Arsenal may have been turned down by one striker today but Wenger will be hoping that he wins the race to sign another, as the interest heats up for the signing of Lille striker Sofiane Boufal.
Boufal may be unknown to many fans but he has already attracted the interest of many top European clubs, one of which is supposedly Arsenal. According to the Guardian, after his €4m move to Lille from Angers in France, Boufal’s price tag could rise to around €25m this summer.
Boufal may not have hit the heights that some of the strikers we have been linked with this summer, as the Morrocan striker scored just 11 goals all season in France, however there is great confidence in his ability and that he is one of Europe’s hottest prospects.
Speaking to the media, Boufal’s agent admitted that it is highly likely the 22 year old will leave this summer, with interest from Barcelona as well as other top clubs, but with little chance of getting a first team spot at the Spanish Champions he was looking at other options. “We did have a meeting with the leadership of FC Barcelona in the last few weeks. There is an interest,” Yvan Le Mée said. “Now the reflection is whether Sofiane Boufal will go to Barcelona to compete with MSN (Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar) or should he go to a club where he is going to start matches and express his exceptional talent.
“We have initiated discussions with three clubs that interest us, but they either have or will change their coach or the coach is in charge of a national team at the Euros. In England, there is interest, but the English market is just beginning. A transfer of 20 and 25 million euros is not resolved in two weeks, of course.”
From that quote it seems that it must rule Arsenal out of the equation since The Gunners obviously aren’t changing managers this summer. Instead Chelsea, United and City are all changing managers ready for upcoming season, so you’d assume that they are the three major premier league clubs interested. This being said, Arsenal have supposedly had a long standing interest in the Lille striker and have been scouting the Moroccan forward since January, and are the only top Premier League side that could guarantee Boufal Champions League football, plus a position as first choice striker.
Boufal can operate in the centre or as a wide man, making him already a versatile player who could make his mark from a number of positions on the pitch. He is young, affordable and speaks French. Is he a typical Wenger signing?
By AH
Why not give our own
players a chance.
I’d be happy with Akpom.
Can’t be any worse than
Wellbek and he cost 16 mill.
Got to better than 12 mill Ox
or 140 k per week Theo.
After all I hear Arsenals fans say
‘We don’t buy stars we make them’.
Let’s walk the talk for a change.
I don’t think Wenger is the right man to lead us this season ……DELETED BY ADMIN…….Either way Wenger does not stay as Manager.What is your opinion?
My opinion is that you are an idiot and immediately banned!
What are you? A bloody terrorist?
Well done Admin. Anyone who promotes violence should be shot!
I deleted the nasty bits…
Well done admin, this is not the sort of comment I wish to read.
I believe that the thumbs up on HO’s comments were added after the offensive and threatening wording was removed by admin.
I would suggest that where wording has been removed by admin you do not give it a thumbs up, you do not know what you are agreeing to. Admins comment should be Enough warning.
I want a striker that is quick, can dribble, clinical and offer us something different from Giroud. He mustn’t be the popular name we know but someone that can do the job for us.. …. The hunt for a striker continues.
This Boufal is quick and can dribble, but he’s not a striker. He’s as much of a striker as Özil, Coutinho and Götze. Can be used as a winger at most.
He reminds me of mahrez he is a great talent would be a replacement for oxlade if he came
@ Honest Opinion.. … I respect your opinion but assassinating Wenger is not honest opinion….
The board wanna extend his contract.. …. I was thinking this will be his last season 2016/2017 season but we may have to live with him for more than one season. I think it is harsh if you want to assassinate Wenger…
I think the camps of people who think Wenger is the man to take us forward and those who no longer believe that have been established for some time.
In this day and age of morons and haters really assassinating people left and right, it is a rather dumb joke (if it is a joke indeed) to suggest Wenger should be assassinated.
This threat seemed to be about jet an other striker not about Wenger.
For the record and for now, I don’t believe Wenger is the best man for the job any longer and even with a Lewendowski I doubt he has the tactical acumen and understanding of the modern game to win us an other major trophy.
I do believe he deserves respect and I do believe he is better for Arsenal then 99% of the managers out there. Thing is if you are ambitious it is hard to argue, IMO, that he is still the “best” guy for us.
He ran out of ideas last summer and believed he had a squad that would win the PL. Instead we had a squad that does what it always does which is fall apart at the seems as a results of injuries and, IMO, bad mentality or weak will power, resulting in a run of results when it mattered most (as per usual) taking us out of contention early in 2016.
And again this window, we have not addressed our biggest need at striker yet, which makes me fear we will repeat the past which makes sense if the past is still managing our club in the form of Wenger.
But please no insults to Wenger or no insensitive jokes or threats, in this time of extremism we as fans should make football about respect first before anything else.
Much critic for Mesut Özil in the German Media and from ex-players. He is lazy. All players fighting but Özil looking.
If Wenger sees something in Boufal,let him pursue it,…
It is a gamble but he won’t cost much…
We didn’t gamble on Aubamayang when he was at St.Etienne and now he is one of the best….
Lastly,if the agent is sincere about Barcelona wanting him,he must have something special in his locker….let’s do this!
I never believe a word agents say, of course they’re going to big their player up. What’s he going to say, “we’ve had interest from Leeds Utd and Nottingham Forest”!
It’s funny to me, how after Girouds streak of not scoring for 12 years last season, most of us wanted a proven to quality striker who most likely would add 20+ goals for us.
After Wenger and the club having stayed quiet, more or less, and after made a head fake to Vardy, indicating they will not go for the top top quality striker we yearned for and who comes with a considerable price tag, we are all of a sudden willing to entertain projects again.
Why not spend some of the considerable cash we sit on, on a striker who is not a project? Who is not “a good one for the future”. Who is not a Janssen or Milik or Bousal?
Why not go for Lukaku or Aubamayang or Lewendowski or Higauin and why not pay 80 million? Because we want to make more money for Kroenke? Becasue we sleep better with 200 million in the bank? Because Wenger has turned us into accountants?
If we want to be a top club competing for the PL and CL we have to start thinking again like a top club and think in terms of strikers leading the line who have a proven record.
We have a horrible record IMO with signing “project” strikers. We are now financially strong again let’s use that cash position to try to re-establish ourselves as Europe’s elite again. This will only happen by winning major titles consistently and by singing marquis players. Ozil and Sanchez were a mjor step in the right direction. But if Vardy rejects us and we settle for a Janssen or Boufal or any other project our image would take a hit IMO.
Having said that, I simple do not believe it is in Wengers ability to sign a top striker. He is not willing to spend the money needed and he does not have the same ability to attract a Lewondowski or Aubamayang or Higauin as do Pep or Moureen or probably eve Conti.
Our continued display of lack of ambition makes it harder and harder to sell a top striker on the fact we want to win trophies now.
That 200 million is a mirage, we don’t have access to that in the way people believe we do. It’s for costs of running the club, players salaries, and what not. It’s all tied up basically. I listened to a financial expert speak on the matter, he wasn’t affiliated with Arsenal. In the end he reckons there is something like 50 mil. He might have even said less I think, last season we held back so we should have close to 100m. Take out the 30+ mil for Xhaka and that leaves us with 60 something left over. We could offer to buy Lukaku but is he worth all our money basically, Id fear a Benteke situation truth be told. Or a Torres, Andy Carol might have more in common. If it could get us an Aubameyang or Lewendowski Id happily see that money all go on one of them. But what type of moron is going to sell a player of that calibre in a market like this one.
@trevor
TBH I assumed we could not have access to all 200 million and I am sure we need part of it for working capital. Using the 200 million number just sounded so good in my argument and adds a certain drama.
Having said that, I do believe your number of 60 million should still, at a minimum, be available for transfers. In addition I think we should seriously consider selling 2 or 3 of our “promising” midfielders in Ramsey, Wilshire and Ox in addition to Walcott. Given their injury record and somewhat stunted development, is there really a reason to keep all 4 of those players? 2 or 3 out of those 4 should get us close to 40 million and bring our total budget to 100 million.
Also, I like the Xhaka signing but if funds are limited, I would argue a top striker was or is a greater need than an other DM. Coq and Elneny were by no stretch of the imagination our weakest players last season. Whilst Giroud was for a serious stretch of games one of our weak links.
Those MF are who most fans would deem most sellable quality wise, but will we easily bring in superior home grown players? Also, Xhaka is not a like-for-like player to either Coquelin or Elneny & the Vardy noise shows we are targeting a striker.
This agent knows how to talk up his player.
1. Meeting with the leadership of barcelona. Sounds impressive but could have been a waste of time. Or perhaps it was a casual chat at some function or another.
2. “We have initiated discussions with three clubs that interest us, but they either have or will change their coach or the coach is in charge of a national team at the Euros.” We immediately think of BM, manc, manu or chelsea. However there are no doubt a lot of lesser clubs that fit this description. Could also be that clubs were using this as an excuse to fob him off.
I know I am being cynical but it is the agents job to talk up his player. If wenger signs a striker I suspect the name will come as a complete surprise to all of us.
I am having trouble identifying a realistic signing for a new striker. All of our attempts to sign a young striker and develop them have failed. Akpom is not ready, sanogo has not progressed, walcott is injury prone and is going backwards, welbeck showed great promise when he was fit last season but seems to be turning in to an injury wreck.
I have no idea if boufal is suitable, I have not seen him play. I just hope that Wenger finds someone. He knows we need a top striker, he tried to sign suarez and he tried to sign vardy, and no doubt he has tried to sign others. What we need is for him to sign a top goal scorer who is not injury prone.
@jonm – In the end we only know after one or two seasons if any new striker signed has lived up to expectations. For me both Ozil and Sanchez lived up to expectations in their first season.
If we are not going to pay top striker type of fees perhaps we should re-consider Lacazette? He can finish and definitely has more speed than Giroud and he has been consistent for more than one season. I don’t know his injury record that well though.
Speed is a big requirement for me since I think it permits us to use more of the skills of Ozil (and Sanchez) with his ability to split defenses with his passing (and Giroud being too slow to get in behind defenders to latch onto those passes), and it allows us more tactical variations without having to switch strikers. Now if we want to play on the counter we can not play Giroud and have to play a triker who does not play every week in the central spot. Strikers more or less need to play every week to stay in game mode.
With Giroud against better teams we don’t really have the option to play on the counter attack which has become part of the modern game. In fact with Giroud we push teams into their own final 3rd and try to pass them to death. Our passing often is not fast or quick enough and we also don’t have enough good finishers to make this tactic work. This results in us being relatively easy to defend against and exposes us to counter attacks since we over commit in naivety as Wenger calls it, and then get beaten by Mertesackers lack of pace.
Similar to Mahrez, with dribbling skill, will score some great goals, the good or bad about it he will dribble down the whole field, but does not connect with the final pass or shot, like a certain Gervinho
When did he become a striker? Last time I checked he was a winger, who scores goals….we need an out n out striker, not someone Wenger.in his genius will try.and convert again thereby wasting his talent….by all means get him of possible but he is mo striker!!!
Pierre Emerick Aubameyang- Can we please see the light and go and buy him
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/man-citys-pierre-emerick-aubameyang-8231976
ST- Aubameyang (£65)
W- Sane/Marhez (£30)
CB (£30)- (Varne, Marquinhos, Laporte)
LB- Ricardo Rodgrigez (£20)
RB- (£15)
GK- (£20) – (Perin)
£180 Million- Get rid of deadwood- Debuchy, Jenkonsin, Szcezeny, Ospina
Ospina deadwood? Did you watch him play in the 2014/15 season for us, did you look up his stats for the 2014/15 season, best in PL by a long way. Have you seen his saves in last WC and copa america last year and this. Have you seenhis double save against messi and aguero?
If Ospina is deadwood then I wish we had a forest of it.
Ospina is not deadwood per say but he does want to leave he does not like being on the bench he wants first pick
Save a bit of cash this year and let Jenks back up Bellerin, I am starting to wonder if I am one of the very few who remembers how Jenks had stepped up while Sagna was out injured for a long time. He wasn’t perfect but he was getting better and I feel good enough to rest Bellerin (FA Cup/ League Cup and maybe sub).
Keep Szcz as backup for Cech… Again am I one of the few fans who remembers Szcz shared the golden glove with Cesc a few seasons ago? Szcz has experience from Roma now and training with Cech GK coach could teach him a lot and in the right areas of his game.
That is £35mil saved from what you said and I doubt we would get that much if we sold those two.
I would add a name to the CB options and that would be Koubily(spelling?). Tall, strong, pacey, accurate pass and a ball player. Looks like he could become a lot like Sol but better with the ball at his feet.
Koulibaly and yeah he is a name to add (just shows there are options out there that our manager and transfer team should be looking at and fighting to get)
Szcz in my view is not good enough for us (still burnt) I would want someone younger with brighter prospect have had my eye on Perin for a while check him out his reflex is great..He can learn Cech and good coaching team how to handle it more with his reflexes.
And in terms of Jenko if West Ham would rather play a RM as a RB over him then it speaks for itself…We would we want someone that couldn’t even break into West Ham??