Should Arsenal spend £45m on a player in a position already covered?

There are three or four players that Arsenal have been linked with consistently over the last few months and one such player is Lille striker, Nicolas Pepe.

The latest rumours still have us in the running but behind Paris Saint Germain and Manchester United with the latter seen as the front runners despite PSG already having talks with Lille.

But that is not what struck me about this particular rumour, different clubs, including us, are seen as the front runners depending on how the wind is blowing that day, so I am not concerned about other clubs being considered the favourites right now.

What concerns me is that we are even in the running because I have to admit that I am struggling to find justification for us spending £45 Million on a player in the one area that we are well covered.

We have Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette as clear first choice strikers and yes, we have seen Danny Welbeck leave – but we still have Eddie Nketiah coming through and even Alex Iwobi that can play as an out and out striker if required.

We do need to buy one more forward I admit but he does not have to take up a huge chunk of our transfer budget when that money can be better spent elsewhere.

The sort of player we need is an impact player that can be brought on when a goal is needed at the death or even a forward that can hold the ball up to slow the game down and not a player that will be unhappy playing a bit part role because you can take it to the bank that Nicolas Pepe will not be happy being a bench warmer.

I mean, would we really drop Aubameyang or Lacazette to make room for Pepe.

It would be interesting to see your comments on whether spending £45 Million on another forward is justified, mine is clearly not.

27 Comments

  1. You pray to god we buy pepe. Dont you know his position? He is basically a winger. Which we need two.

  2. Man… he is a winger… currently we only have one youth player in the name of riece nelson as winger. We want alteast one top level winger to exploit the wide areas. Otherwise next year also we end up with the only option of direct play throuth the centre..

  3. Perhaps we should look at a couple of basic questions first:
    1) What formation does UE prefer and want to play next season? I haven’t looked up his former clubs so hopefully someone can enlighten me on that score
    2) Does next season’s formation suit, or not, the players he has now?
    For instance:
    1) Does a No. 10 fit into his future preferred formation? If not then it would be best to try and let Ozil go and use his wages to bring in someone who DOES suit his future line ups.
    2) UE’s choice of formation would also indicate whether he actually likes using wing backs or would prefer out and out wingers.
    Once all that is sorted out then we can all pile in with which players we would like to see at Arsenal.

    1. Emery often used 4-3-3 at PSG and occasionally 4-2-3-1. Because he had Neymar and Mbappe as wingers there, whereas he has no good winger at Arsenal

      If Emery still uses 3-4-1-2 next season, Pepe would be useless, unless Lacazette plays behind Aubameyang and Pepe or assign Pepe as a free-role no 10

      I believe Arsenal would wait until their striker situations are clear before chasing another forward. Pepe might not be good as a crosser as he tends to cut inside to shoot or to swap position

      1. Thanks for the info gotanidea but UE didn’t really have a good time at PSG and maybe ‘Player Power’ influenced his decisions and line ups there. I was thinking more of what he preferred at Sevilla where he did pretty well.

        Once we know his favoured formation (if he has one) then perhaps we will be able to understand his future buys. For instance, if we ignore the cost for a moment, Pepe would be good as a winger/striker in a 4-3-3 with Auba as the other winger/striker and Laca in a more central position.

  4. We can not spent that much money on one player. Although we are short in the wing area, but with the small transfer budget ,we need to spend wisely and right now, defense is our primary concern . Even with our lack of width , we still can score goals with Aubo and Laca. But we need a complete overhaul of defense . I do agree that with the addition of Pepe our strike force can be lethal , we can go nowhere with our leaky defense. We need to aim to close the gap with City and Pool and it has to start from the defense. Need to spend money wisely . Nelson can add a width to our team. We must need a CB and Left back . If we can sell some players like Mikhi, Iwobi, Elemeny, Mustafi, then we can think of buying players in forward areas.

    1. The truth is arsenal defense was altered all season no stability at all
      Arsenal currently have too many defenders if we must buy then we have to
      Sell quit some few remember we have some injured

      We would not have conceded this much if we had our 1st choice back four

  5. With both Lacazette and Aubameyang on the pitch (and Ramsey gone) our subs are toothless. There is no one on the bench to bring on to change the game and score. I would welcome Pepe.

    Solution buy Pepe and increase our transfer budget sorted!

    1. do you think a quality player like Pepe would like to warm the bench?

      or keep playing and improve?

  6. You said solution: To increase our budget. Do you think it is possible. If you have money then why to discuss? just buy. This discussion is because we all know that our budget is very limited.

  7. Arsenal need to be clever wait man city buy center back and go for kompany
    Buy pepe 45m
    Take bale / isco on loan
    Bring back chambers to placy as 4 choice midfilder to cover up xhaka,toreira,guaduzi
    Give nile and belarin more chance

  8. 1- no way is he coming here
    2-why would he come here when he would have a pick of teams
    3-his fee would be double the 45 mil you’ve written
    Zaha for me ,proven PL experience and a proper beast on that left wing

      1. I know but we already know he’s proven in this league ,if we wanna be serious then this is what we need to spend ,if by the beginning of next season and we’ve done our usual 5 players for 70 mil then we know we can forget about the league once again .

        1. He’s not exactly proven and not worth 70m when he barely gets 10 goals a season. sure he is a talented winger which we need but max he’s worth is 40m since he’s no longer a young player with potential and unlikely to hugely improve at 26.

          1. He’s playing for palace and gets 10 goals as a winger for the season ,that’s good enough for me ,when he’s on it he’s the best winger in the league ,power pace ,crossing ability ,can actually beat a man without falling over ,but it doesn’t matter because we all know we will be going for someone half the price of not less .

            1. Not because he scored 10 for palace he would be better on a big team. Remember utd?? He Is awesome beating players…but His finishing Is rusty and his crossing not so good. Not for 70mm for sure

  9. For me a winger ,a powerful CB and a central midfielder in the mould of Vieira ,diaby .
    Get iwobi mustafi ,Xhaka out the team and replace with what I said ,like for like ,but that’s my opinion
    Out
    Iwobi
    Xhaka
    Mustafi
    In
    Zaha
    Powerful CB
    Central midfielder
    Watching us play this season to me they are the 3 areas most in need of upgrading

  10. Pepe would be a great buy for us he has the abilities we need on the flanks
    It’s a shame welbeck has left as he was a useful addition to the bench before he got injured and we were playing much better then so someone similar would be good
    That ziyech is a great player if we added him to our midfield it would start to balance out and improve
    Then add a decent CB maybe a young hungry bulldog and a more established leader aswell
    And 2 fullbacks maybe one specialist and one younger player to learn and grow
    We are losing a lot of our players from contract endings and I’m sure there’s a few players who will definitely be sold so it’s all achievable

  11. hey gunners the truth of the whole matter is that pepe should be brought in the club because what arsenal really needs now is just a strong wide and fast player that can change the dynamism the game…….for example iwobi is not clinical, mykthakyan isn’t as well, ozil not sharp to do the work….and ramsey out ….so we need him…..lets not just manage these time…..and never repeat the same mistakes arsenal wenger does during his reign….pls

  12. I don’t understand when some people say ‘free up space’. Cech is gone. Ramsey and Welbeck also. That’s close to or over 400k wage bill freed up. Hope Bosscielny is not going too. I have high hopes for next season.

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