Nigel Winterburn Fears for Arsenal's Transfer Activity in the Summer

Nigel Winterburn has expressed fears over Arsenal's transfer activity in the summer, stating that the Gunners will find it difficult to attract talent given their recent form and on-going trophy drought. Arsene Wenger is reported to be willing to splurge cash in the summer to change Arsenal's fortunes, but the Arsenal legend believes that clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester United will be the obvious choice for their targets if they plan to get involved.

The Gunners have been linked with a move for Mario Gotze, who has been confirmed to be joining Bayern Munich in the summer for a fee of £31m. The Gunners have also identified Fiorentina striker Stevan Jovetic as a potential target and Winterburn is hoping that no big clubs come in to spoil Arsenal's party.

"The problem at Arsenal is always that they have a wage structure which is fairly high, but in terms of competing with Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea, if they are after the same player, particularly with the history of Man Utd and Chelsea of late, the player is more likely to go to one of those teams."

"There are a few squad players that haven't been involved hardly and they might move on. Looking at Arsene Wenger's history of buying players he doesn't really go for the big established £30million players. Around £15million is probably his maximum spend so it will be quite interesting to see what he does," Winterburn said.

Winterburn has been a massive servant for the Gunners over the years, making 584 appearances in over thirteen seasons at the club. The Arsenal legend won three league titles, two FA Cups, a League Cup and a European Cup Winners Cup with the Gunners and was part of Arsenal's historic league win in the 1988-89 season when they defeated Liverpool by two goals to clinch the title at Anfield in the last game of the league.

However, Winterburn believes that the Gunners do not have a squad that is equipped to challenge for the title and wants Wenger to invest in the summer to bring an end to their trophy drought. Much depends on Arsenal's ability to qualify for the Champions League next season, failing which it will be more difficult to attract world class talent to the Emirates. The Gunners are currently on 63 points, one and two points ahead of Chelsea and Tottenham respectively, with the challengers having a game in hand against each other.