Arsenal Can Look Like Geniuses With Jese

Arsenal has been made aware that Jese is available, and if you stack him up against Mahrez, the answer may not be so cut and dry as you think.

I’m going to take a very unpopular stance. You’ve been warned. Everything considered, Jese makes more sense as a signing for Arsenal than Riyad Mahrez. And yes, it comes down to more than the fact that Jese will probably cost half of what Mahrez would.

The numbers support taking a stab at Jese as well, as this is a player who deserves a bigger look and Arsenal can provide him that. He is one of the few truly untapped players in Europe.

Jese contributed to a goal every 75 minutes last season. Mahrez contributed to a goal every 109 minutes. In his career, since he was a wee lad in 2011/12, Jese has played only 2400 minutes, but he has contributed to 27 goals. Therefore, for his career he averages a goal contribution ever 89 minutes. That’s just behind Benzema’s career clip of 87 minutes between goal contributions.

In Mahrez’s career, which even includes the lowly Championship, he only contributes to a goal every 150 minutes.

Jese is younger. He has more room to grow. He has so much untapped potential and Real Madrid will never give him that chance. They have too much talent and too much overpaid ability. Jese is a tertiary character, a supporting actor. He is nothing to Los Blancos but he could become something so special at Arsenal.

Anyone who wants to say that if Jese isn’t good enough to start for Real Madrid, then he isn’t good enough to crack Arsenal is crazy too. Put Riyad Mahrez on Real Madrid and I guarantee he doesn’t break up the BBC. Very few people out there could whittle their way into that attack, so it’s not a condemnation that Jese can’t.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

Instead, we should be looking at how Jese provides absolutely no step back for Real Madrid when he takes the pitch. Jese scored the fifth most goals on Real Madrid while playing less than half the minutes of every other player that contributed to a goal, other than Lucas Velazquez.

When it comes to distance between goal contributions, the only players who had a better clip than Jese are, you guessed it, Bale, Benzema and Ronaldo, who had ridiculous clips of 60, 64 and 69 minutes between goal contributions, respectively. But when you look at it in terms of rankings, Jese fits right in with these three with his 75.

For half the cost of Mahrez, Jese would allow financial flexibility to pursue other needs. I hate speaking in terms of saving money, but with Arsenal, that always has to factor into it. Mahrez robs Arsenal of funds that can be used on solving our crisis at striker and central defense. Plus, a winger isn’t even needed. So while Mahrez would look adorable in Arsenal red, Jese’s ability to flex across the entire front line of the attack adds so much value to his ridiculously low price tag.\

Next: Arsenal's Predicted FIFA 17 Player Ratings

I get that Jese has never done it in England, and that is a universally accepted point. But as I always say, you can only make then most of what you’re given and Jese has done that. No, he hasn’t been able to crack the Real Madrid starting attack, but who could?

Home/Arsenal Transfer Rumours