Arsenal's Interest in Pacho Amid Wage Structure Challenges

Arsenal’s summer business looked ruthless and controlled. Illan Meslier arrived on a free from Leeds, Piero Hincapie cost £34.5m from Bayer Leverkusen, Christos Tzolis £34.12m from Club Brugge, Bruno Guimaraes £75m from Newcastle and Ezri Konsa £51m from Aston Villa.

Five signings. All designed to raise the ceiling, not just fill out the squad.

Mikel Arteta and new sporting director Andrea Berta also hunted one more attacker. Morgan Rogers, Vinicius Junior and Julian Alvarez all sat high on the shortlist. Arsenal pushed, watched the prices rise, then walked away rather than pay premium money for what they saw as second-choice solutions.

On paper, the defence now looks stacked. Hincapie and Konsa join a unit already boasting William Saliba, Cristhian Mosquera, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhaes, Jurrien Timber, Riccardo Calafiori and Myles Lewis-Skelly. It reads like the depth chart of a club planning to challenge on every front.

And yet the market never really sleeps.

Arsenal and City circle Pacho

Bolavip report that Arsenal retain a strong interest in Paris Saint-Germain centre-back William Pacho, despite the Ecuadorian only recently renewing his contract at the Parc des Princes. The 22-year-old, formerly of Eintracht Frankfurt, “still has a market” and has “entered the plans” of both Arsenal and Manchester City, according to the outlet.

This is not a bargain-bin opportunity. Pacho is well paid in Paris, earning around €11m a year. Any Premier League move would hinge on a significant salary jump.

The report claims Arsenal are “open to making a move” and that the two English “giants” are ready to put a lucrative offer in front of him to tempt him away from PSG. For City, those numbers “wouldn’t be a problem”. For Arsenal, it is more delicate.

The Gunners have the money. What they do not usually have is a willingness to smash their internal wage structure for a defender. Bolavip point out that Saliba is Arsenal’s highest-paid defender on €14m per year, and only five players in the entire squad currently earn more than €11m. Any deal for Pacho would push close to that ceiling, if not through it.

So the question is simple: how much do Arsenal really want him?

Carragher questions missed Barcola move

While Arsenal weigh up another defensive investment, debate continues over what they failed to do at the other end of the pitch.

Jamie Carragher admitted he was stunned Arsenal did not go harder for Bradley Barcola in the summer, with the PSG winger instead joining Liverpool.

Speaking on The Overlap, Carragher said: “I’m happy it didn’t happen but I was looking at the Barcola thing.

“For me with Arsenal, left wing has always felt like where the drop is compared to [Bukayo] Saka, [Martin] Odegaard, [Kai] Havertz.

“The new kid [Christos] Tzolis has made a decent start. But the longer the Barcola thing went on, and then Arsenal didn’t get Vinicius Jr or Alvarez, I was thinking is that [signing Barcola] not the one?”

Ian Wright did not hesitate to back that view.

“That is the player Arsenal need to sign,” the club legend insisted. “He comes in from a brilliant PSG side and he’s played with players who are on that level. Now he’s coming into a Liverpool side where he is that superstar and will bring them [his teammates] up there.

“That’s what we needed. Whether you think Morgan Rogers could have done that, I would have been happy with that. But Barcola was available.”

Arsenal chose restraint in attack and heavy investment in defence. Now, with Pacho on the radar and City lurking, the next move will reveal just how far they are prepared to bend their own rules to stay in step with the champions.