Arsenal: Malcom transfer has nothing to do with Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Arsenal are supposedly backing out of their pursuit of Malcom, and it’s plain to see why. But a move for the Brazilian has nothing to do with what’s happening.

Arsenal has rather disappointingly backed out of their pursuit of Brazilian wonderkid Malcom. It makes sense why. With Alexis Sanchez gone and Henrikh Mkhtaryan finally announced, the initial fix is already in place. Then there is the matter of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang being a wholly undeniable upgrade over anything we currently have.

It all puts Malcom in a place of non-necessity. Not to mention the fact that Arsene Wenger rarely deals with non-necessities, and if he does, it’s in the form of young players along the lines of Konstantinos Mavropanos.

But for Malcom, this has nothing to do with being a necessity or not. We get it, Theo Walcott and Alexis are gone and Mkhitaryan and, reportedly, Aubameyang are the replacements, so where does Malcom fit in?

He fits into the future. Yes, we talk about the future far too often and focus too little on the present. But in the future, in the summer, when we have Malcom coming for real, with his loan in France expiring, what then? Then we have an entire summer to discern who the reasonable threats are and who is dispensable. Then we can stop meddling with players who can’t compete for a spot.

No, Malcom has nothing to do with necessity, he has everything, however, to do with capturing a premium talent before he gets so premium. Before he gets to elite status and no one can afford him again. And, by no one, I of course am only referring to the Gunners.

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I’m grateful for the players we are getting, no doubt. But I don’t get why, if money isn’t a problem, as Wenger says it isn’t, we are backing away from a player that they had first dibs on. All for the sake of not needing him in the moment?

They say that the Gunners were priced out of a deal for the Brazilian and that Spurs are now swooping in for the same player, presumably under the same deal, because why would Bordeaux alter their deal just because the interested team is different.

If Spurs are going to snag the Gunners sloppy seconds, then it’s massive bummer. I have trouble believing that someone Sven Mislintat has been raving about for years and someone Arsene Wenger has been interested in is suddenly not good enough. This has everything to do with the deal that Bordeaux wanted.

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Again, I am thrilled that we are buying players for the now. But there was no loss to securing Malcom too.

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