According to a report in Moroccan publication Assahifa Al Ousbouia, Arsenal have made contact with Leganes striker Youssef En-Nesyri.
The 22-year-old Morocco international scored 11 goals in 34 games last season for Los Pepineros (cool nickname, it means the ‘Cucumber Growers’) to help them to a 13th place finish in La Liga.
It’s said that the striker, who moved from Malaga last summer, has also been scouted by Real Betis and Bundesliga duo Schalke and Borussia Dortmund and could be available for around €10 million.
Are we looking for a striker this summer? If so, given our supposed tight budget, is it a priority?
Well probably not a priority, but after a long season that saw us overly reliant on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alex Lacazette, it definitely feels like we need further firepower on the bench.
Granted, Eddie Nketiah finally registered in the Premier League on the last day of the season but the fact Unai Emery rarely leaned on the England under-21 international despite denying him a loan move in January suggests he’s not fully earned the Spaniard’s trust.
Reiss Nelson’s return offers another potential solution, even though he’s not a bona fide striker, and there are reports that Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli will sign for us when he turns 18 in a couple of weeks time. He’s surely one for the future though?
Someone who can play both wide and centrally and provide pace and goals without costing the world…well that would be lovely. En-Nesyri’s profile on Transfermarkt suggests he predominantly plays as a central striker and can operate on the flanks, so he fits that bill. He’s also very low-profile in the grand scheme of things.
Despite all that, we’re not convinced this has much fibre…it’s a seven on the poo-o-meter.
I’m genuinely surprised it’s not a 9.5 on the Poo-o- meter for being shit and a half.
Here’s a graph that is definite now and worth a look to pick you up this morning:
https://twitter.com/clivebullen/status/1117519304612773889
Incidentally you can count these down on your fingers – 5 to zero.
Ignoring league cups, they have won one FA Cup in the last thirty five years, that’s their only serious trophy. They have to win something sometime but let’s enjoy it for now.
Beware the ides of Chamakh.
Leganes’ mascot is called Super Cucumber:
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/624/cpsprodpb/100B1/production/_106931756_leganes_mascot_getty.jpg
Somewhere deep in the sewers it’s clear Donatello and Mr. Hankey had forbidden attractions for one another. Though sadly I imagine lil’ super cucumber’s first words were most likely “…kill… me…!” whilst he coughed up his splein.
#staystrong4benedictcucumberpatch
Leonardo you mean
Donatello was purple, picture looks purple. If my eyes deceive me and it is in fact blue, please accept my humblest of apologies, Master Splinter.
Just checked, it is blue and not purple. I have brought great shame to the comments section.
Now to commit seppuku…
NERDS!!!!!
@Lettra For simply remembering my childhood…? ?
My new nemesis.
Haha! I take it back, it looks far more like Pickle Rick dressed as Zoro!
Couldn’t we instead sign their mascot for funny shenanigans between gunnersaurus and that cucumber?
Think people might think he IS gunnersaurus ‘cucumber
That should be more fun to watch than our player bottling games left and right for another season
Silly season is well and truly upon us.
Has always been that way past 2 season honestly
I’d say there’s been too much fibre, hence the large amount of poo.
Lucas 2.0
Well if he was given more chances he might have been successful. He looked good in the few he had including a hat trick in the Champions League
Lucas was 28 when we signed him. This guy is 22.
At 22 the writing is already on the wall these days. A trained eye can tell if you have the potential to be mediocre or world class. Now, I haven’t seen this guy in action, but Mane was 24 when he signed for Liverpool and he went for 30 million, not 10. There’s a reason.
But Mane signed for Southampton for £10 million aged 22
I remember when many thought Harry Kane wouldn’t amount to much at 22 because of the “trained eye test” as you recall.
Annoyingly, we were wrong on that one (well, up until Saturday night, when he was shit to hilarious fashion).
Andy Roberston signed at the age of 23 for Liverpool, for 8 million quid.
“Emery rarely leaned on the England under-21 international despite denying him a loan move in January suggests he’s not fully earned the Spaniard’s trust.”
Isn’t that maybe more in regards to Emery’s lack of trusting youth attackers?
I mean, 11 goals in 34 games. Is that really worth an alleged quarter of our £40M budget? When we have Eddie? Hard to know, but I’m sure if he were giving that amount of game time would product similar numbers, if not far off from it.
Exciting times!…
I suppose we need to replace Welbeck
Nelson will replace Welbeck. If there is any truth to rumours like this then I think it would be an indication that we’re open to cashing in on one of Auba or Laca. Given our tight budget and lack of CL Football an executive decision may be taken to get some good cash for the sale of one of those and rebuild with a few cheaper targets.
To be clear I’m not saying I’d totally agree with such an approach, but something I think could happen given our current situation.
Yes I could see that happening as well but I hope it doesn’t
Or alternatively, it means Nketiah is going on loan and he will play back up striker? Nketiah won’t develop sitting on the bench all season, so should we sell Laca/Auba so we can play him?
I just whoscored him…. and having done so I’m now qualified to pass judgment, in spite of the fact I’ve never seen him play, or ever heard of him until a few minutes ago He’s excellent in the air with a very strong rating in aerial duels, winning 4.7 aerial duels a game. his finishing and defensive contribution are strong. His passing and ability to hold onto the ball are weak. He averages a goal every 269 minutes throughout his career, and averages an assist every 1347 minutes. He averages a pass completion rate of 56.9% throughout this season, making… Read more »
Lets just stick to a 442. No 532 anymore.
A 2 man midfield doesn’t work for us right now. Most teams just stack the midfield and run us over.
You need 2 stellar central mids that have a completely balanced game from defense to attack to make that work.
I think it would make sense to buy a left footed young-talent (who already has real top-level experience) if he is capable to play on the wing (on the right-wing). That would allow us to pay the big money for a player like Thomas Party (Milinkovic-Savic/van de Beek) to replace Ramsey.
(and we would be capable to play in 4-2-3-1 (one of Emery’s favourite formation))
Cant help but feel we’re getting another striker to offset a potential sale of Laca. Oh to be a Gooner at this day and age
I think the reality is, that we need to see him in order to bring in any sort of significant cash to start the transformation our club so desperately need. With the current budget we will get absolutely nowhere with the number of players we need. Plan B could be to offload some of the big under performing earners in order to go after big(ger) names on a Bosman. (I know… easier said than done)
Yes, the sad reality of this is that we’re likely losing one or both of our best strikers in a while. A shame. Auba and Laca have both spoken highly of Emery, and you can’t doubt that, but they came to play under Wenger and you have to think that Emery’s more conservative approach is not a striker’s ideal playground. We could be in for some seriously rough times.
OMG Arsenal don’t need a striker. They need new top defenders and midfielders if they want to get to top 4 for the next season. And to sell Ozil
From Wilfried Zaha to this guy, when we lost our champions league spot.
See this is the sort of false dilemma we’re trapped in because of Stan. Even if we get top 4 every year – as AW did for 20 odd years – it still isn’t enough to put the club on the right track. To compete, our owner needs to invest. For as long as he doesn’t, we’ll be in decline. We need to get him out.
We can’t afford to have one of Laca or aub warming the bench so either we are playing two up top, in which case a striker is somewhat of a priority, or we are selling one and it’s also a priority
If you can’t defend, the best way is to score more goals. And it’s one of the easier things to do.
Moreover, improving the quality of the back line is always harder since it requires the combination of pace and cuntiness on both flanks as well as size, height, wisdom and athleticism at the centre.
I get he’s maybe not the most exciting player in the world, but if we’re gonna play two strikers, we will need to have another player on the bench with some experience in case on gets injured/to rotate. He’ll be on low wages, and he’s young enough that if he doesn’t work out we’ll be able to get most the money back from a West Ham level club in about 18 months. It will also allow Nketiah to go on loan and get the chance to prove his talent.
If we are seriously looking at a central striker and given the rumours about Laca and PEA, I’ll not be sure if we cashed in on one of them, to bolster the transfer budget.
However, I do hope we keep both Laca and PEA
The new Chamakh.
Use to be we got linked by agents to decent prospective players but we have been steadily going downstream.
I don’t think we carry as much gravitas now for agents to link their top players to us.
They know we don’t pay and Wenger use to be at very least an acute judge of quality so they could have at least extracted some sort of reverse accolade linking their clients to us.
Not quite so any more.
Seems like another Perez type player. Underwhelming.
He was brilliant for me in Champ Manager, so I.m all for it!
With Emery & Raul in charge, I’m dubious about any signings. Particularly from Spain.
This would make sense if we are looking at selling one of Auba or Laca…. not ideal but if we end up reverting to one-striker formation, having Nketiah and another mid range striker is probably not a bad setup if we invest in wingers and the rest of the team with the funds.
We are making Everton-signings now, aren’t we?
I’d much rather give Nketiah a go than be saddled with this average baggage. Much.