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Arsenal will be largely forced to rely on free transfers and player swaps when the transfer window finally opens.
Like many Premier League clubs, the Gunners have been hit hard financially by the coronavirus pandemic. The players – apart from one or two high profile exceptions – have agreed to a 12.5% salary cut, and the clubs accepts that it will only have a very limited budget to spend on new players this summer, although player sales could boost the kitty.
Instead they are likely to turn their attention to out of contract players and exploring options for player swap deals. Such deals are notoriously hard to negotiate because of the difficulty in coming to a mutual agreement as to the value of the two players involved.
However, Arsenal have previous experience of such a deal in January 2018, when Alexis Sanchez headed to Manchester United, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan came in the opposite direction.
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.