Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta’s dream reunion with Bayern Munich winger Leroy Sane may have been stopped before it could even begin this summer after the star’s involvement at Euro 2024 in Germany.
It’s set to be a hectic few weeks for the Gunners, who are trying to upgrade some key areas of their squad ahead of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign in which they’ll try to bring the fight to reigning champions Manchester City who beat them to their fourth successive title by just two points back in May.
Their first move for the summer was confirmed last week as Brentford goalkeeper David Raya’s loan move was made permanent for a £27million fee and is likely to be followed up by the arrival of Bologna centre-back Riccardo Calafiori who has already agreed personal terms with Arsenal.
Whilst there’s been no concrete links between the player and the Gunners so far this summer, it’s been an idea that has floated about for some time now given the relationship between the pair when they were both at Manchester City as player and coach. Sane has said great things about the Arsenal boss in the past, having told The Independent in July 2020: “I can just say positive things about Mikel Arteta.
“Since we started working together, he helped me a lot on the pitch. He tried to improve my football; he told me what I did good and what I did wrong, and he tried to work on it. Next to Pep, they both really helped me and improved me, to bring me to the next level.
“Even now, at Arsenal, for me you can see he’s doing a great job. You can see he has a concept, a way that he wants to play, a way that he wants his team to play, and obviously, it will take some time until everybody really understands it. I think he will do a great job as a [head] coach too.”
That, on top of former Crystal Palace winger Michael Olise’s arrival over the weekend into an area where Bayern are already stacked with Sane, Jamal Musiala, Kingsley Coman, Mathys Tel and ex-Arsenal star Serge Gnabry, it’s fair to say Sane may not get as many minutes as he’d like going forward.
In previous years when a move from the Bundesliga back to England has been on the cards for Sane, it was said that a price point of €60million to €70million (£50.6m to £59m) would need to be tabled in order to get a deal over the line, a price point that would likely be lower given Sane’s contract expires next summer.
But Arsenal may want to wait until next summer to go and secure Sane’s services, after the star underwent surgery on his groin this morning, leading to him being out for at least the next three weeks. According to Sky Sports, the star will now spend the next three weeks resting and making sure he’ll slowly begin training again towards the end of July.
Ultimately, it may mean that the Gunners may be forced to wait until January if they want to bring the star in, at which point he’d have just six months left on his deal which in turn could mean a bargain deal on him.
