I think I can speak for a lot of Arsenal fans when I say that we were really hoping for Arsene Wenger to sign a striker who was an out and out centre forward and able to replace or at least compete with our France international star Olivier Giroud for the starting centre forward role.
With Arsenal already having missed out on players like Nolito, Jamie Vardy and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, however, and with the chances of Arsene Wenger meeting the high price demanded by Napoli for Gonzalo Higuain looking pretty slim, we are starting to consider attacking players like Julian Draxler and Mario Gotze.
Another player in this sort of mould is the Barcelona and Turkey international star Arda Turan, who did so well for his current club’s La Liga rivals Atletico Madrid for four seasons. His steady supply of goals and assists made him one of the most highly rated and sought after attacking players around and so Barcelona signed him last summer even though Turan would not be able to play until January due to their transfer ban.
Perhaps it was this enforced time on the sidelines that stopped Turan from making the impact he and Barca had hoped for, but it has not worked out for him so far and now Talksport are reporting that Barcelona are willing to sell him this summer for just £20 million, which would represent a significant loss on what they paid for him a year ago.
The price and the ability of Turan would certainly appeal to Arsene Wenger and we are one of the clubs being linked with him but do we really need another clever and creative player to compete with the likes of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Jack Wilshere, Alex Iwobi and all?
At 29-years old he is far from being past it but after a poor season in Spain is it a risk worth taking that he would settle in quickly to the English Premier League, so is this one that Arsenal should avoid?
Bob.