Guardian: Arsenal signing Vinicius would break wage structure, Barcola more realistic

According to The Guardian, Arsenal signing Vinicius would break their wage structure; Barcola is a more realistic option by comparison.

Reaching the Champions League final for the second consecutive year is also not easy. Of the last five English teams to reach the Champions League final, only Manchester City in the 2021-2022 season also made it to the semi-finals the following year. Premier League competition is getting tougher, and fighting on two fronts has never been this difficult. Transfer dealings might improve Arsenal's chances, but so far their investment has not been significant. Of the £790,000 spent, more than half was used to buy out Piero Hincapie's loan contract.

Arsenal also replaced Trossard with Greek winger Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge. Tzolis is seven years younger than the Belgian player, and this signing aligns with the team's youthfulness and long-term planning. However, if Arsenal could truly acquire rumored target Vinicius Júnior, their attacking power on the left flank would be elevated to a truly top-tier level. The on-field reasons are self-evident. Last season, Vinicius completed 92 carries of at least five meters, either shooting (49 times) or directly creating chances (43 times), a feat unmatched in Europe's top five leagues. For a team that often relies on set pieces, Arsenal's open-play attacking threat would significantly increase.

Arsenal's budget controllers might consider this carefully. Capology's salary data shows that Vinicius is tied for the third-highest paid player in Europe's top five leagues, with a weekly wage more than £100,000 higher than any player at his potential new club. Is Arsenal willing to rewrite their wage structure for this? If they do, agents of existing players might start calling one after another. From this perspective, Barcola, another player linked with Arsenal, seems like a more realistic target. The problem is that Liverpool is also in the running, and the Reds need a winger more than Arsenal.

This is precisely the test facing Arsenal's sporting director, Andrea Berta. It's not easy to further strengthen an already strong squad. When Berta arrived last year, the club's main targets were reportedly Isak and Ben Sesko, but both ultimately joined rivals. Now, the pool of players who can genuinely bring a significant improvement to Arteta's squad is shrinking.

Keeping existing players healthy might be more valuable than continued strengthening. Before this season, Arsenal's league title win was largely due to having fewer injuries than most clubs. Havertz was reportedly the highest-paid player in the squad before Saka's contract renewal in February, but he only started 7 league games. Captain Odegaard was also out for a period, meaning he and Saka only started 10 Premier League games together in the 2025-2026 season. One of those was Rice's only missed game, a 4-1 home win against Aston Villa; the other was a 2-1 home win against Brighton, where he played at right-back.

This means Arteta rarely got to rest his key players. Since the start of last season, five Arsenal players have been among the top 20 in terms of minutes played across all competitions for Premier League clubs. Goalkeeper David Raya is also among them. Among outfield players, those with over 4200 minutes played include Rice (4456 minutes, 11th most among Premier League clubs), Zubimendi (4298 minutes, 15th), Saliba (4254 minutes, 17th), and Thiago Gabriel (4210 minutes, 19th), all crucial parts of the team's spine.

Saliba also played 795 minutes for France, pushing his total playing time over 5000 minutes before the World Cup, until a back injury prematurely ended his World Cup journey, and he is expected to be out for some time. Rice playing an astonishing 1026 minutes for England on top of his Arsenal duties is also remarkable, especially as he had been playing with hamstring nerve pain throughout 2026.

This workload clearly affected his form for Tuchel this summer, which will also concern Arteta. Viktor Gyökeres also played many minutes for Sweden, and since last August, six Arsenal players have accumulated at least 4400 total minutes for club and country.

This might be one reason why Arsenal chose a relatively low-key pre-season schedule. Last summer they went to Asia, but this year they will only travel as far as Catalonia to play Girona. Arsenal will also face Real Betis in Dublin and Manchester City in Cardiff for the Community Shield, with home warm-up matches against Dortmund and Como sandwiched in between.

Players are still recovering from the World Cup exertions, and it might take some time for outsiders to see the true Arsenal. The intertwining of fatigue, injuries, and potential squad reinforcements means this process might be longer than ideal.

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