Arsenal have hired former Atletico Madrid sporting director Andrea Berta to lead the club in the same role, replacing Edu, who left the Gunners in early November of last year to head up the Nottingham Forest project (among a group of clubs).
Berta has the task of turning Arsenal into a Premier League champion again. It’s been decades since Arsenal last reached the very summit of the Premier League, and while they came close to winning it all in each of the past two seasons, the Gunners have fallen far behind in the 2024/25 season.
With the struggles in front of goal this season, Arsenal clearly need to sign a top striker after balking on addressing the position in the summer 2024 transfer window. But even after signing one of the best midfielders in LaLiga last year in Mikel Merino, it appears midfield will continue to be a priority for the Gunners, especially with Thomas Partey expected to leave.
Arsenal are after Bruno Guimaraes and Marin Zubimendi
According to a report from Edu Burgos of Diario AS, Berta wants to sign Newcastle star defensive midfielder Bruno Guimaraes and Real Sociedad star Martin Zubimendi. One of these moves would be Berta’s first as the new Arsenal sporting director this summer.
It would be a bit controversial for Berta to sign a midfielder before a striker, but, materially, Arsenal fans shouldn’t have any qualms about either world-class player joining the squad.
Even with Declan Rice and Mikel Merino, the Arsenal midfield base could still use some blood, especially a defensive presence. Zubimendi and Bruno G. are two very different players, with Zubi being more of an orchestrator and Bruno being more of a box-to-box player.
Arsenal could afford to sign both, but when it comes to allocation of resources and the expected cost of a top striker like Benjamin Sesko, Viktor Gyokeres, and especially Alexander Isak, it’s important for the Gunners to budget enough money for a striker who will really take them to the next level.
Even if Bruno Guimaraes is had for a discounted 60 million pounds – if Newcastle don’t qualify for next season’s Champions League – that’s still quite the chunk of change, and Zubi would cost a similar amount. So 120 million pounds for both isn’t happening, particularly since the Swedish international Isak alone would cost a similar amount of money from Newcastle on the summer 2025 transfer window (just for the sake of comparison).
