Arsenal could make a surprise late move for Jorginho…
What’s the word?
That’s according to renowned transfer guru Fabrizio Romano, who provided an update on the Gunners’ potential pursuit of the Chelsea midfielder to Twitter.
“Mikel Arteta, understood to be fan of Jorginho and appreciating his skills — this is why is a concrete name for the final hours for Arsenal,” he said.
“But Chelsea want significant fee to let him leave now.”
It remains to be seen exactly how much that might be, having paid around £50m to sign him from Napoli back in the summer of 2019. Meanwhile, FootballTransfers currently value him at around €22.4m (£20m).
He’s perfect for Arteta
Whilst it’s a move that would certainly cause controversy around the Emirates Stadium, sporting director Edu Gaspar could actually land his manager a proven Premier League talent and some valuable midfield backup at the same time.
He can do so by swooping for the player that has been dubbed “absolutely perfect for Arsenal’s system” by Google CMO Alfred Malmros, largely due to his ability to recover the ball and spray a cross-pitch pass with relative ease.
Indeed, he’s averaged at least 8.22 recoveries per 90 since the start of the 2021/22 campaign, whilst over the last year his average of 5.44 progressive passes, 2.88 tackles and 1.63 interceptions per 90 sees him rank inside the top 9%, 12% and 13% for those statistics when compared to fellow midfielders across Europe’s top-five divisions, via FBref.
It was only 18 months ago that the Italian won the Champions League with the Blues and the same site has compared him to Spain great Sergio Busquets in terms of statistical profile, as well as Liverpool star Thiago Alcantara.
That’s what would arguably him a very good deadline day signing, so you can forget about the Gunners landing another Willian. The 31-year-old would actually make for a great arrival, given the evidence above and should Edu and co manage to get a deal over the line before tonight’s deadline.
Once lauded as a “game-changer” for Chelsea by content creator George Benson, perhaps it’s the north Londoners who could now reap the rewards of having such an “underappreciated” talent – as described by talkSPORT’s Trevor Sinclair – in the squad, with a title on the line, his experience and quality could be crucial in getting the unthinkable done this season.
AND in other news, Edu could secure perfect Partey alternative in Arsenal swoop for £26m “special talent”…