Arsenal have been linked with a huge transfer bid for one of the biggest stars in Serie A - but they may have to settle for an alternative target.
While Arsenal’s summer transfer business seems likely to have improved their squad on the whole, their failure to complete one key deal still haunts them – despite their best efforts, they never got their hands on the world-class left-sided forward that they believed could secure their status as the best club in the country.
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Vinícius Junior and Julián Alvarez were courted to no avail, and by the end of the window they had sold Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli but only replaced them with Christos Tzolis. The Greek winger has enjoyed a fruitful start to life at the Emirates, but there is a lack of both depth and star quality down the left wing right now. It’s a weakness which could come back to bite them.
As such, the rumour mill has started throwing a few names, with the most prominent among them being Juventus’ Kenan Yildiz, who has been linked with a move to North London on a number of occasions over the past couple of years. It’s a deal which has never materialised, so could it be any different in the near future?
Arsenal making Kenan Yildiz a key transfer target – reports
Kenan Yildiz scored 11 goals in 47 games for Juventus last season - could Arsenal make a move?placeholder image
Kenan Yildiz scored 11 goals in 47 games for Juventus last season - could Arsenal make a move? | Getty Images
The stories linking Arsenal with the 21-year-old Yildiz date back to early 2025 at the very least, but they’ve been resurrected by a string of tabloid newspapers and gossip columnists over the past few days. Just about every aggregator of transfer stories has carried some version of the rumour.
The origin of this latest spree of stories seems to be Italian outlet Corriere dello Sport, not necessarily an outlet noted for its reliability when it comes to transfer rumours. They allege that Juventus could consider selling Yildiz next year should 19-year-old summer signing Kerim Alajbegović continue to impress, although they might apparently demand as much as €100m (£85m).
Any story which suggests that a player might be sold if a teenager with just five appearances under his belt continues to play well is speculative at best by its very nature, but this particular tale is rendered even more fanciful by the fact that Yildiz is considered to be the centrepiece of Juventus’ team – he’s the star of the side, and the cornerstone around which their long-term planning is built.
Yildiz signed a new long-term contract extension in February which tied him to the Old Lady until 2030 and made him their best-paid player. There has not been the slightest indication that anything has changed in the eight months since.
Indeed, it’s worth noting that Corriere dello Sport’s article, eyebrow-raising as it is, doesn’t even suggest that Arsenal have shown any signs of renewed interest. The story centres around alleged interest from Real Madrid and mentions previous interest from Arsenal as an aside. English-language content aggregators and other media outlets have then published their versions of the story with the focus on the Gunners instead.
In short, there is absolutely no real indication that Arsenal are going to push to sign Yildiz, nor that Juventus would consider selling him in the foreseeable future. Every player has a price, of course, but the Turkish winger’s would be enormous. Unless something substantive changes between now and the next transfer window, Yildiz is going nowhere, and certainly not to the Emirates. At this time of year, many wild rumours get amplified simply because there is little of substance to fill up column inches. This is probably a perfect example.
It won’t be Yildiz – but will Arsenal sign a left winger this January?
Christos Tzolis has made a promising start to his Arsenal career - but Arsenal still seem to want more down the left wingplaceholder image
Christos Tzolis has made a promising start to his Arsenal career - but Arsenal still seem to want more down the left wing | Getty Images
Even if Yildiz is off the menu, Arsenal still have something of an issue down the left flank – Tzolis has enjoyed a good start to his career in England but is fundamentally unproven at Premier League level, and the only obvious alternative in the position is Eberechi Eze, a playmaker who isn’t a natural wide player and who tends to thrive more frequently in narrower positions.
Arsenal would have loved to sign Vinícius Junior from Real Madrid but their interest was never more than acting as leverage for the Brazilian’s contract negotiations. Julián Alvarez may well have ended up playing through the middle rather than on the left, but he would have at least offered Arteta the combination of creativity and firepower that he appears to crave. Either way, they came away from the summer empty-handed.
All their very public pursuit of both players proves is that Arsenal have both the means and the determination to sign a truly first-rate attacking player. The transfer funds exist and if there is a sniff of a chance to sign a player of Vinícius or Alvarez’s talent, they are likely to take it.
Alvarez himself may well be the most plausible target among players who match the description, with Atlético Madrid willing to sell – just not to Barcelona, the one team that the Argentine actually wants to move to. If he changes his mind over the coming months, Arsenal could eventually get their man, and his attempts to force a move over the summer haven’t made him the most popular man in Madrid right now.
Other players have cropped up in the gossip columns, such as Brentford’s Kevin Schade and RB Leipzig’s Antonio Nusa. The links are a little tenuous at the moment and it’s likely that they are players the Gunners might target if the combination of Tzolis and Eze is judged to be insufficient come January – not the star players they’d move heaven and earth for, but plausible options if the left wing becomes a headache as the season unfolds.
It’s hard to gauge just how likely it is that Arsenal make a big attacking splash over the winter. They want an extra high-end player and have the money, but doing high-end business in the winter transfer window usually proves to be difficult. Just don’t expect Kenan Yildiz to make the move, if anyone does.