Youssouf Fofana: Is he the bargain of the summer?

The 25 year old Frenchman is available at a cut rate price, does he makes sense for Arsenal?

Youssouf Fofana is almost certainly moving this summer and he could represent a chance to get a pretty major discount.

The 25-year-old is in the last year of his contract, and it appears that both he and AS Monaco are in agreement that a sale and move to a different team this summer would be preferable to extending his tenure in the Principality.

It has been reported that the required transfer fee would be from as low as €20 million to a more passing of the smell test €35 million. Either of these or potentially the actual final price, represent a pretty healthy discount from where other midfielders of similar quality have moved for.

The links with Arsenal have started (it makes sense for him to be linked, he is very obviously available and Arsenal very obviously need a midfielder) but it so far hasn’t been with the reporters most closely linked with getting information from Arsenal.

It is still worth taking a look at what the data says about the midfielder.

At a high level he seems to really fill up a stats chart, looking like a good all around player.

Fofana has been on an upwards path over the last few seasons, improving from a player that looks to have been a passable starter on a big five league team to a player that has production of a Champions League team starter.

He never got to play in the Champions League with Monaco but his production over the last two seasons has been pretty close to that level. On my player rating tool the improvement is pretty clear.