Arsenal transfer news: Zirkzee links, Eze & Olise ideal signings, past Caicedo interest, and more
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Arsenal keeping tabs on Joshua Zirkzee, but is he what they need?
There’s a long list of strikers who have been linked to Arsenal ahead of the summer window. Some are real big hitters, such as Alexander Isak at Newcastle and Victor Osimhen at Napoli, but there are some who are slightly less well known, with Joshua Zirkzee at Bologna one of those.
He’s a forward Arsenal have been keeping tabs on according to some well sourced reports. Arsenal’s interest in Zirkzee was first broken back in January by Sam Dean at the Daily Telegraph and it’s a link that continues to bubble away as we head towards the summer. He’s an interesting player, one who looks destined for a big move soon.
I can’t pretend to be an expert on him, he’s not someone I’ve seen a lot of, but he’s clearly got a lot of potential and would add something to Arsenal’s squad that they don’t really have in attack. Whether he would move the needle enough for Arsenal though at this point I’m not sure.
I feel Arsenal are at a point now where any big money signings really need to come in and improve the squad immediately and I’m not sure Zirkzee does that. It would be a case of buying potential and while there is always room for that, Arsenal really need a forward who will come in and hit the ground running. That’s why I still feel they should throw everything at getting Isak out of Newcastle.
Eze and Olise dazzle for Palace – could they be priorities for Arsenal this summer?
I think either Eberechi Eze or Michael Olise would be a perfect fit for Arsenal this summer. I know the club is looking for a new attacking player who could add a bit of X-Factor to the team, someone who can come in and make something out of nothing.
We’ve seen Arsenal struggle at times against the low block this season. I think back to the second leg against Bayern in the Champions League and they were protecting their lead by dropping deep in those final 25 minutes. Arsenal just didn’t have anyone on the pitch that night who looked like pulling something unexpected out of the bag and opening them up. Someone like Eze or Olise could do that, especially the latter, as we saw in particular with his dazzling performance as Palace surprisingly thrashed Manchester United 4-0 last night.
I do look at Olise and wonder if he is an Arteta type player. He’s perhaps a bit too individualistic for the Spaniard in terms of how he plays and he would certainly have to work very hard to improve what he does off the ball to really fit in at Arsenal. But his quality is there for all to see and I think he would improve any top squad, including Arteta’s.
Marc Guehi is another player at Palace who has been linked to Arsenal. They were looking at him a couple of seasons ago, but I’m not sure if that interest still really remains. He’s a good player, but I think Arsenal have other priorities when it comes to potentially improving their defensive options.
Was Moises Caicedo a bullet dodged by Arsenal?
There’s been a lot of sliding doors moments when it comes to Arsenal transfers in the last couple of years. If things had worked out differently the likes of Lisandro Martinez, Mykhailo Mudryk and Moises Caicedo could all have been wearing the red and white.
Caicedo was a player they really wanted and were willing to pay big money for. But they weren’t going to pay what Brighton were asking for so they walked away after seeing multiple bids rejected in January, 2023.
Obviously they then went and signed Declan Rice the following summer, but as far as I’m aware they still would have gone for the West Ham captain even if they had managed to get Caicedo in the summer. The plan was always to try and get both of them, not one.
Caicedo hasn’t exactly been a massive success at Chelsea, although he has started to put in stronger performances as the season has gone on. He’s clearly an excellent player and I do think we would have seen him hit top form far sooner had he moved to Arsenal rather than Chelsea.
It’s just an easier environment for a player to settle at the moment and Arteta has shown how can quickly improve players. Look at Kai Havertz for example.
Chelsea’s issues are much publicised and it’s tough for any player to walk into that club right now and show their best form straight away, Cole Palmer aside perhaps. So I don’t really look at Caicedo and view it as a bullet dodged.
To be honest it’s the same with Mudryk. I just can’t shake the feeling that both players would have performed very differently had they walked into the Arsenal changing room rather than the Chelsea one.
Arsenal have done all they can, but I’m beginning to fear it won’t be enough
Arsenal deserve so much credit for their results in recent weeks. They’ve done all they can to put the pressure on Manchester City, picking up some really big wins in highly pressurised circumstances, but each time City have just shrugged off that pressure and got the job done themselves.
Unfortunately for Arsenal, I just don’t see that changing over the last couple of weeks of the season. City couldn’t really have handpicked a better trio of opponents to play between now and the end of the season than the ones they have. Tottenham and West Ham are a shambles right now, as they showed with the manner of their defeats at the weekend, and Fulham have been on the beach for weeks.
I always thought that if City were going to drop points it would have been at Nottingham Forest and had Chris Wood been more clinical on the day, that could and probably should have happened. City got away with one at the City Ground. They rode their luck at one end and then took their chances at the other. That was a massive win for them on a day they were far from their best.
That always looked to me like being their most difficult fixture of the run-in and I’ve seen nothing recently which has changed my mind. I do think Arsenal will win their final two matches themselves. But it still won’t be enough to get that elusive first title in 20 years.
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