Sky Sports are reporting that Arsenal are close to signing Lyon forward Nikita Parris. The former Manchester City forward has spent the last two seasons at Lyon where she scored 13 goals but was used mainly as a substitute.
In her final season at Manchester City, she contested the Golden Boot with Vivianne Miedema, scoring 19 goals in 19 WSL appearances. The Guardian did report last month that Arsenal might negotiate a swap deal with Lyon for Vivianne Miedema but my understanding is that this would just be a straight deal for Parris. Arseblog News was told earlier this week that negotiations were at an advanced stage and it seems that was true!
🚨 | Arsenal have agreed a deal with Lyon to sign England international striker Nikita Parris.
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) June 16, 2021
It would bolster Arsenal’s forward line, with the Gunners already having signed Mana Iwabuchi from Aston Villa and they are also heavily linked with French international Kenza Dali, who left West Ham last month. Sky Sports report that Parris is already in England to undergo a medical.
Never saw than coming, a front two of Viv and Nikita is pretty scary for the opposition!
Viv doesn’t play in a front two, she’s always played as a lone 9 or false 10. If Parris plays on the wing instead of Mead and McCabe on the other side – could be great. I’ll wait and see if it actually works. But this does mean there’s enough cover so Viv won’t have to play injured like she has the past few seasons.
There was a report in the Guardian a few weeks back that we were trying to sign Parris, and now it appears to be happening.
Let’s hope the new manager likes attacking play then! Somebody appears to be assembling a team for them.
I’d still like to see a couple of midfielders join as with Malin out longterm or gone altogether we are very light in that area after the three obvious starters.
Joe was trying to play Miedema as a 10 last few games of the season to bring more chances, new coach could follow that idea. Midfield with Mana and Viv? Doesn’t sound bad at all.
You don’t play Viv in the midfield, though she’s an excellent passer. She simply needs another talent or two upfront who can command defensive attention and thus free her up a bit more for scoring. Foord helped in that respect last year, but perhaps not quite enough. So this signing will make the Gunners pretty formidable up front.
Some pretty good signings so far. I just wonder if the new coach has had any input on these signings
It’s crazy that Arsenal still haven’t announced a new coach. I have to think that this signing means that one of Evans or Mead are not long for the team–both of whom are too talented to sit on the bench, unless Evans can best Maritz for the starting right-back position. This signing would seem to directly impact Mead.
Beth Mead is a real conundrum one game she’s great the next you want some one to give her a kick up the back side, she can often be incredibly lazy. I suspect it is her laziness that has seen her get dropped for England.
The one possibly leaving that bothers me is DVD going to Lyon is that still happening?
This is a good move because 1) it gives opposing defenders another good player up front to pay attention to, which should result in a bit more space for Miedema; and 2) it gives the club some protection if Miedema should decide to leave after this season. That said, I were running Arsenal, I would have made Shaw a target before Parris, as I think with her size and skill and back-to-goal capabilities she would have greatly helped Arsenal to beat the big-rival presses that created so many problems for the Gunners last year. But one can’t cavil too much… Read more »
I would have gone for Shaw too but Arsenal aren’t paying that kind of money for Parris. She was a bench player and wanted to return to the WSL. So not expensive. Got to remember Miedema isn’t even top 5 highest paid in the WSL. Don’t see Arsenal keeping her past her current contract unless they make changes.
I agree. Khadija Shaw is a star in the making.
She has joined Man City, unfortunately
My my some ambition!
So what did I say that was wrong, in reply to armchair???
In the final game of the season Vs psg Lyon needed to win and didn’t play their top goal scorer at all, best move for parris