Arsenal transfer rejection leaves Mikel Arteta in trouble as January deadline looms

The January transfer window deadline is looming large for Arsenal, who are in danger of leaving a job half done.

Over the past 30 days the Gunners have successfully trimmed their squad, offloading five players who are not in Mikel Arteta’s immediate plans.

Sead Kolasinac, Calum Chambers and Pablo Mari have left on permanent deals, while Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Folarin Balogun have joined Roma and Middlesbrough on loan respectively.

If those deals had been struck alongside ones for players coming in the opposite direction, then the window would be viewed as a job well done.

After all, clubs have to strike a balance in transfer windows; people need to leave in order for fresh faces to arrive. Wage bills are dull but important.

The problem for Arsenal, so far, is that they’ve found it much easier to offload their fringe players than sign new players – and that could leave them with a worryingly thin squad.

We will have to wait until the dust have settled on Tuesday morning to properly judge the work of technical director Edu, but the signs at this point are not good.

Arsenal spent weeks openly pursuing Fiorentina striker Dusan Vlahovic. They went ambitious and flashed their cash, only to come up short, with Juventus stepping in and flexing their muscles to land one of the most in-demand strikers in European football.

Looked at one way, Arsenal’s ambition should be admired. After spending over £150million on six players in the summer, they have continued to go after high-value assets in January.

But, on the other hand, it could be argued that the Gunners have been unrealistic.

They are, after all, a club who cannot currently offer European football of any description. It is hardly surprising that Vlahovic would prefer