Arsenal signed Jurrien Timber for a guaranteed fee of just £34.3million but the moves for Declan Rice and Kai Havertz have meant not enough people are talking about how good a Ԁєɑł it is.
Arsenal have moved fast in the window to secure their priority targets in three areas of the field. £170million was spent on both Declan Rice and Kai Havertz, two high-profile acquisitions which successively broke the transfer record for players signed under Mikel Arteta’s reign, with the former more than doubling the previous record-holder Ben White (£50million).
However, the signing of Jurrien Timber at an initial £34.3million fee took the total spєɴԀ beyond the £200million range. The Dutchman was a surprise move with an initial unsuccessful bid made at the beginning of June prior to much publicity about the Gunners’ interest in the player.
He and Rice were signed in time to travel to the US and both are expected to make their debutsafter Havertz made his unofficial first appearance in the friєɴԀly with Nurnberg. Rice is certainly grabbing the headlines and rightly so considering the price tag and his Premier League status.
Yet, Timber presents – for me – as potentially a signing of the summer for not just Arsenal but the Premier League in general. In this market, it seems any player signed for below £40million can often be a bargain.
There were suggestions that Ajax wanted a figure close to €60million (£51.5million) initially but the Gunners and sporting director Edu Gaspar successfully negotiated the Ԁєɑł down. Timber’s desire to join Arsenal certainly helped and once the North London side came in, there was only one place for him despite links to Bayern Munich and Manchester United.
Yet his versatility and quality are the true assets which will benefit the side. With William Saliba unavailable, in combination with Takehiro Tomiyasu, Arsenal’s title challenge collapsed.
Arteta needed a player who could bring depth and quality to multiple positions and Timber fulfilled that very need. Although playing the majority of his games for Ajax at centre-half, stylistically he fits the expectation the Spaniard has from his current crop of right-backs.
Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu represent a significant shift in style from the likes of Hector Bellerin who came before.Less of the attack-first mindset and more about the technical build-up and defensive security to provide balance to a flank that includes both Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard.
Timber gives depth to two key positions and the player himself claims he can play midfieldso perhaps that is one to watch. His stats draw similar comparisons to Lisandro Martinez who had a fɾυȿτɾɑtingly good first season for Manchester United.
Although the Gunners missed out on the Argentine, they finally got an Ajax defєɴԀer they wanted. The shrewd Ԁєɑł for Timber should not be overlooked and is an exciting continuation of a strategy that’s sole purpose is to return the club to the elite level and stay there.
