Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is planning to sign a new striker in the summer transfer window – and Ajax’s in-form frontman Brian Brobbey has emerged as a target
The Gunners are determined to go one better next season after coming up short to Manchester City in the title race for the last two years. The reigning champions retained their domestic crown by just two points this term on the final day.
Mikel Arteta is expected to be backed in the transfer market again by the club hierarchy and, after keeping their powder dry in January, signing a striker is top of the agenda.
A new report from The Independent has outlined that Alexander Isak and Brobbey are two of the names being monitored by Arsenal, who are keen to get their business done early. Isak has been in red-hot form for Newcastle, while Brobbey has plundered 22 goals in 42 games for Ajax.
Mirror Football has already outlined that Isak, who the Gunners courted before he joined Newcastle, is unlikely to join the club this summer given the Magpies do not want to sell.
It’s claimed that Brobbey, 22, is therefore likely to be the Gunners’ next top target in the wake of his remarkable form for Ajax. Intriguingly, the Dutchman has been the subject of Premier League interest before.
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag worked with Brobbey at Ajax and has tried twice to bring him to Old Trafford – only for the striker to knock back his interest.
“Erik ten Hag called me and said that at United, my agent would get millions of euros and I could earn a multiple of my Ajax salary,” he explained back in January.
“But our decision was clear: we wanted to go to Ajax. Manchester United wanted to have me, but I insisted on returning to Ajax. To make that possible, my agent Jose Fortes Rodriguez even waived a hefty percentage of the sell-on clause.”
Brobbey, who went on to suggest he no longer had Ten Hag’s phone number when he was once again linked with United in January, has previously teased interest in joining Arsenal.
Speaking in a Q&A in the Dutch edition of Men’s Health magazine, Brobbey was asked to name a foreign club he would like to play for and replied: “Real Madrid is a great club, but so are Arsenal and Manchester
