Arsenal to move for highly-rated Turkish midfielder?

With the Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said to have promised to finish his transfer business early on this summer, the rumor mill is constantly throwing up new names that Arsenal are supposedly interested in signing. The latest of those names is the Bayer Leverkusen midfielder, Hakan Calhanoglu, who looks set to leave this summer after three successful years at the Bay Arena.

According to the Turkish newspaper Aksam, which is considered as a reliable source in the player’s homeland of Turkey, Arsenal have joined Chelsea and Lazio in the race for the midfielder, with Wenger said to be seriously considering activating the player’s £32.5 million release clause and bringing him to the Emirates.

Personally, I would take this particular story with a pinch of salt. While it may be easy to see why Wenger would be interested in the player considering that the Turkish international is a young midfielder in the mold of Mesut Ozil, it does not quite add up with Ozil himself looking increasingly likely to continue his stay at the club. Moreover, Arsenal have way too many options in midfield at the moment.

But then again, with Santi Cazorla out till November after having as many as nine surgeries and the time frame for his return looking likely to increase, perhaps Wenger is scouting the Turk as a potential replacement. Calhanoglu is a creative midfielder well capable of playing inch-perfect through-balls and beautiful diagonals whilst also having great expertise over free-kicks.

While I do believe that Santi needs to be replaced, I’d much rather have Marco Verratti or James Rodriguez come into the side. But the reality of the situation is that the club’s drawing power for players has been substantially reduced due to a lack of Champions league football. So taking that into consideration, perhaps there is a possibility that Calhanoglu might end up at the Emirates.

AT

20 Comments

  1. Off topic: did you guy see Giroud’s goal against Sweden? What a screamerrrrrrrrrr!

    I say keep that guy.

    1. Excellent option off the bench but has already said he won’t do that this season

      Sell for 30 and use to buy Luis suarez for 12 million and jermain defoe for 60 million
      This is how we win the league…

      Reckon neymar for 16 mill is doable

  2. He’s the best freekick taker in Europe’s top 5 leagues. Other than that i don’t know much about him.

    But I can guarantee we are not in for James or Verratti, nor can we get them anyways.

    1. Veratti is laughable
      As if we would get him

      We’re being linked to everyone
      Is Ronaldinho still available??

  3. I call bull? on this rumour.

    Aksam? A Reliable source? ?? I live in the Turkish Republic of northern Cyprus, across the pond from the South of Turkey and I have never even heard of the Aksam newspaper, let alone consider it to be a reliable source. It must be new-ish or way behind the leading news outlet ?. As for the player himself, we have been linked with him in the past (2-3 years ago) he is a free kick specialist and a good one at that.?

    If there was any truth in this rumour, the news would normally break from a German outlet first and there’s no news regarding this coming from there, at the moment.

    1. Anyone remember Oğuzhan Özyakup, he left us back in 2012 on the advice of RVP. I reckon that there’s more chance of us signing him, he is keen to come back to Arsenal and Wenger has been keeping tabs on him. His club are reportedly willing to accept £13 million for the player. The spuds are also sniffing around this youngster.

      1. More news & it sounds as if his going to Chelsea.??

        Sport Bild also reported on the latest developments regarding Calhanoglu and revealed that Bayer Leverkusen would be prepared to accept a transfer offer worth £17.6 million [€20m].

        Turkish-Football have previously reported that Chelsea have held a long term interest in the Bayer ace.

        Additionally, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported in January that they caught Calhanoglu confiding in private that he plans to join Chelsea.

        Hurriyet published quotes claiming Calhanoglu had said: “I will have my wedding in a few months and then god willing, I will be a Chelsea player next season, there are also other clubs that want me.”

        Calhanoglu denied comments on his official Twitter account but the newspaper stood by their report and refused to retract the statement.

  4. Manchester United are hopeful of doing a double striker deal for Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata and Torino’s Andrea Belotti in the next two weeks, after agreeing terms with the Spanish striker and submitting a bid of around £70m for Belotti.

    Meanwhile.. Over in Frogland..

    ✊ Knock ✊ Knock ✊ Know

    ?- ” Alo……… Alo…. Errrrrrr , is Mbappe … Coming out to play?

    1. 50m for Morata and 70m for Belloti

      Money well spent….they have strengthened just like City

      and who have we got???

      a freebie flop Kolasinic?

    1. Well… The club did send Gazidis out shopping with Wenger ?? to poke him with a stick now & then, maybe Wenger got him drunk and left him in the corner of some Bar & sneaked off without him.

  5. By the time Wenger has made his mind up the guy will be 2 years into his 5 year contract and Wenger will be telling a news conference that he almost signed him.

    1. Yeah and next season Sanchez will be running out on to pitch wearing a Man city shirt, yet Wenger will still be denying that a deal has taken place.

      1. He’ll be on the city team sheet for the game Vs arsenal and Wenger will just be saying – he has a year left on his contract you know. Look, negotiations are going well. **** Me that city player looks just like Sanchez. What position does he play?

  6. ? Sanchez will force the move to City! But Wenger will surely want the news kept quiet until Arsenal make a marquee signing to appease the fans. Or maybe we’ll see a City player be involved in this deal?

    Accept it Folks, We’re City’s bitch and we always do as were told ??

  7. Mendy is awesome and a very good crosser

    why cant we just pay the 50m and sign him instead?

    why Wenger why?

  8. Bakayoko completes 35m to Chelsea!!!

    We need a proper DM and Bakayoko would be a great bargain

    Is Wenger interested in winning??

    Same old story for last 10 years

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors