Arsenal Transfer Rumors: Tiemoué Bakayoko Another Shot At Kondogbia

Arsenal seemed like favorites to land Geoffrey Kondogbia when he left Monoaco two years ago, but they can make amends by landing Tiemoue Bakayoko.

It’s not all that often that you get second chances at missed opportunities, but Arsenal is looking at a pretty blatant second opportunity this summer, maybe even two.

First of all, if Lucas Perez does leave, there will be a chance to make amends with a similar, albeit much younger Andre Silva.

Another similar chance is presenting itself as well, as the Gunner’s are reportedly eyeing up a move for Monaco midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko.

It was just two years ago that Arsenal missed out on Geoffrey Kondogbia. The hulking, athletic midfielder looked like a surefire bet to come to North London, but Inter swooped in and nabbed him instead. It hasn’t been a paradise for Kondogbia, but the question is still there – what would have happened if he came to Arsenal?

Well, Tiemoue Bakayoko is a fantastic chance to potentially answer that question. While they are obviously not carbon copies of one another, they do boast a similar skill set in their raw abilities. Both have considerable size, strength, speed and general athletic ability.

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Bakayoko could master that holding midfield role for the Gunners, as he knows how to wield his strength, just like Kondogbia does. He is averaging 2.6 tackles and 2.3 interceptions per appearance. Nothing like some solid numbers to back up your otherwise raw ability.

Bakayoko has also scored two goals and added an assist, but it may be a Granit Xhaka situation where that’s not something that we should get used to seeing.

Speaking of Xhaka, Bakayoko does have a similar habit of fouling often and with little regard for coincidence. But it wasn’t all that long ago that Gooners wanted an imposing midfield full of strength and fearlessness.

Combining Xhaka and Bakayoko would do that.

There was such a clear cut interest in Kondogbia that it’s hard to imagine that this transfer speculation stops at that – speculation. He is the same age that Kondogbia was when he took his move to Inter. It just looks far too similar to the situation we saw before to ignore.

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Missing out on Kondogbia sucked, but this can chance things. With such a similar set of abilities, Bakayoko can help erase the Kondogbia miss from our heads even more than Kondogbia’s struggles in Italy are already doing.

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