When Mikel Arteta was asked on Friday whether he would be interested in signing Kylian Mbappe, he could have simply avoided the question.

The Athletic reported earlier this week that the forward is set to leave Paris Saint-Germain when his contract expires this summer. Asked about the idea of signing him, the Arsenal manager acknowledged the likelihood Mbappe’s future lies elsewhere (with Real Madrid his expected destination) but did give an interesting response. “When there is a player of that calibre, we always have to be in the conversation,” he said.

Pushed on that, he added: “Why not (Arsenal)? If we want to be the best team, we are going to need the best talent and the best players, that is for sure.”

Madrid have long been Mbappe’s predicted destination. The current Spanish league leaders had been in negotiations with PSG over a transfer in 2022, but the now 25-year-old France captain turned them down to stay in Paris. Before it was made clear he would leave PSG this summer, The Athletic also reported he had been leaning towards Madrid, but the process had been delayed by his camp not being convinced by the 14-time European champions’ latest offer.

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Although it would still make him Madrid’s best-paid player, it is worth less than their proposal from two years ago, due to the economic and sporting context at the club. That offer from 2022 was a €130million (£110m/$140m at current rates) signing bonus with an annual salary of €26m. They are eye-watering sums few clubs could match.

Arsenal’s own spending power going into the summer is not yet clear. Their return to the more lucrative Champions League this season after six years away will help increase revenue but they also have existing commitments, such as the £27million due to Brentford to turn David Raya’s loan permanent because of the way they managed financial fair play (FFP) considerations at the end of last summer.

But what was interesting about Arteta’s comments was not whether or not they might sign Mbappe — because surely they will not — but the scale of ambition that existed within what he had to say.

Mbappe told team-mates on Friday about his intention to leave PSG this summer (Paris Saint-Germain Football/PSG via Getty Images)

Believing Arsenal should be in the conversation for that calibre of player is indicative of the direction in which Arteta has wanted to take the north London club. That has been visible with the evolution of their recruitment strategy in recent years.

After a hit-and-miss first few transfer windows, Arteta and sporting director Edu entered the 2021 summer window with a clear plan. They signed six players under the age of 23 to integrate into the first team and build a growing core of young players. Not all of those deals worked out, namely Nuno Tavares and Albert Sambi Lokonga, but Martin Odegaard, Ben White, Aaron Ramsdale and Takehiro Tomiyasu have all played important roles.

Summer 2022 was about elevating the side to another level. Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko helped do that by adding new dimensions to the team as they joined from champions Manchester City and pushed Arsenal into their first genuine title challenge in years.

Before last summer, Arteta stated Arsenal needed “to nail the recruitment”. Fighting off competition from City to sign Declan Rice, another level-raiser, for £105million, was a major part of that, as was adding more strength in depth — which has had more varied success, in Kai Havertz’s case because of fluctuating form and for Jurrien Timber because of an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury in the first Premier League of the season that has kept him out since.

While Rice arrived as a massive name, that was a move waiting to happen. His career trajectory was always going to take him higher than West Ham United, and Arsenal acted to ensure he chose them. No one really raised an eyebrow that they were in the battle to buy Rice — it seemed a logical move on all sides. But Arsenal have not signed elite, proven talent from Champions League rivals often in recent years.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joining in January 2018 from Borussia Dortmund is the most recent example of a superstar signing, with Alexis Sanchez (summer 2014 from Barcelona) and Mesut Ozil (summer 2013 from Real Madrid) the only ones close before that.

To attract that calibre of player again, Arsenal are on the right track but still have work to do. Being among those challenging for the title for a second successive season is promising but they also need to show how far they can go in the Champions League knockout stages, starting with next Wednesday’s last-16 first leg away to Porto, both for the footballing and financial benefits.

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It was only last month that Arteta said: “The team has to evolve in its personality and what it transmits. Those experiences are necessary and that will happen when we go through Champions League phases and we become a different team, when we win titles, like we did (in the past), but other major titles. With our players internationally, they will achieve something different and then that group needs to grow. There are a lot of things we can do.”

Consistently challenging for the Premier League and reaching the latter stages of the Champions League will naturally lift Arsenal to the next level, both on the pitch and in terms of the calibre of player they can attract.

With that evolution will also come a responsibility for Arteta to truly assess what he sees as important.

All three of Aubameyang, Sanchez and Ozil left the club under a cloud. The two who departed while he was in charge (Aubameyang and Ozil) were the club’s highest earners, and had their contracts terminated at a time when he was laying the foundation for the culture he wanted at Arsenal.

Could Arteta, both figuratively and literally, afford to risk that happening again the next time they spend big on elite talent? That is a question only he can answer, but it will be interesting to ponder when the time comes for Arsenal to enter the market for that calibre of player.

In the meantime, Arteta’s words on Mbappe should not be taken too seriously, but the message behind them should be noted.

Before last summer, he became much more pointed, bold and repetitive when discussing what he wanted from the transfer window. The club then responded by breaking the record transfer fee for a British player, signing someone in Rice who had been courted by Chelsea, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Manchester City.

It would take a lot for Arsenal to really be in the race for Mbappe, in whom they showed interest when he was a teenager at his previous club Monaco.

That does not mean Arteta cannot show ambition when identifying other targets, though.

(Top photos: Getty Images)