According to the latest reports, Arsenal boss Unai Emery has showered heavy praise on Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk claiming that the club should try and sign a player like the Dutchman in the summer transfer window in order to bolster their squad. Van Dijk has helped Liverpool immensely since joining the club and has proved that money can buy a team success.
Ever since Unai Emery has taken charge of Arsenal football club back in the summer of 2018, he has done quite an incredible job by filling in the boots of legendary manager Arsene Wenger. The 69-year-old Wenger was in charge of Arsenal for 22 long years and he won plenty of major honors while at the helm including three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups as well. Wenger got Arsenal competing once again but toward the latter stages of his career, he wasn’t able to adapt to the new brand of football. The club was in dire need for some fresh air and even the Arsenal fans wanted a change in the board after Wenger wasn’t able to carry the club forward.
Unai Emery’s arrival has prompted a massive change in positivity and an upward trend at Arsenal as the Spaniard has guided the club to third place on the Premier League table as they are in strong contention to finish inside the top 4. Emery has implemented his philosophy into the club and the results are showing as he took Arsenal on a stunning 22 games unbeaten record earlier on in the season across all competitions. The Gunners are also in the quarterfinals of the Europa League and look like proper contenders to go on and win the European competition as well. However, Emery is still aware that he needs reinforcements in the summer transfer window to bolster his squad and compete for silverware in the near future.
One area that Arsenal needs to improve on is their defense and the 47-year-old has to make some changes in his leaky back line. Emery highlighted the importance of a proper summer signing like Liverpool superstar Virgil Van Dijk when the Dutchman was signed up from Southampton. Van Dijk has been immense for the Reds after making the move to Anfield in January 2018. The 28-year-old became the most expensive defender when Jurgen Klopp spent £75m for his services last winter transfer window but has been a complete value for money.
Emery was speaking to news outlet Goal and he said that he is extremely happy with his academy players but wants the blend of an established new signing like Van Dijk to help the team even further, “I have big respect for our work, for our players in the academy. I want to develop the players here – giving them progress to achieve something at a big club like we are. We can also achieve [buy] some players who are in other teams, who can come here and give us this performance – like Van Dijk with Liverpool.”
The Spanish manager however would have been once again disappointed by the way that the north London giants lost to Everton 1-0 at Goodison Park. Hopefully his team can recover on time, prior to the clash against Napoli at the Emirates, in their first leg of the Europa League tie.
