I wonder if the Arsenal transfer rumours about us and the young Argentinean striker Paulo Dybala will now stop, after Arsene Wenger answered them with an emphatic negative in his press conference ahead of today’s match against Liverpool. Probably not, because the president of Dybala’s current club Palermo comes up with a new soundbite for the media every week, usually involving Arsenal.
Call me cynical if you like, many people do, but I have a sneaky suspicion that the Italian club could be trying to generate transfer interest and bump up the price of their promising player. He looks good to be fair but the asking price of nearly £30 million is just crazy for such an untried striker and so Wenger is right to look elsewhere.
That is still in Italy according to a Metro report, with the focus of our interest now supposedly the AC Milan star Stephane El Shaarawy. Once again no thanks. He may have talent but right now is low on confidence and shorn of form and that is not the sort of risk Arsenal need to be taking if we want to challenge for the Premier League and improve in the Champions League.
Are there any strikers out there actually scoring goals who will not cost the earth? There must be and I suspect that our manager will be keeping tabs on them.