A holding midfielder has been a priority for the Gunners since January. At the time, an asking price for Southampton’s Schneiderlin was reasonable to Wenger, but he had to rethink the deal after seeing the form they hit.
Now they are yet to follow up an enquiry for the Morgan Schneiderlin, and now a deal for Juventus’ Arturo Vidal has broken down. And still, Wenger is contemplating if he needs another Central Midfielder.
As the season was coming to a close, Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla rose high in the pecking order, as they finished the season high beating Aston Villa 4-0 in the FA Cup Final, second consecutive cup win. Other competitors in that position include Welsh international Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, who may make a move to Manchester City, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mathieu Flamini, and Tomas Rosicky. And Wegner still needs to decide if he needs to spend money on to that area.
The issue with the defensive midfield role is that the natural back up for Coquelin is Arteta, and he is still in negotiations for signing a new contract. Also Mathieu Flamini is currently low in the pecking order, and Arsenal is open to listen to offers. This essentially leaves with Wilshere, who has played will with England in that role but has many injury problems, and is seen as more attacking by Wenger. Also leaves with Ramsey, but after Vidal being monitored closely for the past year, it has been concluded that they are similar players.
Another Arsenal target is Schneiderlin, who is an expert at the shielding role for the Saints, but Manchester United have went on to enquire since the end of the season, and Arsenal have kept quiet. Currently Wenger is working with a budget of around £50 million, which includes wages and the money spent on Petr Cech, and it could be that Arsenal joins in the bidding for him soon.
Wenger’s has also been following the two German brothers, Sven and Lars Bender. He will most likely wait during pre-season to further assess his options.
