Emery praises Ceballos as Arsenal boss targets 3 or 4 ‘very expensive’ signings

Managers are working hard trying to strengthen their squads during the summer transfer window so we’ll bring you all the latest news and gossip from around the globe. Here, Unai Emery has offered an update on Arsenal’s transfer plans…

Arsenal boss Unai Emery has praised Dani Ceballos after confirming he’s working hard to secure up to four ‘very expensive’ signings this summer.

It’s been a frustrating few weeks for Arsenal fans as the club have struggled to get deals agreed for a number of key transfer targets with Brazilian youngster Gabriel Martinelli the only new arrival so far.

Arsenal have reportedly failed with a move to sign Wilfried Zaha with Crystal Palace demanding huge money for the attacker while Celtic have also rejected our latest offer for left-back Kieran Tierney.

Tottenham have reportedly tried to hijack our proposed deal to sign Saint-Etienne centre-back William Saliba while links with the likes of Ryan Fraser, Nicolas Pepe and Yannick Carrasco have come to nothing.

The latest player to be heavily linked with a move to Arsenal is Real Madrid star Dani Ceballos with Spanish outlet AS claiming the midfielder is on the verge of completing a loan move to the Emirates.

Emery has been quizzed about the reports and while he refused to confirm a deal is in the pipeline, the Arsenal boss did heap praise on Ceballos after describing the 22-year-old as a ‘very good player’.

So it looks like the Spanish U21 international is on Emery’s radar and the Arsenal coach has confirmed the club are working hard to try and bring in three or four new players ahead of the new season.

Emery says his first choice targets are ‘very big, very expensive players’ and the Spaniard insists he’s doing all he can to improve the squad before the transfer window shuts early next month.

Emery told Arsenal.com:

on not having new players here yet and if that’s tough…
We are working, the club is working with the possibility to sign some new players to help us. We are doing a lot of meetings with the club, with Edu, with Raul and also with Josh and Stan Kroenke on Monday in Denver. We have a clear idea to sign players to help us with quality and in the positions we need.

on the transfer market…
We are taking with the patience and with the calm because we really want to sign players who can help us with a big performance, and also because we think in the team we have very good players and young players and we also need to take the best player in some positions. Really, I can say to our supporters that we are going to have a very good team with the players that are there now and also with three or four players who can help us in a few days.

on Josh Kroenke telling fans to ‘be excited’…
Yes. Really we are speaking about the big players and because we are starting thinking about our team and our squad now, and we have very good players and very good young players that can progress to take and get big performances with us. Other players can come here to help us. We need, really, that they will come with a big performance and also our target is to achieve three or four players who really improve our team and our squad now. We are being very, very demanding and we are first speaking about the possibility to sign very big, very expensive players and the first player in our list is our first target. And after, if we cannot achieve that, then the second. But we are thinking every time that they are going to improve our squad.

on Dani Ceballos…
I don’t want to speak about the names. But Ceballos is a very good player.

So it looks like it’s going to be a busy few weeks ahead with Arsenal targetting up to four new signings. Based on reports, it seems our key targets are Tierney, Saliba, Zaha and Ceballos and I think it would be an excellent summer if we could sign those four players.