The Sun is reporting that Arsenal are still interested in Wilfried Zaha.
What’s the story?
The report says that the Gunners are still interested in making a move for the Ivory Coast international – they had a bid turned down for him by Crystal Palace last summer.
They say that he is rated at £75m by the Eagles, who have already identified Newcastle’s Allan Saint-Maximin as a potential replacement.
However, Palace face competition from Everton.
No return
There was plenty of interest in the 27-year-old last year. Arsenal appeared to be desperate to take him to the Emirates Stadium, whilst Bayern Munich were also interested in the former Manchester United youngster. In the end though, he ended up staying at Selhurst Park.
Last term, Zaha set the Premier League alight, scoring 10 goals and providing 10 assists. However, he has been a shadow of that player this time around – he has three goals and five assists in just five less appearances than the whole of the previous campaign.
The failed move appears to have rocked him, and he has struggled to live up to his usual high standards. He has done little recently to justify the reported £75m price-tag that Steve Parish and co want for their star asset, and Arsenal would be wise to avoid such an investment.
It is not as though Mikel Arteta does not have enough attacking options at his disposal. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Nicolas Pepe, Mesut Ozil, Reiss Nelson, Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah are already in his squad, which indicates that another forward shouldn’t be the priority.
Not only that, Arteta has also indicated that he will not have a huge amount of money to spend this summer. He recently said: “The damage caused by the club not being in the Champions League for the third season is really big. Financially the impact is enormous because the structure of this club is built to be in the Champions League and you can sustain that for one year or two, but then after you have to start making decisions”.
Surely that would make a £75m spend on one player all but impossible? Perhaps they could move some things around if a truly special player came along, but Zaha has not put himself in that category this season.
Given his recent showing, Raul Sanllehi and co had a lucky escape last summer. They should look for more cost-effective targets rather than spending big on an out-of-form player.
Elsewhere, Arsenal fans loved this man’s performance against West Ham.