An Arsenal move for an Aston Villa star this summer has been described as “interesting” given the lack of game time he’d been getting recently.
Arsenal are seemingly an elite striker away from going from competitive to champions. They’re second in the Premier League and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League.
The back end of both of those have seen the Gunners without a striker at all – Mikel Merino standing in from the midfield. Arsenal have held their own, but want to recruit in attack.
On a BBC transfer Q&A, Alex Howell was asked about the potential of Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins and Eberechi Eze being signed together.
On Watkins, he said: “I think most Arsenal fans would be happy to see a striker come through the door. From what I was told by sources at Arsenal, the Watkins situation in January came about after they were made aware of the possibility that Aston Villa would be willing to sell a striker. This was before they had completed the deal for Jhon Duran to go to Saudi Arabia.
“People within the club at Arsenal valued him at around £40m, and those at Villa saw him at closer to £60m, and that was the end of it.
“As my colleague Sami Mokbel and I have reported, Arsenal are interested in Viktor Gyokeres and Benjamin Sesko alongside Alexander Isak.
“All are different profiles and all are younger than Watkins. The situation with Watkins is definitely interesting, though, as before Marcus Rashford’s injury, he wasn’t getting the game time he was happy with.”
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The chances of Eze being signed sound slimmer than Watkins, at least for under £60million, with Howell stating: “As well as all of the talk about a striker coming in. I think Arsenal’s biggest problem is that they don’t have many players who can make something happen off the cuff. Bukayo Saka is obviously elite, but teams tend to sit deep against Arsenal and double up on him. Eberechi Eze can beat a player and make something happen from nothing.
“Eze’s release clause kicks back in this summer too. During the last summer transfer window, Palace were willing to negotiate under his release clause, but if they win the FA Cup and get into Europe, I doubt that will be the case this time.”
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