Arsenal\u2019s summer transfer work stretched far beyond the obvious, with BBC Sport reporting that the club tracked 21 players as it looked for ways to strengthen its push to retain the Premier League crown.<\/p>\n
The list featured several major names, including Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior, who had long been viewed as a target before agreeing a new contract at the Bernab\u00e9u. Morgan Rogers and Bradley Barcola were also monitored, though both ended up elsewhere. Rogers joined Chelsea, while Barcola signed for Liverpool.<\/p>\n
A number of other players on Arsenal\u2019s radar also came and went without a deal materialising. Kenan Y\u0131ld\u0131z, Nico Paz, Junior Kroupi, Alex Scott, Louis Page, Iv\u00e1n Fresneda and Jacobo Ram\u00f3n were all among the names considered, while Juli\u00e1n Alvarez turned down the move and Yan Diomande opted for Real Madrid. In other cases, the outcome was decided by contract renewals or other developments, as with Jo\u00e3o Pedro and Micky van de Ven.<\/p>\n
The Jo\u00e3o Pedro interest stands out in particular. After a strong debut season at Stamford Bridge, in which he finished with 20 goals and nine assists, he had established himself as Chelsea\u2019s undisputed starter. Barcelona were also heavily linked before he signed a new contract, yet Arsenal still appear to have explored whether a move might be possible. Just how far that interest went is not clear.<\/p>\n
Arsenal were also willing to look at a pair of defenders from Tottenham Hotspur. Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven both featured on the club\u2019s list, underlining how wide the search went and how unusual some of the possibilities were.<\/p>\n
The picture that emerges is of a club prepared to examine a broad range of options, from elite forwards to defensive targets, in a summer that produced plenty of ambition even if not all of it turned into completed deals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal monitored 21 players in a wide-ranging summer search that included several striking targets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1843],"tags":[59,182],"class_list":["post-19191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-transfer-news","tag-featured","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}