A round-up of the latest Arsenal news as the Gunners prioritise a £55m transfer and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang offers a ‘crazy’ claim about their manager Mikel Arteta.
Football finance expert discusses Arsenal’s summer transfer budget
Arsenal are still waiting for the Premier League to share if it will change the conditions of its Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) before sporting director Edu and manager Mikel Arteta can declare for certain what their final budget looks like for this summer’s transfer window.
That is according to TBR Football’s finance expert, Adam Williams, who has exclusively told Arsenal Insider that the Gunners face waiting until the Premier League’s AGM on June 6. Yet it is unlikely that the idea to raise the PSR limit for losses from £105m to £135m will pass.
Another motion on the table is linking teams like Arsenal’s maximum spend to a multiple of the lowest-earning club’s TV revenue. But Williams ‘expects’ Arsenal will work with a similar budget to last year, when Edu sealed moves for Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber.
Read more about what Williams said about Arsenal’s summer transfer budget, here.
Arsenal make RB Leipzig star Benjamin Sesko their top striker target
Arsenal have now made Benjamin Sesko of RB Leipzig their top striker target for the summer transfer window. That is according to the Mirror, which reports that the Gunners believe the 20-year-old is the best centre-forward they can pursue when the market opens for business.
Sesko only moved to RB Leipzig last summer in a delayed deal from their sister Red Bull club, RB Salzburg. He also had a slow start in Saxony but turned a corner at the turn of the year to become instrumental. The Slovenia star penned 11 of his 14 goals in the Bundesliga in 2024.
Arsenal are also prioritising Sesko’s transfer as he offered one goal in each of his final seven appearances. Sporting director Edu can also sign the 28-cap forward without a fight thanks to a release clause. Philipp Hinze claims that Sesko’s release clause is fixed at €65m (£55m).
Read more about Arsenal’s interest in Sesko’s transfer from RB Leipzig, here.
Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang opens up on his ‘crazy’ fallout with Mikel Arteta
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has now opened up on his ‘crazy’ fallout with Mikel Arteta that led to the striker leaving Arsenal. The Gunners paid the now-Marseille star a £7m lump sum in February 2022 to terminate his contract worth £350k-a-week following a huge falling out.
Arsenal felt they had no option but to axe Aubameyang having already stripped him of their club captaincy following his ‘latest disciplinary breach’. The north London club took the role off the Gabon icon after he returned late from visiting his mum in France in December 2021.
Aubameyang’s mother was recovering from a stroke, so Arteta gave him permission to travel to France. But the forward failed to follow Arsenal’s only request that he checked in with the club’s doctor before travelling back to appease the Premier League’s guidelines for Covid-19.
Now, the 2020 FA Cup winner has suggested that Arteta tore into Aubameyang for failing to follow Arsenal’s request. The Gunners coach even then omitted the forward from their next six Premier League teams, as well as a Carabao Cup semi-final second-leg against Liverpool.
Aubameyang told Colinterview: “[Arteta] completely tears me up. He shouts at me like I’m crazy. He says, ‘You put a knife in my back. You can’t do that to me given the times we’re going through’.”
Read more about what Aubameyang has said about his relationship with Arteta, here.