Arsenal’s Premier League festive fixtures are now coming thick and fast and we also have Champions League action to look forward to this week, and a League Cup quarter final this time next week, but for now the main focus is on getting back to winning ways and trying to better capitalise on Manchester City’s fall from grace.
Ahead of the Monaco clash we are third place in the table, and in seventh place in the newly revamped CL competition, so clearly we can make further improvements under manager Mikel Arteta this year and hopefully enjoy a far greater season than we are.
As we edge ever closer to the New Year, inevitably there has again been a spike in January transfer window rumour mill speculation and given the current trend in the news is to discuss our set piece routines, and a failure to score from open play, we are obviously being linked with quite a few creative playmakers and considered sharper ‘fox in the box’ strikers.
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One link potentially worth paying some attention to is the suggestion that we will join Chelsea and Manchester United in making a real effort for Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic next month. The 24 year old has been a huge success in Italy, scoring 44 times in 69 starting appearances for Fiorentina, and the Old Lady made the jump for him in January 2022 and his goal scoring exploits have basically continued since.
He is reportedly their top flight’s best paid player right now, but Juve are said to be prepared to play hard ball with him unless the 32 capped Serbian international commits to a new contract. This is despite him having almost two years left on his original deal, and it is claimed that they will simply look to unload him early in order to absolutely maximise his transfer value.
Reports doing the rounds are not yet putting a potential value on him, but Juve did pay 70 million Euros for him, so that would be the starting point in any subsequent negotiations.
Vlahovic is not the only player we are being linked with right now, Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak regularly appears in the headlines, as does Sporting Lisbon talent Viktor Gyokeres and RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko.
As ever, January comes down to available finances though and given some players can often take six or so months to settle in, Isak would be the safe bet as he knows the division and the opposition, anyone else would naturally carry a greater risk.
We shall see though, the next few weeks will certainly have us linked with others.
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