Arsenal enter the 2025/26 campaign with their sights set on shaking off their reputation as nearlymen and winning the Premier League trophy for the first time in two decades.
Mikel Arteta has added some instant-effect quality to his ranks, but he will also be emboldened by the emergence of prodigious talents like Max Dowman and Ethan Nwaneri, the latter of whom has just penned a long-term contract at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal want silverware this season, but they also want to sustain their illustrious place at the top of European football for many years to come, and are prepared to sign another highly valued prospect to develop this vision.
Arsenal targeting new elite prospect
Viktor Gyokeres, signed from Sporting Lisbon for £64m, will bring goals to the front of the senior Arsenal system, while Martin Zubimendi and Christian Norgaard add mettle and high-level quality to the middle of the park.
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But Arsenal love to incorporate the youth into their journey, and that could be achieved through the signing of one of European football’s most sought-after talents.
According to TEAMtalk, Arsenal have entered the race for Ajax prospect Aaron Bouwman, who has been valued at €40m (£35m) despite having yet to break into the senior side.
Chelsea are thought to be in the lead, but if the Gunners canvass their proposal quickly, there’s every chance that they could win the race for the precocious centre-half.
Why Arsenal want Aaron Bouwman
Bouwman has been riding the crest of a wave in recent years, one of the standouts at Ajax’s famed youth academy, which might just be the finest in the world.
Though Arsenal already boast a fantastic backline, led by the brilliant William Saliba, Bouwman might be worth pursuing, for he could emerge as Arteta’s next version of the French defensive force.
Praised as a “wonderful talent” by journalist and youth scout Antonio Mango, Bouwman hasn’t yet made his senior debut for Ajax, but he found himself on the bench two times last season, and with the mounting excitement surrounding his signature rubber-stamped by the recent interest from some of the Premier League’s biggest outfits.
He has, however, featured 42 times for the development side, playing with enough confidence to convince some of England’s elite outfits that his is a signature worth pursuing.
Though it doesn’t seem likely that Arsenal would fork out £35m on a player who has yet to grace the professional pitch, they did pay a similar fee back in July 2019, with the centre-back, who was 18 at the time, joining the north Londoners from St. Etienne for around £27m.
Now of the belief that he is “one of the top three defenders” in the Premier League, Saliba marks a fine representation of Arsenal’s data analysts pouncing when they know that an up-and-comer if worth paying for.
After all, the teenage Saliba had only played 16 matches in Ligue 1 across the 2018/19 season, starting 13 times, but he had done enough to convince the Gunners that he had the potential to become world-class.
And now he is. The France international’s Premier League performances over the past three years certainly underscore exactly how talented a player he is, and shed some light on why technical director Andrea Berta is willing to push ahead and fork out a sizeable figure for a youngster like Bouwman.
Matches (starts)
27 (27)
38 (38)
35 (35)
Goals
2
2
2
Assists
1
1
0
Clean sheets
11
18
12
Touches*
77.6
82.9
82.4
Pass completion
91%
93%
95%
Key passes*
0.2
0.2
0.2
Dribble success
90%
71%
67%
Ball recoveries*
7.7
5.61
4.6
Tackles + interceptions*
2.0
1.9
2.4
Clearances*
3.0
2.1
3.4
Duels (won)*
4.0 (61%)
3.7 (60%)
4.3 (64%)
Some might say Saliba’s meteoric rise is a lightning-in-a-bottle sort of success, but Arsenal’s talent radar is finely tuned, and Bouwman might just be the next big thing.
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