Arsenal have some big decisions to make when it comes to who stays and who goes in the team and the striker department might be one area that gets some surprise attention. Currently, the Gunners have three strikers to choose from: Gabriel Jesus, Eddie Nketiah and Folarin Balogun.
Leandro Trossard arrived in January and deputised centrally to add further options but if reports are to be believed, Arsenal want to add even more firepower. According to Foot Mercato, Arsenal are set to table a bid for the Montpellier forward Elye Wahi.
This doesn’t seem to make much sense considering that the club already have their own Ligue 1 goal machine in Balogun. To find out more about Wahi and make sense of the situation, football.london spoke to French football expert Jeremy Smith.
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“I’m not completely sure why Arsenal go for Wahi over Balogun if they’ve already got him. It feels a little bit like [2021] when I asked why spend £50million on Ben White when you’ve already got William Saliba?
“Although that’s worked out slightly differently because White is just as good as a right-back. But Balogun and Wahi are very similar players, I think they’re both huge talents. They’re both basically centre-forwards, but more than just foxes in the box, they can run the channels and they’re decent dribblers.
“The only reasons I could think of for why maybe Arsenal would go for Wahi over Balogun, firstly, Balogun sounds like he’s kind of saying, ‘Well look, I’m done with my time at Arsenal, you’ve loaned me out a couple of times if you’re not going to guarantee me first team football I’m going to look somewhere else.’”
It’s worth pointing out that whilst Balogun scored more goals than Wahi, the French under-21 forward has more non-penalty goals and perhaps any of the minor stylistic differences in the 20-year-old are what has caught the attention of the Arsenal scouting department. Yet Smith still finds it difficult to tear the two apart with both their plusses cancelling the other out.
“I just think maybe Wahi has had the chance to show how he can progress and improve. That’s not to say Balogun can’t it’s just maybe that in the top flight he’s not had those chances.
“I don’t think he did spectacularly at Middlesbrough, but you know he’s proven that he can do something abroad and Wahi hasn’t done that. That is a big step for a footballer to take.”
There’s yet to be any confirmation on the suggestions of a bid. football.london understands that the priorities for Arsenal this summer lie more so in the midfield and defensive areas than the forward line.
Yet Arsenal have often surprised people with moves for the likes of Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Fabio Vieira and Jakub Kiwior when they weren’t particularly expected. Nothing can be completely ruled out in any Arsenal transfer window plan.
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