Sawt Falasteen - Arteta ready to smash Arsenal transfer budget to sign striker

Arteta's side have now gone five years without a trophy as they approach the end of a frustrating campaign marred by injuries to key forwards Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus.

That trio, as well as influential midfielder Martin Odegaard, all missed substantial chunks of the season as Arsenal failed to keep pace with Premier League champions Liverpool before losing the Champions League semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain.

A new striker is top of Arteta's wish-list with Havertz, who has not played for almost four months, still the club's top scorer in the league with just nine goals.

Arsenal are believed to have at least £100 million ($132 million) at their disposal for new players and have been linked with RB Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko, Sporting Lisbon's Viktor Gyokeres and Newcastle's Alexander Isak.

After failing to lure England striker Ollie Watkins from Aston Villa during the January transfer window, Arteta is willing to do whatever it takes to get a new striker in the summer.

"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," Arteta told reporters on Friday.

"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."

Amid speculation this week that Arteta and Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta, who replaced Edu in March, have disagreed over which striker to pursue, the manager insisted their relationship is fine.

"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," he said.

"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."

Second-placed Arsenal, who host third-placed Newcastle on Sunday, head into the final two matches of the season needing just two points to be assured of Champions League qualification.

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

E.Qaddoumi--SF-PST