da roleta： Arsenal may have finished last season as runners up to Leicester, but since then they have already seen Jamie Vardy turn down a move to The Emirates.
da aviator aposta： Whether he goes on to regret that decision remains to be seen, but what it does indicate is that Arsene Wenger is in the market for a new addition to his forward line.
Oliver Giroud may have had an impressive Euro 2016 but that arguably had more to do with playing alongside Antoine Griezmann than his own efforts. If Wenger could break the bank and manage to sign the Atletico forward this summer then you would almost be looking at two new forwards if the two Frenchman could replicate their partnership from last month.
That looks quite unlikely to happen, but Wenger is still going to have to break the bank if he is to get in another top class forward – and perhaps the final missing piece of the jigsaw, which could deliver them their first Premier League title in 12 years.
Let’s have a look and see who is on Wenger’s shopping list between now and the end of August…
Gonzalo Higuain
It’s been reported that it’s going to take £80m to secure the services of Higuain from Napoli and if you were to compare that against other potential transfers in this window, then it may not seem as expensive as first thought.
The 28-year-old has spent three season’s in Naples and last year scored a phenomenal 36 goals in 35 Serie A appearances, with goalscoring statistics like that it was only going to be a matter of time before a host of top European clubs came knocking.
Higuain looks like a big fish in a relatively small pond in comparison to the Premier League, and you get the feeling a player of his talents should be looking to really test himself at the highest level. That’s no discredit to Napoli, but he is certainly capable of playing at a higher level.
The question is whether or not Wenger is prepared to go for broke in what would be a real marquee signing for the club.
Alexandre Lacazette
If he isn’t prepared to pay all that money for Higuain then about half of that could get you an upcoming talent with the promise to deliver a lot more.
Lacazette is in demand this summer though, with a whole host of Premier League clubs hoping to claim the Lyon forward’s signature.
The 25-year-old has spent seven seasons at Lyon but it’s in the last three that his career has really come alive. He has registered 63 goals in 103 Ligue 1 matches and last season was only topped in the scoring charts by Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He knows where the goal is and is well worth the reported £40m transfer fee.
With Arsenal having the pull of Champions League football they could very well find themselves at the front of the queue when it comes to signing the striker, but they can’t afford to hang around for too long as cross city rivals seem to have no shortage of cash and are more than ready to place a bid of their own.
Mauro Icardi
If Wenger decides that Italy could be the ideal place in which to pick up his star striker but can’t find the cash for Gonzalo Higuain, then he may not go far wrong by focusing his attention on Inter Milan’s Mauro Icardi instead.
Like Lacazette, Icardi has been on the radar on a number of Premier League clubs and has declared his interest in a move to England – predominately London.
Icardi has been a revelation for what has been quite an underachieving Inter Milan side over the past few years; his 47 goals in 88 Serie A appearances sees him find the net in every other game, and if he can bring that form to the Premier League then Arsenal could finally have their 20-goal-a-season striker that they have been craving for so long.
With Chelsea and Tottenham already adding strikers to their ranks in this transfer window, it could make Arsenal the favourites to sign Icardi by default.
The striker looks keen on a move to London and as ambitious as West Ham seem to be, the Argentine would be just out of their reach.
£45m should be enough to prize him away from the San Siro and that would be a very astute signing if it were to be pulled off.
This article was submitted via our Write For Us feature. Think you can do better? Submit your own article via the link below, and give yourself the chance of winning monthly cash prizes…
[ad_pod id=’writeforus’ align=’center’]