Arsenal summer transfer plans shift following Champions League victory over FC Porto

Arsenal knew that the benefit of returning to the Champions League would allow them greater spending power. Considering Declan Rice arrived for more than £100million in the summer with a record spend across the transfer window despite not yet having even kicked a ball in the competition, the signs for the future are looking good.

Furthermore, Arsenal have reached the quarter-finals of the competitionfor the first time in 14 years following their penalty shootout win over FC Porto. With that comes a greater financial reward and should they succeed in reaching the semi-finals even more benefits will follow.

How this might therefore impact the summer will be very interesting. However, it is not just the rewards from the game but also the lessons and clarity which it brought forward from the outcome of the 1-1 aggregate scoreline.

That said, Mikel Arteta has maintained that the work done on the summer window was planned very much in advance.He spoke after the 2-1 win over Brentford on the topic and maintained that nothing had changed.

«The plans that we have for the summer are very clear,» he told reporters. «They were done almost at the start of the season understanding what we can have, the contract situations with some players, and how we can improve certain areas of the team. This situation doesn’t change that.»

Without knowing exactly what those plans are it creates an element of estimation. However, what is known is that the club have been linked with a number of centre-forwards as well as wingers and defensive midfielders.

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