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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has hinted that the club may have to sell players before they can buy in the January transfer window after admitting they are “restricted” by the size of their squad.
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The Gunners were unable to move several fringe players in the summer with Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Sead Kolasinac and Mesut Ozil among those available only to remain at the club.
Arteta is eager to get stronger in January, although he will need to raise funds to help fund significant income after activating Thomas Partey’s £ 45m release clause to sign him from Atlético Madrid on the September deadline.
The Gunners remain interested in signing another midfielder with RB Salzburg’s Dominik Szoboszlai and Lyon’s Houssem Aouar among the names on their list of finalists, while Arteta would also like to strengthen himself as a center-back.
But Arteta has suggested that any move is likely to hinge on cutting back a bloated first-team group that led to him shutting out Sokratis, Ozil and the £ 27 million who signed William Saliba from their Premier League and Europa League teams.
“We are planning, talking to [technical director] Edu and with the club about the things we can do in January ”, he said.
“But at the moment it is quite difficult, unpredictable as well. In terms of places, we are very restricted at the moment. We will see what happens, I think things will move in the market, we will be prepared, we will need to do something knowing the limitations of that market in January and the limitations we also have to sign players “.
Arsenal are 14th in the Premier League ahead of Sunday’s north London derby at Tottenham and Arteta admitted his team is still some way from competing for the game’s biggest prizes again.
“Like I said before, even when we were winning we were still very, very far from what I wanted,” he said. “And when we’re losing, you obviously see things even further, but again, the margins between where we were losing and winning have sometimes been very, very small. There are reasons for that and it’s going to take time, sorry.”
Source: espn.co.uk
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