Paul Merson has urged Arsenal to take advantage of the fact that Aston Villa have signed Philippe Coutinho by making a move to land Ollie Watkin.
The Villian’s completed a deal to bring the former Liverpool star in last week, with him coming off the bench to make an immediate impact against Manchester United, scoring the equalising goal in the process.
While Coutinho already looks ready to play a key role in the remainder of their season, despite limited playing time in recent seasons, but Merson believes his arrival at Villa Park could open the door for an attacker to leave the club.
“Aston Villa are crying out for a superstar,” Merson told Sky Sports (via HITC). “They have got one (Coutinho). You don’t lose talent. You can’t teach that. That’s not taught.
“This lad carried Liverpool, at times. It’s the way Steven Gerrard plays him, let teams worry about him, rather him having to track back some average player back to his own box.
“But, if I was Arsenal now, I would go and steam in to try and get Watkins. If I was Arsenal.”
Watkins would likely improve our frontline, but I’m not convinced that Villa would be willing to ell at this point.
It does appear that any striker we move for this month is likely to cost a pretty penny, unless we are looking at someone with a limited time on his current contract, which limits us immensely. We are crying out for a top-level striker to be brought in, but I feel like we would still need to re-enter into the transfer market in the summer even if we did strike a deal for Ollie, and the fee he would likely cost would surely hamper our fundage to land our top targets this summer.
Is Watkins the real deal? Would he help take us to the next level or should we be looking at better?
Patrick
I say get him in. Has got Pace and power
His finishing can improve under MA
Not for the first time Merson’s logic is….well illogical
I like Watkins, could be a good un for us but he’s a good un for Villa and I would imagine Stevie G is thinking that Coutinho could bring the best out of him
Exactly, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. I’m sure StevieG will want to see them together for at least 6 months.
Agree with Fingers – Watkins is hardly Vlahovic but an excellent hard working striker. Unfortunately SG has no intention of selling as he’s an integral part of their team, so we would have to pay way over the odds. I like him, but not that much…
Oh DEAR Merse!
EASY TO SAY THE FIRST THING THAT COMES INTO YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU ARE EMPLOYED TO PLAY THE CLOWN AS A PUNDIT.
AND WHEN YOU DO NOT HAVE THE SERIOUS RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN. No doubt Watkins IS agood player and no doubt either that Gerrard will not be letting him go at all.
Think first MERSE ,IF you are able and then speak, having first thought. And stop talking nonsense about things that will never happen.