Assessing the left wing options for Arsenal, part 2
Coming back for a second bit of the apple on who Arsenal could potentially sign to address the left wing openings
Well it sure looks like the dream of Arsenal signing Vinicius Junior is over.
It was widely reported that Real Madrid increased their renewal offer on Wednesday during their meeting after his return from the summer break. These early reports were worded a bit strangely that gave me some optimism that there was still a large gap between the player and club and that this would be “we tried, but he didn’t want to stay with us” type move from Madrid. As time went on, more reporting has come back and it looks like Vini called Madrid’s bluff and they have capitulated to what he was asking.
That is all over now and it was confirmed this morning by David Ornstein in The Athletic that a new deal was agreed.
That gives Arsenal a headache and forces them back to the drawing board for what they are going to do with their left winger/marquee signing this summer.
I took a stab at this previously here going through some of the options that Arsenal could look at.
Assessing the left wing options for Arsenal
Going into the summer, the number one position to strengthen on most if not every Arsenal fan’s wish list was left wing. I think that we would have liked to have seen (and still hope for) strengthening in other areas of the pitch but if there was one position where the club could sign a player and expect an improvement over what they got last season it was this spot.
In that post we covered Vinicius Junior, Bradley Barcola, Kenan Yildiz, Kevin Schade, Iliman Ndiaye, Nico Williams, Matias Fernandez-Pardo and Mika Godts, so we won’t be rehashing them here. If you want to get more of my thoughts on them you can go back to that one.
In this post we will have a fresher list, though much more of a compromise one. Lets get into it.
If he doesn’t play for Chelsea right now would he still count as the ex-Chelsea player signing: Christian Pulisic
If you were going to talk to 2019 me, I would be very excited about the potential for this move. 2026 Scott isn’t quite so hot on it.
His World Cup was a great example of the pros and cons of the player. When he was on the field in the group stage he was electric and gave defenders nightmares, the problem was that he was plagued by injury that meant he couldn’t stay on the field as much as the US team needed him. He dealt with a recurring calf injury and then had his World Cup ended by a bone bruise/microfracture.
His effectiveness when he is on the pitch has never been the problem for him. He has consistently put up good to very good goal plus assist numbers, backed by very good underlying numbers.
The problem has always been more about how often he can be on the field and his extensive injury history.
The USMNT fan in me (it is a small part) would think that this is cool and it would almost certainly help juice Arsenal’s already growing presence in the States but the big question would be would he be able to play enough in the high intensity of the Premier League?
