‘If Arsenal make this signing they will have no excuses not to win the title’ | Football

All the indicators suggest Arsenal are prepared for a huge summer of investment and will at least test the waters where Isak is concerned.

The Gunners kept their powder dry in January when it appeared they were in dire need of attacking reinforcements even before Kai Havertz’s season-ending injury.

It will, however, take a fee well in excess of the £100 million Arsenal spent on Declan Rice two years ago to land a player they really ought to have bought as far back as January 2022, following the decision to exile Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Whether it would represent a shrewd decision to spend the farm on a player who would solve the striker conundrum at the Emirates is another question.

Indeed, Jamie Carragher recently suggested Arsenal’s main issue at present is a lack of creativity and a more sensible course of action might be to sign another winger plus a creative midfielder which would still, in theory, allow Mikel Arteta to sign a centre forward at a more accommodating price.

It must be said, as well, that Isak, for his part, has shown absolutely no desire to leave a club who will undoubtedly make him the best paid player in their history should they qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s Wembley final, the Sweden international said: ‘I am not really thinking about the summer yet.

‘That will be a talking point when the season is finished. No talks have been held yet. I have said many times that I don’t really think too much about my future.

‘I have said many times I am happy here and we are competing for titles, which is what you want as a football player. We have been to one final and now we are in another one.

‘The chances are there. We should look at it one season at a time, and this season we can win a trophy.

‘I have said many times I am focused on doing a job. All of our focus is on Sunday and bringing a trophy back.’

Nothing overly sensationalist in those words, but you could infer that this is a player acutely aware of his own value whose desire might well be to remain at Newcastle should they match his ambition and there is little, on recent evidence, to suggest they can’t.

James Goldman | Metro Sports Editor