Viktor Gyokeres and Santiago Gimenez are two of Europe’s top strikers outside the top five leagues and have reminded Arsenal of the risk Mikel Arteta may need to take to land his dream centre-forward
A midfielder has been the priority football.london understands and Mikel Merino appears to be the most likely candidate with the hope that an agreement could be found to complete the deal soon.
One of the biggest restrictions to Arsenal adding a forward has been the lack of obvious candidates.
Declan Rice (£105million), Kai Havertz (£65million), Ben White (£50million) and Gabriel Jesus (£45million). All these players have a common theme, as do Leandro Trossard, Oleksandr Zinchenko, David Raya, Jorginho, Aaron Ramsdale, Cedric Soares and Willian – they all come from Premier League sides.
Arteta clearly appreciates the lack of a need to transition from a new league when signing players with experience in England’s top flight. Even Merino, who despite playing currently in La Liga, spent time with Newcastle several years ago.
Therefore when looking at the striker market, the Premier League has little to offer when it comes to options. Look at the Big Six right now and only Tottenham have signed strikers from fellow English clubs – Richarlison and Dominic Solanke.
Liverpool spent big money on Darwin Nunez while Chelsea added Nicolas Jackson. Manchester United opted for Rasmus Hojlund while Manchester City had by far the most success by landing Erling Haaland.
Havertz has become Arsenal’s current centre-forward and is proving plenty of his critics wrong. This continued in the opening game against Wolves where he added a goal and an assist to his tally from the off.
Two names from abroad that are mentioned currently are Viktor Gyokeres and Santiago Gimenez. These two emerged last season as two of Europe’s highest-scoring talents in Portugal and the Netherlands respectively – leagues of high standing but with the asterisk that the bigger sides tend to dominate the majority of the league allowing a platform for the forwards to score plenty of goals.
The risk teams take when signing these players, as Liverpool did with Nunez, is that the same record fails to translate to the Premier League. Yet some players like Luis Suarez are able to make the move and reach even higher levels.
Gyokeres and Gimenez ended their domestic seasons with 29 goals and nine assists and 26 goals and eight assists respectively. Were these Premier League numbers both would be considered in the group of elite forwards in world football.
But because they both play outside of Europe’s top five leagues, there remain questions and risks associated with an investment from the likes of Arsenal in either. That said, both have begun the new seasons in much the same way as they ended the last.
Gyokeres has three league goals and an assist in the opening two games, while Gimenez has two goals and an assist in his first two league games – the Mexican also scored twice and claimed an assist in the Dutch version of the Community Shield, the Johan Cruyff Schaal against PSV.
It might be that Arsenal decide that they wait until 2025 when the financial freedom is loosened after a sustainable approach to this summer. Furthermore, the need for a wide player for many certainly has taken a greater sense of priority to address before the window closes.
