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Arsenal Must Sign Sergi Samper This January

By Jabari LeGendre

By Castroquini-FCB (2012 2013 - Sergi Samper) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
By Castroquini-FCB (2012 2013 - Sergi Samper) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons /
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Although Arsenal are stumbling out of the blocks in the Champions League, the Gunners are beginning to gain some real momentum in the Premier League. After two dominant performances against surprise high-flyers Leicster City and former league leaders Manchester United, Arsenal are finally starting to look like the team we expected coming into the season.

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Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Theo Walcott have been the stand out contributors over the past two weeks and their dazzling forward play has been absolutely breath taking at times. However, the real story of the season in my opinion is the continued growth of Francis Coquelin. Last season the young Frenchman became the Gunners first choice holding midfielder and he has now cemented himself as an integral part of this side.

Coquelin is arguably just as important, if not more so, than the trio of Walcot, Ozil and Sanchez. This is because without Coquelin’s combative style to safeguard and balance his creative teammates, Arsenal would be unable to put together the free flowing attacking style that has seen them reach second in the table right behind Manchester City.

However as it stands right now Francis Coquelin is the only healthy defensive midfielder that Arsenal have at their disposal.  Per Arsenal’s official site, Mathieu Flamini and Mikel Arteta both picked up injuries during the Gunners’ 5-2 triumph at the King Power Stadium on September 26th. Flamini has suffered a hamstring injury and Mikel Arteta has been sidelined with a “slight muscular problem”. This is bad news considering the fact that just a few weeks ago Coquelin had a slight injury himself, which kept him out of the Leicester game in the first place.

I’m no doctor but it seems that Arteta’s muscular problem is a side effect of him being 34 years old and attempting to keep pace with players much younger and more athletic than he is at this point in his career. The Spanish skipper looked well off the place against Dinamo Zagreb. This muscular problem is in my opinion a harbinger of his waning playing career. Flamini’s hamstring injury is very disappointing especially after his heroics against Tottenham in the League Cup. However, it is very unlikely that any Arsenal supporter truly believed that Flamini was a good enough deputy defensive midfielder for a title winning side.

What all this means is that Arsenal currently have one healthy holding midfielder in Francis Coquelin and two unconvincing, incapacitated deputies in Flamini and Arteta. It’s time that Arsenal went out and snapped up a young and capable back up for Coquelin. The perfect candidate for the job is Barcelona’s Sergi Samper.

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The 20-year-old’s playing style has been compared to current Barcelona first team mainstay Sergio Busquets. He is almost like a combination of Arteta and Coquelin. He has great range of passing, excellent skill to read the game and ability to make strong tackles when called upon.

Like Mikel Arteta, Cesc Fabregas and Hector Bellerin, Sergi Samper is a graduate of Barcelon’s famous La Masia academy. His great technical ability is a given, but he will undoubtedly have to acclimate himself to the rough-and-tumble nature of the premiere league. Samper is currently a fringe player at the Camp Nou, and manager Luis Enrique has not yet given the youngster a chance to prove himself in La Liga. A move to the Emirates could be a great choice for the 20-year-old and reports from the Daily Mirror state that he is keen on a move to England.

Samper currently has a £8.5 million buyout clause and that is a price that certainly does not seem astronomical for a competent young holding midfielder who has been primed by a club like Barcelona. Also considering the fact that Arsenal failed to spend a dime on a single outfield player in the summer, I’m sure this fee would be negligible.  I believe that Samper’s arrival would be a great boon for the Gunners in the short and long term. Samper would be a perfect deputy for Coquelin who is already in danger of being overworked. Also, Samper’s style would dovetail well with fellow future Arsenal midfielders such as Issac Hayden and Gedeon Zelalem. 

Arsenal are poised to make a true title tilt but injuries are already taking their toll. The manager is a noted admirer of Samper, and tried to lure him away from Barcelona along with his long time teammates Hector Bellerin and Jon Toral back in the summer of 2011. Wenger should make it a clear objective to get the La Masia graduate to the Emirates in January.   

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