Pepe LeFrits I think this might be more on the money than you think, not necessarily with Nico but just with our targets in general this summer. It would not surprise me if we already have an understanding with Leipzig on what they would expect for Sesko next summer (or Isak with Newcastle) and we are making our moves carefully this summer with an eye to next summer where we will have complete financial freedom to go after 2-3 world class players in positions of need (ST, Winger, younger midfielder). While Arteta's quote about adding to the attack this summer is irritating in hindsight, especially if we don't bring in anyone and see Nketiah and ESR leave, we did also get ample briefings from Ornstein, etc. at the start of the summer that there wouldn't be big ticket signings like Rice and the goal was to raise the floor while getting better value on sales.
To me, it just seems like we looked at the market, tried for true market opportunities that would also meet our needs (Sesko, Nico) and realized that we weren't going to have great options this summer without paying way over market so we pivoted to other market opportunities that would help fortify the squad (Calafiori and Merino) and now we can truly focus on 2-3 world class signings next summer. While I'd never be surprised by Arteta signing a defender, we seem to be well positioned in defense and GK now for the next couple of years so my hope is that we can use the January and Summer 2025 windows to bring in a Sesko/Isak striker profile, a Nico/Kvara/Leao winger profile and maybe even a Wirtz/Musiala midfielder profile (we can dream....).