Barcelona may have unintentionally helped Arsenal with a transfer move. According to Sport, the La Liga giants have dropped out of the battle for Amadou Onana, leaving Arsenal with only Manchester United to worry about in their bid to sign the Everton midfielder.
Last week, Charles Watts indicated on Caught Offside that Arsenal may end up signing Onana, with Martin Zubimendi’s desire to move away from La Liga unknown and Douglas Luiz too expensive.
“Mikel Arteta knows Zubimendi well and is a big admirer of the Spain international, but there is uncertainty around whether he actually wants to leave Real Sociedad. There is also expected to be strong rival interest in the 25-year-old, so it might not be an easy deal to get done,” said Watts.
“Douglas Luiz is a player Arsenal have tracked for a couple of years now, but the price Aston Villa would demand for the Brazilian would make it a difficult one for Arsenal.
“Everton’s Amadou Onana could be one to watch out for. There were a lot of links with him in January. Again, I was told at the time that there was nothing concrete in that speculation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he is someone Arsenal look at when the season ends.”
According to Sport, Everton want to sell Onana for £52 million. However, Barcelona believes that is too expensive for them.
Anyone who looked at the Amadou Onana transfer race and saw Barcelona in it would have concluded that if they are serious, they would have easily won—Barcelona only comes for you once.
However, now that they are out of the race, Arsenal’s chances are looking good. Our Gunners attempted to recruit him during the winter; they must have formed a ‘connection’ with his agents, making it easier to persuade him to join.
With Partey expected to leave, the 22-year-old might be an ideal replacement.
With a player like Onana arriving, one could argue that we could now see the best of Declan Rice as he can now play a free role in midfield (he won’t be held down by defensive duties).
Darren N
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M y opinion has been and remains that we WILL try our best to land Zubimendi. I have seen him as a favourite IF he can be persuaded to come here, which is of course uncertain as yet.
For Onana, I see little in him perosnally to suggest we will TRULY TRY to buy him. He looks short of top class to my eyes and I will be SURPRISED if we even try seriously for him. I hope we dont!
Edu and Arteta now seems to like their signing to be tall, strong and athletic with good aerial abilities no wonder their top transfer targets are Onana for CDM,Sesko and Gyokeres for striking position.
Which , if true, would be a very good reapon to jettsoon titches like JESUS ZINCHENKO AND NKETIAH. I am convinced that all three will definitely be gone by summer 2025 and by THIS coming summer, definitely Nketiah and HOPEFULLY both of the others too.
Although they MAY well remain around til the next summer of 2025.
I hope not though.
In another article today, Grandad has made the very good point that Timber could be our DM.
He really could, couldn’t he?
Zinchenko’s role might change from next season expect him to play more in central midfield while Timber will be used as the third CB because white will play as an inverted right back next season so Zinchenkos game will come in midfield next season so don’t expect Timber to play defensive midfield.
I don’t think he will be, but in any case it would be unwise to pin our hopes on a player who’s been out all season to save some money (a lot of money TBF) – I hope timber fully recovers, but some degree of difficulty in his return season is almost certain. I hope he’s eased back into the team over the course of next season.