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Football London
Football London
Sport
Andy Ha

Kia Joorabchian's request to Stan Kroenke amid Arsenal's Philippe Coutinho transfer talks

Kia Joorabchian has previously called on Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke to provide the club with financial backing in the transfer window.

Last summer, a group of influential Gunners supporters’ organisations, fanzines and blogs joined forces in a campaign called '#WeCareDoYou’, to criticise the imbalance of the Arsenal board and the transfer strategy under Kroenke.

Joorabchian, who represents a number of high-profile footballers including Barcelona and Brazil playmaker Philippe Coutinho, grew up an Arsenal fan and admitted that he shared the frustrations of his fellow supporters, and called on the Gunners owner to make the finances available.

“I feel for the guys that have just come in – Raul [Sanllehi – head of football] and Edu and [former manager] Unai Emery,” he told talkSPORT at the time.

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“I feel for them because we have finally got incredibly knowledgeable footballing people there.

“Raul came in from Barcelona, Edu came from the Brazil national team and is an legend at Arsenal, and Emery is a fantastic coach who has coached at Sevilla and PSG.

“Finally Arsenal have people who really understand football and are footballing people in the back room staff, but the question is whether or not the finances will be made available.

“If you don’t make the finances available, there is no big secret. If you cannot buy some strong players… they have to reinforce in defence, they have to reinforce in midfield and they have to reinforce out wide.

“Arsenal have a great advantage that they already have what many clubs are looking for – two world class strikers in Aubameyang and Lacazette. The problem is they have to rebuild everywhere else as the rest of the team is lacking.

“So unless the finances are made available it puts a lot of pressure on the guys they have hired to be able to deliver what they’ve been brought in to deliver.”

Joorabchian's previous message comes with his client Coutinho now being linked with a move to Arsenal this summer.

According to Le10 Sport, Arsenal are preparing to begin talks to sign the Brazilian midfielder, who is currently on loan at Bayern Munich from Barcelona.

The report claims Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta 'dreams' of linking up with the midfielder at The Emirates and sees Coutinho as the ideal addition to his squad.

They add that Arsenal have already made plans to meet with Joorabchian to discuss a potential transfer, with Arteta fully behind the move.

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