Arsenal are on the verge of confirming two new additions to Mikel Arteta's squad with the hope a third will arrive shortly after. In the space of 10 days, the Gunners announced Kepa Arrizabalaga, Martin Zubimendi and Christian Norgaard had all joined the club.
In the meantime, sporting director Andrea Berta was still working hard to complete several deals with a striker, wide forward and defender wanted. With that in mind, Arsenal actively pursued and closed in on targets to fill those three positional aims.
Agreeing a £52million deal with Chelsea for Noni Madueke was the first step taken with Arteta, who is a big fan of the player and believes he is capable of playing on both flanks, key to the switch going through.
READ MORE: Why Arsenal have not completed £52m Noni Madueke transfer yet
READ MORE: Viktor Gyokeres to Arsenal transfer latest as Andrea Berta ditches £78m deal amid Sporting talks
No less than 48 hours later, a breakthrough in talks with Valencia for Cristhian Mosquera was found and that saw the 21-year-old almost immediately make his way to London. The Gunners are set to pay an initial £13million plus add-ons with Berta able to agree a fee below Valencia's asking price.
Though pre-season has already started, with the majority of Arsenal players out in Spain for a training camp, it is actually perfect that both deals have been finalised this week. That is because the full squad are flying out to Singapore on Saturday, July 18 for the first leg of their pre-season tour.
Considering there will likely be a squad announcement and photos of the players getting on the plane, Arsenal will surely want to confirm both stars have joined before then with Friday (today) as the only day that can now be done.
With two transfer statements to be made, and seemingly nothing preventing them, it was perhaps a surprise to that one was not announced on Thursday. However, that was likely because Arsenal women confirmed a world-record £1million deal for Olivia Smith and the focus was understandably wanted for that.
It is actually possible that both Madueke and Mosquera don't see their respective moves from Chelsea and Valencia made official because they may not actually feature during the first part of the Gunners' tour overseas.
That is because Madueke had been playing and training up until one week ago with the Blues in the latter stages of the Club World Cup. Mosquera meanwhile, has had a bit more of a break and thus is more likely to take part as his last outing was on Monday, June 21 when Spain were knocked out of the under-21 European championships by England.
Even if Arteta opts to leave both out for the first few friendlies, it is more than plausible that the duo still travel with their new teammates.
Not too long ago, it looked as though Arsenal would be announcing three new signings this week with an agreement for Viktor Gyokeres reached earlier this month. Negotiations with Sporting CP over intricacies in the deal have since taken place and dragged on with the situation now described as tense.
The latest update from transfer guru Fabrizio Romano was that the transfer is still be worked on "every single minute", though Arsenal are unhappy as Sporting continue to fight on every detail of the deal.
As such, it looks unlikely the Swede will have time to fly over, pass his medical and take part in an official unveiling all before that flight out of London the following day and that is assuming a final agreement is reached.
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