You may know the name as he has done the rounds on the Arsenal transfer rumours before, but Ben Yedder is a true Arsenal style signing, as he’s cheap, relatively young, pretty much unknown and French!
Yedder currently plays his trade in Ligue 1 for relegation candidates Toulouse. Despite the team finding results hard to come by, Yedder is one of the more profile strikers in the league and still managed to score 17 goals last season in a side that narrowly avoided the drop. Yedder is known as a goalscoring talent in France and has scored 70 goals in four seasons, a mean feat for any striker, let alone a player who doesn’t get the best of service from his teammates.
The most shocking thing I found is that Yedder is supposedly available for just £8 million this summer, as he is now in the final year of his contract with Toulouse and is very unlikely to sign a new deal.
Arsenal will have to move quickly if they want to wrap up a deal for this prolific frontman, as Arsenal will have to rival Spanish side Sevilla for his signature. In fact according to Canal+, Yedder will have to decide between the two clubs in the coming days, with his current side now resigned to losing their star man. With the 25 year old in his final year at Toulouse, the ball is very much in his court and realistically you’d expect Toulouse would want to get some sort of fee for their player, rather than lose him on a free transfer next year.
In all honesty Yedder is not the top quality striker that we all want at Arsenal and my first thought was that he reminded me of the possible excitement we had about Chamakh joining the Gunners all those years ago. However at £8 million in this current market and with such a prolific record, I’m not sure if Wenger should be looking to pass on such a deal. Of course Arsenal should still look elsewhere for that top quality striker if Wenger believes he can get one, but surely Yedder would be a good addition and another option that we wouldn’t otherwise have?
By AH