Here are the Arsenal morning headlines for Friday, July 17.
Sokratis against move despite interest
Greek centre-back Sokratis Papastothopoulos has fallen out of favour at the Gunners, unused by Mikel Arteta since the restart despite rotating a three-man defence.
Sokratis is not believed to be part of the manager’s plans for the long-term and he had been linked with a move back to Germany, but the Telegraph (via the Express) suggest the 32-year-old has no intention of leaving this summer.
With one year left on his deal, worth more than £90,000-a-week, he’s intent on sitting out the final 12 months even if he doesn’t feature.
At that point he’d leave on a free transfer — further depriving Arsenal of a chance to recoup a fee for him.
Board must back Arteta in the market
Arsenal are miles off the teams at the top of the Premier League, despite what the scoreboard said at the end of 90 minutes against Liverpool.
Arteta knows he needs time to improve the team on the training ground, but also funds to invest in new personnel if he is to take the club forward.
Former midfielder Perry Groves fears a huge amount of investment is required to close the gap and suggests the starting point is a £150million spend in the transfer market.
“Arsenal need money spent in different areas, especially at centre-half and in central midfield,” he said on talkSPORT. "We’ve got a lot of young players coming in, which is good, but watching the game against Liverpool it was survival football, let’s be honest.
“But I can see what Arteta is trying to do, I can see there’s a plan of closing down and being tighter as a unit, but at the moment he’s dealing with six, seven, eight players he knows he doesn’t really want.
“There is a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, but the finances, that squad probably needs £100-150 million spent on it.”
Arteta’s dilemma in game-plan against Man City
Arteta’s preferred lineup is slowly taking shape, but there are a few positions that still appear up for grabs, particularly at right-wing back.
Cedric Soares has featured there recently, but he is ineligible for the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City meaning the manager has to decide between Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Hector Bellerin.
While the Spaniard has seen more starts of late, the pairing with Nicolas Pepe is all-important for the one-off nature of the game and there’s a case to be made for Maitland-Niles getting the nod instead.
The FA Cup looks now to be Arsenal’s best bet of a Europa League spot, but it’ll be another tough 90 minutes of defensive action against City to get there.
