Arsenal correspondent Charles Watts doesn’t think it’s feasible for the club to sign a new left-back this window.
There was some bad news from the Gunners camp yesterday ahead of their game with Crystal Palace, as first-choice left-back Kieran Tierney was diagnosed with a muscle injury that could keep him out for some time depending on the results of a scan.
Having recently allowed Sead Kolašinac to leave the club, the club are now left a little bit short when it comes to natural left-backs. But speaking on the latest edition of his show, Watts doesn’t believe that Mikel Arteta’s men have the finances to make the deal happen, and even if they did, it wouldn’t be the priority.
He said: “Financially, things are very, very difficult. You can’t go and spend much money to bring in a backup left-back. They just don’t have that cash to do it.
“And spending on a backup left-back – is it wise? I just don’t think it is. I think when you’ve got [Bukayo] Saka who can play there; you’ve got [Ainsley] Maitland-Niles who can play there – he has played well there in the past, remember. I just don’t think you can commit to spending even 5, 6, 7 million pounds on a backup left-back.”
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TIF Thoughts on Watts’ opinion over Arsenal’s left-back situation…
Watts raises some good points here. Given the state the club are in right now, it is probably best to deal with what the team have from within rather than spending money that they don’t necessarily have for the rest of this season. But it does perhaps act as a little bit of a warning about how they could do their business going forward.
It’s no secret how important Tierney is to Arsenal, with some going so far as hinting that he could be a future captain for them, and they can’t take his position for granted.
So perhaps in the summer window, once they’ve got this season’s worth of prize money through, it might just be looking for someone more comfortable to take his place rather than shoe-horning a midfielder in his place like the aforementioned Bukayo Saka or Ainsley Maitland-Niles.