Arsenal spent almost £200m this summer and missed every top target

The Gunners arrive at the Maradona on Wednesday having failed to land 21 different targets despite record spending. Napoli's transfer window failed for the opposite reason: by design, the club barely spent at all.

by Gennaro SanninoSunday 6 September, 14:15 CET· 2 hours ago

Lorenzo Lucca — Foto: Original: Giova36 / Derivative work: Danyele · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wednesday at 21:00 CET (20:00 in the UK), the Maradona hosts the opening matchday of the 2026/27 Champions League League Phase — Massimiliano Allegri's first European game since Antonio Conte's departure. The fixture pairs two clubs who both came out of the transfer window disappointed, for opposite reasons: Arsenal spent heavily and got none of their top targets, while Napoli barely tried to buy at all.

The Gunners put nearly £200m into the market, bringing in Bruno Guimarães, Konsa, Tzolis and Hincapié. But the list of missed targets runs to 21 names: Vinicius Junior, never really available from Real Madrid, Chelsea's João Pedro, Julián Álvarez, Morgan Rogers, Sandro Tonali and Elliot Anderson among them. Bradley Barcola went to Liverpool for €123m instead, Tottenham's Van de Ven and Romero stayed in London, and neither Juventus's Kenan Yıldız nor Como's Nico Paz moved to the Emirates.

Have we ticked the boxes of our recruitment plan? Yes, 100%. The final result can be different to what you expect, but the intention was there — and that's what I appreciate most.

That quote belongs to Mikel Arteta. On the other side, the story is reversed. Napoli closed a summer of financial rebalancing with gross spending of around €50m, the club's lowest outlay in five years. The stated goals going in — cutting the wage bill and lowering the squad's average age — were largely not met. Napoli tried to sign a centre-back and a striker, with names from Gila to Gabriel Jesus linked, but never completed a deal. Outgoing, they failed to move on Noa Lang and Lorenzo Lucca, while Dinis Rodrigues went out on loan to Eldense. Sporting director Giovanni Manna defended the approach: "The squad is good enough to pursue our objectives."

An austerity that hasn't convinced everyone

It is a paradox that speaks for itself: a rich club left frustrated against a club poor by design. The austerity line at Napoli has not convinced everyone at Arena Napoli either — with three competitions to play and no like-for-like cover in midfield since Scott McTominay's injury, the risk is that the saving gets paid for in the season's busiest months.

Napoli go into the game with a sour taste, having lost 3-2 at San Siro on Saturday 5 September after leading 2-0. They sit 12th with three points from three matches — one win, two defeats. The Champions League arrives at the worst possible moment to demand answers from a squad built with the handbrake on in the transfer market.

On Wednesday, when the teams walk out at the Maradona, the wallets give way to facts: a club that spent big without landing its top names against a club that spent almost nothing by choice. The pitch will decide which approach holds up over the group stage.