Mikel Arteta admits that Arsenal’s current contract situation will help determine their summer recruitment strategy, as pressure to bring in heavy reinforcement piles on.
Speaking in his press conference ahead of the game against Chelsea on Wednesday, the Gunners boss understandably faced questions about the club’s summer transfer policy after what has been an extremely difficult season, as Arsenal look set to finish outside of a European spot for the first time in 25 years.
Arsenal have been linked with a number of players recently, including a reunion for Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and a move for Brighton midfielder Yves Bissouma.
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It seems as though the squad will change drastically before the start of next year’s Premier League campaign, so how exactly are the club preparing for such a huge overhaul?
“We’ve been sitting down the whole year,” Arteta told football.london. “We’ve been in constant communication and things will change, some things will stick to the plan that we already had and some other things will come out. But we sit down very, very regularly to talk about those things.”
However, the Spaniard has admitted that the number of incomings will be impacted by Arsenal’s current contract situation, amid growing uncertainty over many of the players’ future at the club.
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“There are so many things to do because we already have a lot of players on loan and a lot of players with contracts still that we need to sort,” he added. “It will depend on what happens with a lot of those players and what we are able to recruit to improve the team, that is going to determine where we are.”
The Gunners have just three games left to salvage any pride from a season they’ll want to forget about quickly before the real hard work away from the pitch begins.