How Andrea Berta should spend his £300m to win Arsenal the Premier League title

Andrea Berta has reportedly been promised £300m to spend in his first summer as the club’s new sporting director, and defeat to PSG at the Emirates on Tuesday means the club can likely put all time and energy into building a squad for next season by this time next week, in the hope they can take the last step to win a major trophy.

Mikel Arteta vowed the summer window will be a “big one” for the Gunners and a report has claimed ‘Berta wants to alter the spine of Arsenal’s team, leading to a new second-choice goalkeeper, left-back, defensive midfielder, left-winger and striker being targeted, while cover could also be brought in for Bukayo Saka and recruiting an all-action central midfielder is a possibility’.

With that in mind we’ve picked six players Berta should sign for exactly £300m for Arsenal to go all the way in 2025/2026.

Joan Garcia (Espanyol): £25m
Arsenal had a couple of bids for Garcia rejected last summer before signing Neto on loan from Bournemouth, but remain keen on getting their man a year on, albeit with much greater competition for his services.

It does though feel like they could maybe find a better middle backup keeper ground between a 35 year-old who’s spent a large part of his career watching from the bench and doesn’t look hugely concerned by the prospect of doing that for the rest of it, and a 23-year-old who currently has comfortably the best PSxG minus goals allowed score (+8.5) in La Liga.

That’s significantly better than David Raya (-0.3), and while the Arsenal No.1 has been largely excellent this season, we bestowed similar praise on Aaron Ramsdale before the Spaniard came in to replace him. The grass can usually be greener.

Jorrel Hato (Ajax): £40m
In almost all other cases, signing a left-back for a club that’s about to lose two of them in Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kieran Tierney would be a no-brainer.

But that’s because most other clubs wouldn’t have any left-backs if that many left-backs left the club. They’re Arteta’s absolute favourite though. He will still have Myles Lewis-Skelly, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori as top-quality options, while Takehiro Tomiyasu – assuming he returns from injury at some point – could also do a job there.

Absolutely not needing a left-back won’t stop Arsenal signing a left-back though, and if there’s anything Arteta likes more than left-backs it’s a left-back who used to be a centre-back, as 19-year-old Hato was in his breakout season for Ajax before moving to the flank this term.

Martin Zubimendi (Real Sociedad): £51m
We wouldn’t be so naive as to claim any deal involving Zubimendi is done after the midfielder embarrassed Liverpool last summer in what was about as done a deal as it’s possible to be without crossed t’s and dotted i’s, but it might just be the most done deal on this list.

Zubimendi is now very much open to leaving his boyhood club and will presumably be encouraged by the Zubimendi-shaped hole in Arsenal’s midfield and the prospect of reuniting with Mikel Merino, though the latter may well be pushed further down the pecking order as a result, or be the reason Arsenal once again don’t feel the need to sign a striker.

Nico Williams (Athletic Bilbao): £48m
Arsenal approached Athletic Bilbao and Williams’ representatives after his star turn at Euro 2024, and reports suggest Mikel Arteta hasn’t wavered in his belief since that the 22-year-old is the ideal left-wing addition to his squad and starting line-up.

An uptick in form that’s seen Williams play a huge role in his side reaching the Europa League semi-final appears to have strengthened Arsenal’s resolve to get the deal done, with Berta’s arrival at the Emirates expediting negotiations as the sporting director is said to have met with Williams’ agent on a number of occasions.

Benjamin Sesko (RB Leipzig): £58m
There’s some weird sniffiness from Arsenal fans surrounding the club’s supposed heightened interest in Viktor Gyokeres courtesy of the arrival of Berta, mainly based around the idea of him not being Alexander Isak.

But the Gunners are unlikely to be putting £100m on the table for Isak given the improvements they want to make elsewhere, and anyway, Newcastle will probably be after more than that, and a move to Liverpool feels more likely in any case if he is going to jump ship.

Other Gyokeres issues include his age (26), 18 of his 52(!) goals this season being penalties, those goals being scored in a Farmer’s League and the very odd claim that if he was all that then he would already be playing for a top team.

21-year-old Sesko has scored just three of his 20 goals in German football from the penalty spot and has taken the well-trodden path from RB Salzburg to RB Leipzig ahead of bigger and better things to make him a more intriguing purchase, if not a better one.

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Jacob Ramsey (Aston Villa): £50m
Ramsey is the ideal player to tick a big Berta box having presumably been described as an ‘all-action midfielder’ from the point he was able to tie his own boot laces.

And amid reports claiming Villa will have to make at least one big sale to avoid falling foul of PSR rules, Ramsey could end up being the player sacrificed, with transfer expert David Ornstein admitting his departure “wouldn’t be a big surprise” despite Unai Emery’s desire to keep him at Villa Park.

Johan Bakayoko (PSV Eindhoven): £28m
We would strongly advise Bakayoko against the move as barring injury he’s set for a Federico Chiesa-like watching brief in the Premier League as there’s no chance he’s usurping Bukayo Saka, while Ethan Nwaneri’s rise to prominence should also be a concern for the 22-year-old.

But that’s no concern of Arteta’s if they can persuade Bakayoko to join, with PSV likely to be willing to listen to decent offers with the winger’s contract set to expire next summer.