How Arsenal could have lined-up if Unai Emery completed the transfers he wanted, including Harry Maguire and Wilfried Zaha
Unai Emery reportedly wanted to bring in Harry Maguire, Wilfried Zaha and Thomas Partey to Arsenal during the summer transfer window.
The Gunners had ambitious plans to recruit those players if they had secured Champions League football.
Emery’s side failed to finish in the top four and then missed out on a second chance at playing in Europe’s elite club competition by losing in the Europa League final.
That failure to secure Champions League football scuppered those plans, write
Harry Maguire, then of Leicester, was one of their top targets but their dreadful end to last season put them out of the running for the defender who later joined Manchester United - who also failed to qualify for the Champions League - for £80m.
LATEST FOOTBALL NEWS
Arsenal were also keen on Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey, who was reportedly desperate to move to north London, but his £42million release clause proved too expensive.
Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha was linked with Arsenal all summer, with the player even understood to have handed in a transfer request, but the asking price was out of their price range.
They eventually signed Nicolas Pepe instead from Lille for a club record £72million.
Also brought in were Kieran Tierney from Celtic for £25million and David Luiz from Chelsea for £8million.
Had they achieved Champions League football then Arsenal’s summer could have been very different.
LIVE on talkSPORT
Check out all the live commentaries coming up across our network this week...
- Red Bull Salzburg vs Liverpool (Tuesday, 5:55pm) – talkSPORT 2
- Leeds vs Hull (Tuesday, 7:45pm) – talkSPORT 2
- Dinamo Zagreb vs Man City (Wednesday, 5:55pm) – talkSPORT 2
- Derby vs Sheffield Wednesday (Wednesday, 7:45pm) – talkSPORT 2
- Bayern Munich vs Tottenham (Wednesday, 8pm) – talkSPORT
- Standard Liege vs Arsenal (Thursday, 5:55pm) – talkSPORT 2
- Charlton vs Hull (Friday, 7:45pm) – talkSPORT 2
- Liverpool vs Watford (Saturday, 12:30pm) – talkSPORT
- Birmingham vs West Brom (Saturday, 12:30pm) – talkSPORT 2
- Chelsea vs Bournemouth (Saturday, 3pm) – talkSPORT 2
- Southampton vs West Ham (Saturday, 5:30pm) – talkSPORT
The Gunners still spent in excess of £130million on their transfers but things failed to improve on the pitch.
Unai Emery was sacked on November 29 following a series of poor results and a winless run of seven games.
Here is how Emery’s side could have looked if he had signed the players he wanted over the summer.
