Dani Ceballos doesn’t solve everything on his own

Arsenal are still debating whether or not to make Dani Ceballos’s move permanent, but even if they do, it’s probably not enough as is.

There’s going to be a lot of debate about this Arsenal midfield this summer. I say that because there’s already a lot of debate about this Arsenal midfield now. But over the past two years, we’ve seen the difference an effective midfield can make. It’s the engine room. Power it up and it runs the show. Leave it skimpy and it falls apart.

Thus, we have to discuss Dani Ceballos and whether or not his move should be made permanent. The Spaniard has spent the year on loan at the Emirates with somewhat underwhelming results.

The underwhelming comes from injury and a lack of consistency. His loan was meant to show us whether or not he was the solution to this midfield. Whether he could be the guy we needed to move forward.

But Real Madrid is asking for £36m, and with so little conclusive evidence that he is, in fact, that guy, it’s hard to justify trusting the entire fate of the midfield to him.

That’s not to say he can’t be part of the solution, but at this point, it’s very unlikely that he is the solution. And it’s apparent that Mikel Arteta doesn’t think so either, given the strong links to Thomas Partey and to all the other midfielders out there—Carlos Soler, for instance.

Ceballos has been pairing with Granit Xhaka lately and it’s proven promising, but even coming from the ultimate Xhaka fanboy, I want more around Xhaka than Ceballos. And coming from a huge Ceballos supporter, I want more around him than Xhaka.

The problem comes down to having Mesut Ozil as the third midfielder when we might have a three-person midfield with more cohesiveness. Even if you throw Matteo Guendouzi or Lucas Torreira in with Ceballos and Xhaka, I still don’t feel the magic. But someone like Thomas Partey? Yeah, that’d do it. Marcel Sabitzer? Yeah, that would too.

The primary investment of this summer should be the midfield. Not the defense. Not the attack. No matter what happens. The midfield needs some investment, even if that means selling Torreira because so much starts and ends in the middle of this formation.

I’m all for Ceballos staying if we can also spare the money to bring in someone else. But that’s the big question.