Arsenal Considering William Pacho Transfer Amid Wage Structure Concerns

Arsenal may be stacked with centre-backs, but the transfer radar at London Colney hasn’t switched off yet – and William Pacho’s name is still flashing.

The Paris Saint-Germain defender, fresh from signing a new deal at the Parc des Princes, is being monitored by the Premier League champions, with reports in South America claiming he would consider a switch to Arsenal or Manchester City for the right money.

Arsenal’s rebuilt back line – and one more?

Mikel Arteta spent the summer reinforcing a defence that already ranked among Europe’s best. Illan Meslier arrived on a free from Leeds. Piero Hincapie cost £34.5m from Bayer Leverkusen. Christos Tzolis came in for £34.12m from Club Brugge. Bruno Guimaraes joined from Newcastle for £75m, and Ezri Konsa signed from Aston Villa for £51m.

It was targeted, expensive surgery rather than a squad overhaul. Arsenal wanted quality, not bodies, and shut the window on September 1 still hunting – unsuccessfully – for one more attacking option.

Morgan Rogers, Vinicius Junior and Julian Alvarez all sat high on the list. Arsenal held their ground instead of paying a premium for what they viewed as a second-choice solution.

At the back, Arteta already has a formidable group: Hincapie and Konsa now join William Saliba, Cristhian Mosquera, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhaes, Jurrien Timber, Riccardo Calafiori and Myles Lewis-Skelly. On paper, that department looks complete.

Yet Bolavip reports that Arsenal retain a strong interest in Pacho, who has “entered the plans” of both the Gunners and Manchester City. The Ecuador international “still has a market”, despite his renewed PSG contract, and the two English heavyweights are described as “open to making a move” for the former Eintracht Frankfurt centre-back.

The salary question

This is where it gets complicated. And expensive.

Pacho earns around €11m a year in Paris. Any move to the Emirates would require Arsenal to top that figure, with the report claiming the clubs “would offer him a very lucrative salary” to tempt him away from PSG.

For City, those numbers “wouldn’t be a problem”. Arsenal, though, operate with a tighter internal hierarchy. Bolavip notes that their highest-paid defender, Saliba, is on €14m per year and only five players in the entire squad earn more than €11m.

So the question for Arsenal is clear: is Pacho so important that they break, or at least stretch, a wage structure that has underpinned their recent rise? Or do they trust the depth they have already paid heavily to assemble?

Carragher and Wright question missed Barcola chance

While Arsenal weigh up whether to go big on another defender, some high-profile voices remain puzzled by what they didn’t do in attack.

Jamie Carragher admitted he was stunned that Arsenal did not properly join the race for Bradley Barcola, who instead ended up at Liverpool from PSG.

Speaking on The Overlap, Carragher said: “I’m happy it didn’t happen but I was looking at the Barcola thing.

“For me with Arsenal, left wing has always felt like where the drop is compared to [Bukayo] Saka, [Martin] Odegaard, [Kai] Havertz.

“The new kid [Christos] Tzolis has made a decent start. But the longer the Barcola thing went on, and then Arsenal didn’t get Vinicius Jr or Alvarez, I was thinking is that [signing Barcola] not the one?”

Ian Wright agreed. The former Arsenal striker was adamant Barcola was exactly the kind of signing the champions needed.

“That is the player Arsenal need to sign,” Wright said. “He comes in from a brilliant PSG side and he’s played with players who are on that level. Now he’s coming into a Liverpool side where he is that superstar and will bring them [his teammates] up there.

“That’s what we needed. Whether you think Morgan Rogers could have done that, I would have been happy with that. But Barcola was available.”

So Arsenal find themselves in a familiar place: heavily armed, carefully run, and still one big decision away from the next leap. Is that decision a blockbuster wage for William Pacho – or the attacking superstar they chose not to buy this summer?