New Arsenal boss Unai Emery hasn’t ruled out a sixth major summer signing before the start of the new English Premier League season.
The Spanish manager is acclimatising to life at Arsenal, rather than in North London, during The Gunners’ tour that has taken them from The United States to Singapore to Dublin where they beat Chelsea last night on penalties. Arsenal’s next assignment is against Lazio on Saturday and then the real countdown to the EPL season opener against Champions Man City begins.
The talk is that Emery is open to signing one more player, provided that the opportunity arises and that this player improves his squad. Arsenal has added goalkeeper Bernd Leno, defenders Stephan Lichtsteiner and Sokratis Papastathopoulos, and midfielders Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi. 19-year-old Guendouzi has impressed, notably in starts against Atlético, PSG and Chelse as a deep-lying midfielder. There has also been the emergence of Emile Smith Rowe, who turned 18 just five days ago, and the Englishman has been rewarded for his fine pre-season performances with a new contract at the club.
But with a limited budget available because of Arsenal’s failure to qualify for the Champions League, Emery might have to sell before he buys and the media rumours of a swap deal involving Arsenal number 8 Aaron Ramsey and Barcelona’s French winger Ousmane Dembélé won’t go away. Emery has deflected questions about Ramsey’s precarious contract situation at the club, the Welshman’s deal expires in a year’s time, rather focusing on pre-season preparations
Unai Emery has played down talk of an imminent move for Steven N’Zonzi.
The Sevilla midfielder has long been linked with a move to Arsenal, but those links have intensified since Emery arrived in May given the pair worked together so successfully during their time at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium.
But speaking after Wednesday night’s penalty shoot-out win against Chelsea in Dublin, Emery was remaining coy when quizzed on the possible arrival of N’Zonzi during the next seven days.
“At the moment I am very happy with the players who are with with us,” said Arsenal’s head coach. “There are more coming; Nacho Monreal, Lucas [Torreira] and [Granit] Xhaka will start to play some minutes on Saturday.
“I am telling you, and we are saying internally, we are OK. And only want positives when we take the option to sign – but not especially for N’Zonzi.”
Ramsey has now entered the final year of his current deal in north London and has yet to put pen to paper on fresh terms, despite a five-year extension being on the table.
The Wales international insists he is focusing purely on football while the talks continue and that he is looking forward to the new season under Emery.
But Arsenal could yet look to sell the 27-year-old before next Thursday’s transfer deadline if an agreement is not reached imminently, with Chelsea keeping close tabs on the situation.
And Emery admits the final decision about Ramsey’s future will not be down to him.
“I think this is a question for the club and for the player,” said Emery. “My opinion is clear, I want him to be with us. But that is a question for continuing the conversation with the player and the club. “My opinion is that he’s a professional and he’s in the team. He’s the type of player I want in this team. But the contract is one thing only for the club and the player.”
In November 2013, Ramsey was ranked alongside Manchester City’s Yaya Touré as the best central midfielder in the 2013–14 Premier League season. Ramsey had touched the ball more times than any other player (1,115) and had made the most tackles (57). On 24 December 2013, Ramsey and Touré were reported to be the only two players in the Premier League to have completed more than 1,000 passes.
Despite missing over three months of the 2013–14 Premier League, Ramsey remained the Arsenal player who has won the most tackles.He was also the team’s second-top scorer for the season (16 goals), and provided the second-highest number of assists for the season (8).
In December 2015, former Liverpool player Steven Gerrard hailed Ramsey as “the best attacking midfielder in the Premier League”