Arsenal are, according to reports, expected to complete deals to sign St Etienne centre-back William Saliba and Celtic full-back Kieran Tierney in the very near future, but will signing the duo be enough to improve the Gunners’ shaky backline?
With funds rather limited after a second successive season without Champions League football, Unai Emery’s transfer budget isn’t exactly overflowing so perhaps he has had to be more frugal than he’d want to be.
However, what is abundantly clear is that Arsenal need reinforcements at the back and it looks like Saliba and Tierney will be the players coming in to help improve what was, by all accounts, a poor defence last season.
Whilst it’s great to see Emery acting, knowing full well that his defenders let him down last year, the worry in the back of Arsenal fans will be about the level of quality that the new signings will bring.
Saliba and Tierney might turn out to be world class superstars, in which case, everyone’s a winner. However, you often get what you pay for with transfers, with bargains now being a rarity and the question is, are Saliba and Tierney good enough for a team hoping to win a title or are they only good enough for a team battling for a fourth-placed finish? If it’s the latter, then the apparent short-termism of the transfers should worry Arsenal supporters.
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