Transfer Analysis Part 3

Welcome back to the Transfer Analysis series, and today we will be looking at which transfer moves Arsenal, Leeds United, Aston Villa and Wolves should be looking to carry out in the upcoming transfer window.

Arsenal

Need to Buy: Ryan Bertrand (Southampton, soon-to-be free agent), Tariq Lamptey (Brighton), Achraf Hakimi (Inter Milan) Sander Berge/Yves Bissouma(Sheffield United/Brighton), Ivan Toney (Brentford) and Emi Buendia (Norwich City)

Need to Sell/Loan out: Lacazette, Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah, Willian, Xhaka, Elneny, Bellerin, Luiz, Ceballos, Martinelli and Chambers

Need to Keep: Bernd Leno, Tierney, Gabriel, Holding, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Aubameyang, Mat Ryan, Pablo Mari. Emile Smith Rowe and Joe Willock

The Arsenal needs a major revamping this season, given how disappointing and dismal the team have been all season, with only a handful of player who I have mentioned above in the Need to Keep section performing well or showing potential to succeed if better players were brought in to help. They should be kept, and the team should be built around them or with them in mind in order for the Gunners to succeed. The rest of the squad have either been average, or belong in the section where they should be sold in order to bring in more talented and suitable replacements. Lacazette will have to leave since his contract is ending soon and it looks like he won’t renew it, while Nelson,Nketiah and Martinelli have fallen short of expectations and require loan or permanent moves from the Emirates to gain back their goal-scoring form. Finally, the rest of the players mentioned are simply past their best, and need to be sold to make way for newer and younger players. Finally, I have mentioned some of the players Arsenal could (and should) sign in order to even have a chance to qualify for the Europa League, forget the Champions League. These players will provide quality squad depth, while also fixing some problem areas like midfield and right-back.

Leeds United

Need to Buy: Ryan Bertrand (Soon-to-be Free Agent), Sander Berge (Sheffield United) and Todd Cantwell (Norwich City)

Need to Sell: Roberts, Poveda, Hernandez and Forshaw

Need to Keep: Bamford, Dallas, Phillips, Meslier, Llorente, Klich, Harrison, Raphinha and Robin Koch.

This Leeds side do not need much tampering, with only a few outgoings required to fund just three signings in order to fix the main weaknesses of this side, left-back, CAM and a box-to-box midfielder to support Dallas. Ryan Bertrand would be more comfortable moving to Leeds over Arsenal since he would be guaranteed more playing time there than at the Emirates, and will be a realistic target for Leeds. The Yorkshire club will have to put more effort in keeping their star players, such as Raphinha from bigger clubs, who will be waiting to pounce on these stars for a cut-price deal due to the financial uncertainty of this market.

Aston Villa

Need to Buy: Josh King (Everton), Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Axel Tuanzebe or Mason Holgate (Man Utd and Everton), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea) and Matheus Peirera ( West Brom)

Need to Sell: Tom Heaton, Neil Taylor, Engels, Nakamba, Wesley

Need to Keep: Jack Grealish, Bertrand Traore, Matty Cash, Matt Targett, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins.

Aston Villa have been aston-ishingly good (get it?) this season, and will be looking forward to pushing for European football next season. To do this, they may need a couple of in-comings and out-goings, with a quality back-up midfielder, striker, left back and centre back needed to strengthen the squad. Josh King would be a reliable back-up for Watkins, Bertrand would be a really cheap and quality left-back who could compete with Targett, Tuanzebe and Holgate are two young talents who could potentially blossom at Villa, and Loftus-Cheek and Peirera would be welcome additions to a midfield over-reliant on Grealish. Speaking of Grealish, he is one of many stars the Villans will want to keep this season, in order to ensure their success in the PL.

Wolves:

Need to Buy: Jesus Corona/Nabil Fekir (Roma/Real Betis), Oliver Skipp (Totteham), Carlos Vinicius (Benfica) and Daniel Rugani (Juventus)

Need to Sell: Morgan Gibbs-White, Jonny, and Adama Traore

Need to Keep: Conor Coady, Raul Jimenez, Willian Jose, Dondenecker, Pedro Neto and Rui Patricio

The Midlands side do not need much changes this season, despite having an underwhelming 2020/21. The only players Nuno needs are a new striker, a right winger and a box-to-box midfielder. They could also use a reliable back-up centre-back in order to avoid using auxiliary ones when Coady or another of their centre-backs are injured. They also don’t really need to get rid of much players, and I am sure my listing of Traore under the Need to Sell category is quite controversial, but hear me out. The Spaniard may have had a good first and second season at Wolves, but has been found out this season and thus has underperformed massively. He has also fallen out of favour with Nuno, his manager, which is not really assuring his position in the squad. He will be able to provide Wolves with a decent amount of money for his sale, which could be used on a Marquee signing like Nabil Fekir. Finally, I have mentioned 7 players the teams NEEDS to keep in order to progress, since they have been the bright sparks in a lacklustre season.

That’s all for this article, and do look out for the next two parts of this series which I will release soon. Adios!