Arsenal’s Director of Football Raul Sanllehi has said that because of Danny Welbeck’s injury, the club may have to change their plans for the January transfer window.
Welbeck broke his ankle during Arsenal’s Europa League encounter against Sporting CP. He has undergone two operations and will be out of action for several months.
This leaves Arsenal with only Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Alex Iwobi.
However, the Gunners do have some talented young strikers in teenagers Eddie Nketiah and Joe Willock.
Talking about Welbeck’s injury, Raul Sanllehi said, “That is absolutely something unplanned. Yes, that makes you consider things. I am not saying that’s a green light to go to the market but we have good players in the house also that may get further opportunities, like Eddie Nketiah for example.
We need to see. We are in November, so it’s a good time to start analysing what options we have in the market. We are not closing the door but it’s still not the preferred one. The plans were made in the summer. We are happy with how things are going. We are always going to strive to be the best team we can be.
If there is a very good opportunity, we are definitely going to consider [it], we will see. Danny Welbeck’s injury alters, in a way, the views.”
Sanllehi also said that Welbeck would receive full support from Arsenal to recover from his injury. He said, “Danny knows that he will get all the support that he needs from Arsenal to make the perfect rehabilitation of his injury. We are very sad for Danny and he knows he has all the support from the club.”
Arsenal resume their Premier League campaign against Bournemouth from Sunday.
