Arsenal manager Unai Emery has expressed his desire to bolster his options this January window with the club working on potential deals.
The Gunners were dealt another injury blow at the weekend as Hector Bellerin was ruled out for up to nine months after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament.
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- Bellerin joined Rob Holding on the sidelines after both players ruptured their anterior cruciate ligaments in the past month.
- The Spaniard’s injury only adds to the growing problems for Arsenal in defence, with Granit Xhaka already forced to play at left-back and centre-back this season.
- Danny Welbeck is another long-term absentee while Henrikh Mkhitaryan has only just returned to training following a broken foot.
- Emery has also revealed his trust issues with Mesut Ozil, who has not featured in the previous five matches.
- As such, Emery may be forced to seek reinforcements with the club pushing for a top four finish.
Emery has been forced to deploy a makeshift defence on a number of occasions this season, sparking rumours of a move for Man Utd’s Eric Bailly, and while the Red Devils have reportedly rebuffed Arsenal’s interest, the Spaniard is determined to recruit this winter.
Emery told reporters: “The club continues to work on that. I think we need – and we can – sign some players to help after our injuries like Rob Holding, like [Danny] Welbeck, like Bellerin.
“The idea is firstly to find the quality. We need a winger for the right or left or some players at centre back. But Dinos Mavropanos is coming back after his injuries and I think I can use him in the next matches.”
It has been announced Arsenal’s head of recruitment, Sven Mislintat, will be leaving the club this month.
Roma sporting director Monchi, who worked with Emery at Sevilla, has been mentioned as a potential replacement.
The current Arsenal boss said: “I worked very well with [Monchi] for three-and-a-half years and my relationship with him is good. [But] this issue is the club’s responsibility.”
Meticulous Monchi
Ramon Rodriguez Verdejo, or Monchi as he is more commonly known, has forged a formidable reputation for his intelligent work as Sevilla’s Director of Football.
The 50-year-old has built his career around shrewd transfer activity, making a number of acute signings before selling them on for huge profit.
His dealings include signing Dani Alves from Bahia in 2002 for less than £500,000, before selling him to Barcelona for around £26m. And that was also the case for Adriano, Seydou Keita, Ivan Rakitic and Aleix Vidal, who were all signed for peanuts and then sold for substantial profit to Barcelona.
The Spaniard also took from Barca and sold for a profit, bringing Martin Caceres to the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium before Juventus snapped him up in 2012.
Other deals include Gary Medel to Cardiff, Christian Poulsen to Juventus, Federico Fazio to Spurs, Julio Baptista to Real Madrid, Geoffrey Kondogbia to Monaco and Grzegorz Krychowiak to PSG.
And his reputation has only accelerated in the Italian capital with Roma, prompting Arsenal to seek his services in north London.
The post Arsenal still working on January signings, says Unai Emery appeared first on Squawka News.
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