Former Arsenal boss George Graham has urged Mikel Arteta to go out and sign “two or three” new players that cost “£75m to £100m”.
Thomas Partey and Gabriel Magalhaes arrived in the summer for sizeable fees, while free transfer Willian will have commanded large wages but the Gunners total outlay has been fairly modest.
Arsenal were one of the only Premier League clubs to bring anyone to the club in January with Martin Odegaard arriving on loan until the end of the season from Real Madrid.
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Despite that, Graham hopes Arsenal can find funds to bring in as much as £300m worth of talent in the summer transfer window.
“They have got problems, but they can rectify them with three players,” Graham told the Daily Express. “Arteta is doing a very good job. But while he has improved the players, he has only improved them to a certain point.
“They have got to have natural ability to get to the next level. Arsenal have outstanding young players, but they need help. Quality players around them to show them the way. They need to go out and buy two or three players, each costing £75m to £100m.
“Mikel Arteta will know the players he needs. If he buys intelligent players, he will make them into top class defenders. Arsenal had waited 18 years before I won my first title in 1989. It’s been 17 years now. The sooner that money is spent, the better.”
Meanwhile, David Luiz’s contract expires at the end of the current campaign and former Arsenal defender Martin Keown says he would be “surprised” if the Gunners retained him.
“When he came I said it was the wrong signing,” Keown said. “I didn’t wait for six months or a year, I just felt it wasn’t the direction I would have gone in.
“I was looking at it from a defensive point of view, as what I’m looking for as a priority for a top defender in a one-v-one situation.
“David Luiz has surprised me with how well he has done but he needs to be in a back-five. He plays his best football in a five and at the moment we are playing in a four so there is always that vulnerability.
“For that reason I would like to go in a different direction – we will see what happens in the summer, they should be looking at strengthening, they have got to be.”
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