Arsenal's Premier League Triumph and Merson's £190m Vision
Arsenal have finally climbed the mountain. Now Paul Merson wants them to blow the doors off it.
Fresh from ending a 22-year wait for the Premier League title, Mikel Arteta’s side are being tipped not just to stay at the summit, but to turn this into an era. For Merson, that requires something brutal in the market: a £190m attacking overhaul and at least one ruthless decision on a fan favourite.
Title won, chances missed
Arsenal’s season has already gone down in club folklore. Three years of near misses under Arteta ended with a title that felt as much like a statement as a celebration. Week after week, they looked the most complete side in England, and they were fully deserving champions.
Yet the campaign still finished with a sting. Defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final denied them the European crown that would have turned a great season into a historic one. The Carabao Cup slipped away in a final as well. Two trophies gone, one huge one secured, and a lingering sense that this group is on the brink of something bigger.
Arteta and new sporting director Andrea Berta are already working as if that “something bigger” has to arrive now.
Merson’s £190m blueprint
The focus is clear: sharpen the attack. Arsenal are tracking left-sided wingers and a new centre forward, and one name has been pushed towards the top of the list – Julian Alvarez.
The Atletico Madrid striker, valued at around €120m, is expected to move this summer. TEAMtalk sources say he has made it known he wants Barcelona above all, but Merson believes Arsenal should test that resolve and go all-in.
Speaking on the Sports Agents podcast, he laid out his dream double swoop: Alvarez and PSG’s Desire Doué in a combined £190m deal.
“What Arsenal have done is amazing, but they’ve got to go out now, for me, and buy that real, real… You know, I think Doué as well at PSG,” Merson said. “I would like a Doué and an Alvarez, and if they got them, then wow – I dread to think who’s going to stop Arsenal!”
That’s the vision: an already ruthless league-winning side, supercharged with pace and incision in the final third. A team built not just to retain the title, but to bully Europe.
The catch? Those kinds of signings come at a cost, and not only in transfer fees.
Odegaard question that “sounds like madness”
To fund a spree on that scale, Merson believes Arsenal may have to confront a question that would have been unthinkable a year ago: the future of Martin Odegaard.
“It’s madness for me to be saying this, but they probably will be thinking about that [selling Odegaard],” he admitted.
The idea cuts against the grain of what Arsenal have built. Odegaard is the captain, the conductor, the face of Arteta’s project. Yet Merson’s argument is rooted in the demands of the position and the way this team wants to play.
“When you play in the position that Odegaard plays in, you’re screaming out for pace up front. You have to have pace,” he said, insisting that clubs “will be queuing round the block” if Arsenal ever show a hint of willingness to sell.
Inside the club, the mood is different. Arteta wants to keep his captain and extend his contract on a long-term deal at the Emirates, with discussions over the Norwegian’s next steps already mapped out back in March. Arsenal see Odegaard as central to their future, not a bargaining chip.
Yet Merson’s line of thinking underlines something else: this is a squad now judged against the highest bar. Every position, even the secure ones, is being measured against what it takes to dominate Europe.
“Arsenal aren’t going away”
For all the talk of exits and big-money arrivals, Merson’s overall view of Arsenal is clear. This is not a one-off title win. This is the start of something.
“I’d be shocked if Arsenal went away. I just think Arsenal are a proper solid, solid football team with solid seven, eight out of 10 players, week in, week out,” he said. “Across the board, sevens and eights.”
That reliability has been the bedrock of Arteta’s work. Arsenal no longer ride hot streaks and hope. They control games, manage moments, and impose their structure. It’s why they were in position to fight on multiple fronts deep into the season.
Yet the Champions League final laid bare the final piece they still lack.
“If they’d have held on, didn’t give away the penalty and won 1-0, we’d be sitting here now saying it’s a masterclass of all masterclasses,” Merson reflected on the defeat to PSG.
The margin between glory and regret was thin. One penalty. One lapse. One missed chance to crown the project.
Screaming out for pace
That is where Merson keeps coming back to the same theme: a centre forward who terrifies defenders with sheer speed.
“They’re screaming out for a centre forward with pace,” he said. “I think if they can get a centre forward with pace, who’s electric, then I think they’ll dominate, and I think they’ve got every chance of the Champions League next year.”
Alvarez, in his eyes, is that profile – a striker who can run in behind, stretch defences, and give Odegaard and the rest a different dimension. Doué would add another injection of unpredictability from wide, a left-sided threat who can tilt games on his own.
Arsenal are also tracking a Premier League wide forward admired deeply inside the club, though any move could push close to £100m, with his current side determined to keep hold of their outstanding young star. It is the going rate now for elite attacking talent in its early 20s, and Arsenal know it.
The question is not whether they will spend. It is how bold they are prepared to be, and who, if anyone, they are willing to sacrifice to reach that next level.
They have the title. They have the platform. They have a manager and a squad built for the long haul.
If they add the “electric” centre forward Merson is demanding, does anyone stop them taking the Champions League as well?
