Arsenal Transfer Target Marcelo Brozovic Fate Sealed With Asking Price

Another Arsenal transfer target has seemingly been removed from contention following reports of what exactly Inter Milan would be charging for his services.

Arsenal should be shopping for midfielders with the intensity of a Black Friday shopper with 30 million children. Arsenal need a new midfielder like each one of those children needs a new bicycle. While rumors have supposedly concluded the deal that will see Mohamed Elneny come to Arsenal, there is still room for question over if that will be enough. And that is assuming the deal is done.

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As a world-renowned bargain shopper, Wenger will be looking to spend as little money as possible. Marcelo Brozovic seemed like a solid target because he did not figure to be too expensive of a target. However, seeing as how Inter Milan are in charge of him until the end of the year, when they will look to make his move permanent (via the Metro), they are less than willing to part with him.

But as it is with anyone, there is always a price, even if we don’t like it. In this case, Brozovic’s price is £18.7m. That’s right, that midfielder from Dinamo Zagreb is nearly £20m.

Fitting Brozovic into the Arsenal scheme was always going to be tough. Given his lankier stature, he was never likely to be a true defensive midfielder, especially not in the physicality of the Premier League. In Italy, it may work.

Brozovic has rarely played defensive midfield anyway, he is much more likely to play Mesut Ozil’s role. With just about one tackle and interception per 90, you can see that his forte is not in defense.

However, his statistics so far at Inter Milan do not show passing as a strength either, even though that is supposed to be one of his main calling cards. Brozovic only maintains an 81% pass completion and less than one key pass per game. He does have three goals in all competitions, but again, that is small value for the price tag that Inter Milan is asking.

Arsenal passed on Brozovic previously. Instead, he went to Inter Milan on this loan he now finds himself on. He could do well as a Mesut Ozil understudy but there are plenty other options out there at a much more reasonable cost. For instance, Isco would only be about £8m more.

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Whatever the case, finding a suitable sub for Mesut Ozil should be somewhere on Arsene Wenger’s to-do list. The last thing Arsenal need is for their German maestro to bite the dust with no one to cover him.