Mikel Arteta says Arsenal may have to break transfer budget in striker pursuit | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta has hinted Arsenal could be ready to break their transfer budget in their pursuit of a striker this summer.

Arsenal will end the season empty-handed again after they were eliminated in the semi-finals of the Champions League and soundly beaten by Liverpool in the race for the title.

A new striker is top of Arteta’s wishlist with Kai Havertz, who has not played for almost four months, still the club’s top scorer in the Premier League with just nine goals.

Arsenal are understood to have at least £100million at their disposal for new players. RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko, Sporting’s Viktor Gyokeres and Newcastle’s Alexander Isak have all been linked to the north Londoners.

And speaking ahead of his side’s penultimate match of the season against Newcastle on Sunday, Arteta said: “The thing is that the budget is like when you have your wedding, you plan your wedding with your wife and you give her a budget and never less, and it’s always more.

“When you build a house it’s always more. Normally this happens. And you prepare for different scenarios. Then unfortunate things happen. Sometimes we want a player and suddenly we have an injury or that player gets injured.

“There are so many variables that can happen but there is a budget. There is always an idea of what we can do, what we can improve, what the priorities are going to be and then let’s see if we can do it.”

Speculation on social media this week has suggested that Arteta and sporting director Andrea Berta, who replaced Edu in March, are at loggerheads over which striker to pursue.

But addressing those claims, Arteta continued: “Well, if that happens, that means that we cannot explain ourselves well enough, and we are not clear enough on what we want, and I guarantee you that hasn’t happened.

“It didn’t happen in five and a half years with Edu, and I guarantee you it hasn’t happened with Andrea.

“We have learned a lot and some of them (transfers) have worked really well and others have not. So we have to make sure that we make the right calls. But we are all human beings and unfortunately, nobody has got a crystal ball here.

“But Andrea is someone who is very driven, very clear in his ideas, in his vision and how we want to achieve it.”

Arsenal head into the final two matches of the season needing just two points to be assured of Champions League qualification for a third successive term.

However, with their superior goal difference, one point should be enough for Arsenal to secure a top-five finish.

Kai Havertz could make his first appearance since February on Sunday against Newcastle, who trail Arsenal by just two points, following hamstring surgery which had looked set to rule him out for the campaign.