Chelsea teach Arsenal transfer lesson with double deal as Josh Kroenke pressured to respond

Arsenal cannot afford to be left behind by Manchester City and Liverpool as Chelsea teach them transfer lesson with a double deal

Andrey Santos and Angelo's moves to Strasbourg stand as a lesson to Arsenal as Chelsea begin to see the benefits of their multi-club model.

Chelsea are closing on a deal with Strasbourg to loan Andre Santos for the remainder of the season. The Blues spent £65million to purchase close to a 100% stake in the French side in June of last year as Todd Boehly looked to complete a deal to kickstart his multi-club model to begin emulating the City Football Group.

Arsenal looked on as another player, Angelo, joined the French side from Chelsea and will see yet another player move to Ligue 1. The Gunners have had frustrations when it has come to loan deals and ensuring regular game time for some of their stars.

Nuno Tavares has barely played for Nottingham Forest this season and looks unlikely to play much more as the Premier League relegation battlers have been going mad with more loan moves in the January window. Only two can be registered, likely leaving the Arsenal loanee unable to play.

Arsenal have their links to Colorado Rapids, of course, who are also owned by Kroenke Sports Entertainment. They have signed Auston Trusty from the MLS side before selling him on to Sheffield United for a profit after a successful loan spell with Birmingham City.

Arsenal are a club that in the title race are playing catch up. Manchester City and Liverpool have invested more and have had their coaches and team for longer than the Gunners but this could change in the next 18 months.

In the market, although Liverpool lack the multi-club model, they have done exceptionally well with buying and selling players over a longer period than a decade beyond just Jurgen Klopp’s tenure. Meanwhile, City have a network of 10-plus clubs they can use to help ensure their young stars get the most game time and best development.

Clubs like Girona or Troyes offer this perfectly. Therefore Arsenal are under pressure to find a solution in order for the gap in this regard to be closed or at the very least stopped from widening further.

With Vinai Venkatesham stepping down at the end of the season, Richard Garlick is moving into the position of Managing Director. He, along with the ownership and co-chairman Josh Kroenke, would be the people to push forward a plan.

That said, Mikel Arteta has such a presence at the club as manager, it would be very difficult not to see him playing a key role in whether this was something that the club would do. Finding the right club would be the crux of the issue.