Berta Could Be About to Make His Most Astounding Arsenal Transfer Decision

He studied journalism at the University of South Wales and published a football book, named Bluebird Heaven, around the same time with Pitch Publishing.

Since then, Jamie has continued to specialise in football journalism, PR and football-related Spanish translation. He has worked with a number of media companies, including Reach PCL, Iconic Group and many more over a decade-long career. Sign in to your GiveMeSport account Arsenal could make an astounding transfer decision this summer as Mikel Arteta and Andrea Berta look to carefully tweak their squad. The Gunners are coming off the back of a superb season that saw them win the Premier League and come within a whisker of the Champions League title.

Having had such success, Arteta won't want to make big changes to his squad, but there are a couple of positions he wants to upgrade, and it's likely he will need to source replacements for some of the depth players who could be offered starting jobs elsewhere.

But it's the more ruthless upgrade decisions that are going to be the hardest to make, and indeed the most difficult to get right, and one reported idea is certain to split opinion.

According to the BBC's Sami Mokbel, Arsenal could be open to the idea of selling captain Martin Odegaard this summer. He said: "There have been some whispers over the summer that Arsenal might be interested in letting Martin Ødegaard go for the right price.”

Selling Odegaard would be a stunning decision from Arsenal, given how important the Norwegian has been during this successful run.

Odegaard has had some injury issues in the last couple of seasons, but there hasn't been anything truly lengthy, and he made 36 appearances across all competitions during the season just gone.

The Norwegian provided eight assists during that time, but he did only manage one goal, and there is no doubting he will have wanted to have produced more in front of goal. While ruthless decisions have worked out for Arteta in the past, you do wonder what selling such an important member of the team would do to a largely settled Arsenal squad.

With Odegaard under contract until 2028, it's not clear what Arsenal would view as a suitable offer to sell, but it would likely be a big fee.

Arteta is clearly a big fan of the attacking midfielder, saying in October: "That creativity is part of his nature. It doesn’t bring any pressure to him because it’s his best ability to generate things that not a lot of players can do. He has total freedom from my side to do and to explore and to take risks and to feel the movement and where he needs to be to generate those spaces. I think he’s certainly done that in the last two games.”

One possible key factor is the potential signing of Aston Villa star Morgan Rogers this summer. Rogers' best position is in the attacking midfield role, and it's not ideal to sign a player for £80million or so and play him away from his best position. Arsenal also have Eberechi Eze to use in the attacking midfield role.

Though, if Rogers was signed for the number 10 position, it would still leave Arsenal needing a left-winger, albeit the Odegaard fee might help pay for one. Still, the questions will come back to how much Arteta wants to disrupt this team at a moment when there is so much positivity, and given Odegaard's quality as one of the best number 10s in the world, it's not as if the upgrade is going to be a sizable one.