U-turn: Report reveals surprise outcome of recent Arsenal transfer meetings

Arsenal may reportedly have cooled their interest in the potential transfer of Newcastle United midfielder Sandro Tonali.

The Gunners were notably linked with the Italy international in January, but there is now growing uncertainty about a possible move.

That’s according to a surprise report from the Chronicle, which states that Arsenal did not mention Tonali’s name in recent transfer meetings, with the north London giants possibly set to only have £40m to spend this summer.

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That’s good news for Newcastle as it boosts their hopes of keeping Tonali, but Arsenal fans will surely be concerned if that’s really the kind of budget their club will be working with.

Sandro Tonali transfer doesn’t look ideal for Arsenal anyway

Using CaughtOffside’s own Transfer Fit rating system, we recently showed that Tonali doesn’t look a good fit for Arsenal at the moment anyway, primarily due to how expensive he’d be, whilst also taking into account what Mikel Arteta already has in that area of his squad.

Tonali is a fine player, but if AFC are going to spend big on a new midfield signing, then he would need to be someone who’d represent an obvious upgrade on Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi.

For all his qualities, Tonali doesn’t really look like that, nor is he someone who’d be happy with a place on the bench in most games.

Arsenal to sell before they can buy?

Arsenal’s budget issues follow a busy summer last year when they brought in Eberechi Eze, Viktor Gyokeres, Noni Madueke, Zubimendi, and other major signings to bolster both their starting XI and squad depth.

It’s perhaps not too surprising that the club are now a bit more limited with what they can spend, and that sales might need to happen before further new arrivals can join.

Our understanding is that Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli are two big names who could be likely to leave the Emirates Stadium to raise funds this summer.