Aleksandr Golovin has been one of the best players in this year world cup so far. With his country Russia having played two matches ( both of which they won ) he already has one goal and two assists to his name. He was linked with a move to Arsenal when Wenger was in charge with scouts regularly following his progress, but since the Frenchman left nothing was said about his potential signing until recently.
Golovin, 22, is primarily a central midfielder but can also play as an attacking midfielder and as the left sided midfielder in 4-4-2 ( and it variations ). If he joins Arsenal, he will be expected to compete with Ramsey for a starting shirt in Arsenal’s midfield. He has also been linked with Juventus who are said to have already opened talks for his signature.
Juventus if you ask me have the best chance of signing him. The Italian wanted Ramsey and with they shifting their attention to Golovin, it means they probably have admitted defeat in their pursuit of Aaron Ramsey which to me is good news for Arsenal.
Let’s face it, Aaron Ramsey is a key player for Arsenal and unless Xhaka is getting sold this summer, we will not have space for Golovin and even if Xhaka gets sold and we all of a sudden need Golovin I doubt we can afford him. We reportedly have only 70m plus the money raised from players’ sales this summer and with Torreira looking like a done deal, Bernd Leno already signed and Sokratis Papastathopoulos seemingly in the bag already, Arsenal will not have the money to sign a luxury player like Golovin this summer.
If he was a left winger maybe Gazidis would have sanctioned the move for him but he is a central midfielder and we have enough of that at the moment. What we need desperately is a wide-forward or a left winger. Despite signing Mkhitaryan as part of the Sanchez deal, we still need a left sided winger. Many will point to Danny Welbeck but in my opinion, the Ghana born English attacker is better off leaving Arsenal this summer.
I am sincerely hoping and praying that Welbeck has a good world cup so we can sell him for good money and spend the money on a proper winger/striker. Someone like Hirving Lozano would make a lot of sense. He is a bit of a hot head – he has 8 red cards so far in his career and he is just 22-years-old, but Robin Van Persie was also a hot head, Rooney was as well. The best players are often not easy to manage and Emery will have known that from his time at PSG.
But wouldn’t we love to get Golovin?
Anthony