Football is a game of opinions, as the old cliche goes.
And never has that been more apparent than right now, as Arsenal look to finally bring an end to their long pursuit for a new No.9.
I would say I’ve been surprised by the reaction to the news that Arsenal seem to be favouring a move for long-term target Benjamin Sesko over Viktor Gyokeres, but I suppose I’m not really.
In the often twisted world of football and social media, rationale conversation seems to now be the outlier, rather than the norm.
But having said that, the angry response by some to the news has caught me a bit off guard a little.
For many there really does seem to be a team Sesko and a team Gyokeres. And depending what side of the fence you sit on, the other option is simply not good enough.
Right now I’m probably just about favouring a move for Gyokeres over Sesko, but I can see an argument for both players. So ultimately I don’t really care who it is, because I think either will make Arsenal a far stronger proposition next season.
If it is Sesko, as recent reports suggest it might be, I can absolutely see why that would be the route that Arsenal go down.
They’ve put an awful lot of work into scouting the Slovenia striker. Countless hours have gone into the analysis and if after all that they think he is the guy, then so be it.
He’s clearly immensely talented. He has experience of playing in a top five league as well as in the Champions League and he has shown he can score freely in both at a very young age.
Potential wise, he is a power house. There is huge scope for him to improve and develop and from a club point of view it’s clear that would be very appealing.
It should also be noted that he scored 26 goals in 53 games for club and country last season, so it’s not exactly like he hasn’t been scoring. He has and at an impressive rate. And that follows on from 23 in 54 games in 2023/24.
I really don’t think a club can look purely to the short-term when investing up to around £100 million in a player when you include wages.
So the whole ‘we have to buy to win now’ argument might be something we as fans can debate, but a business has to have a more long-term outlook to its plans. It has to be able to block out external noise and pressures and do what it believes is right.
I tried to have this debate on X last night and you can imagine how that went……..
Gyokeres’ goal record in Portugal is tough to ignore. He’s been a goal machine over there during the past two years but that does not mean he will be a success over here.
Neither of the two options who appear to be at the forefront of Arsenal’s thinking right now come with any guarantees.
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There seems to be a view that Gyokeres is the more experienced of the two so he will be able to handle the pressure of being Arsenal’s main man the better of the two, but I’m not sure that stacks up.
He’s older, yes, but he’s not really more experienced when you look at where both have been playing their football over the past four years.
So while I might be slightly more team Gyokeres than I am team Sesko right now, I would have no problem if it were the latter who arrives.
What the debate over the striker situation has shown, however, is that it appears patience will be in short supply when it comes to the new man. Whoever it is, they will be expected to hit the ground running and if they don’t then the knives will be out.
That’s not exactly an ideal environment to walk into, but I suppose that’s what comes with playing for a club like Arsenal now where expectations are so high.
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