figure of £50 million to be spent in the summer window on new players, discounting any money raised from the sale of players, but now this ceiling has been lifted as Emery begins the task of rebuilding his squad.
Arsenal have identified defence and midfield as areas that need strengthening, whilst they may also be looking at reinforcements in the goalkeeping department. Sven Mislintat, Arsenal’s head of recruitment, has already identified a number of potential targets, including Freiburg defender Caglar Soyuncu, and Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno.
Emery has claimed he only intends to make small changes to his squad for next season, and has also promised to use some of Arsenal’s promising young players, with Ainsley Maitland-Niles, in particular, firmly in the new manager’s plans.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.