Arsenal to swoop for wantaway Juventus midfielder?

No matter how many midfielders Arsenal have in the squad, there never seems to be enough and it seems to be an annual occurence every summer for the Gunners to be linked with a swoop for a midfielder. According to the latest reports in Italy, the Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is eyeing up a move for Mario Lemina, who plays for Juventus.

Since moving to the Turin giants in 2015, the Gabonese international has been more or less a squad player for the Italian champions. Despite impressing on almost every opportunity, it appears the Old Lady’s midfield is too strong for the player to break into and the club are said to be willing to listen to offers in the range of €20 million for the 23-year-old, a price range that is right down Wenger’s alley.

The source of the story, Tuttosport, is Turin-based and relatively reliable with respect to Juventus-related information, so the story does come with a fair bit of credibility. Another factor that adds to the credibility of the story is that Lemina is Wenger’s kind of player – a technically gifted and versatile midfielder who likes to sit back and conduct the game from the middle of the park.

Perhaps the player’s biggest strength is his versatility. Apart from his preferred role of playing as a box-to-box midfielder, the Juventus star can also play as a winger, a full-back or as a wing-back, whilst also having played as a centre-back in a three-man defence during his spell at Marseille in the 2014-15 season, under manager Marcelo Bielsa.

With Wenger recently shifting to a back-three himself, it certainly does make sense for him to bring in a versatile player who can play a majority of the positions under his new system. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if we end up signing him but it is certainly not something I’m excited about. For me, extending the contracts of Ozil and Sanchez and signing a world-class striker are the only things that can make this a good transfer window for Arsenal.

AT