'Crucial' - Charles Watts claims 'mess' could cost Arteta's job at Arsenal

Football writer Charles Watts has claimed that Mikel Arteta’s long term future could depend on the striker the club sign in the summer. 

Going into the winter window, the Gunners seemed likely to bring in a new forward due to the contractual situations of Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah – who are both free to leave in the summer.

By the end of the month, however, the club had failed to make any signings in that department and had also seen Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leave the club and join Barcelona.

Discussing the matter on his YouTube channel, Watts explained that whoever the club go out and sign in the summer, the player will be ‘absolutely crucial’ to Arteta’s time in charge, and could define his future.

He said: “‘The striker [situation] is a mess, Aubameyang has gone, Lacazette and Nketiah out of contract. Basically, Arsenal are gonna have no strikers in the summer. 

“So they’ve got to go out and spend big on those strikers, it’s going to be absolutely crucial to Arteta’s success – if he’s going to have success – which is crucial, basically, to him staying in a job. 

“So you can understand them not panic buying. If you can’t get the player you want in January, then you wait and you try and get him in the summer.”

TIF thoughts on Mikel Arteta and Arsenal… 

Under the Spaniard, the club have finished eight in consecutive seasons and will hope to improve upon that this term. If the Gunners miss out on Champions League football, though, some may point to the absence of a key goal scorer as a factor beyond that.

Regardless, with Lacazette and Nketiah likely to leave at the end of the season, Arsenal may need to sign two or even three forwards this summer.

Two of the names who could possibly meet the criteria are