Arsenal: Steven N’Zonzi makes a lot of sense, and yet…

Steven N’Zonzi is being tipped to reconvene with Unai Emery at Arsenal. The move makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons, and yet, I’m not quite sure.

The rumour mill is churning and it is beginning to throw out a vast array of names. From teenage French midfielders to Sporting Lisbon wingers, Arsenal, slowly but surely, are the destination for which seemingly every vaguely talented player in the world could arrive at.

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It is a period that really tries my patience. I hate it. But then, every now and then, a glimmer of hope appears. An actual rumour with legs, an actual rumour based on fact, not fiction, an actual rumour that gets me excited for the season to come, not despair for the present that I am in.

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One such glimmer of hope should be Sevilla midfielder Steven N’Zonzi. The ranging Frenchman has been tentatively linked with a move to north London before and there is clearly a prior relationship between the clubs. It’s likely that at some point, discussions, even if very vague and non-committal discussions, have taken place. But this summer more than any other, the move just makes sense.

Unai Emery, the man who has gotten the best out of N’Zonzi during his years in Seville in which the club lifted three successive Europa Leagues, is now the man in charge at Arsenal. There are few people who know N’Zonzi and his attributes better than the Spaniard. Moreover, there has not been a clamouring for a hard-hitting, tough-tackling, ankle-biting defensive midfielder for a few years. The need and the fit are certainly there.

And there are suggestions that Emery is making plans to return to Seville and cherry-pick one of his important players — he played more than 2500 minutes in La Liga, Europa League and Champions League play in the one year that Emery and N’Zonzi overlapped.

It seems perfect. N’Zonzi is a player that Arsenal need. Emery is a manager who knows him well. The price, also, in today’s inflated market, could actually be quite reasonable also. And yet, I have this nagging feeling that he is not the best that the Gunners could find at the most important position and most pressing need.

And it is not as if I have a ream of other names that they can pick from. I don’t. And it’s not as if I don’t like N’Zonzi as a player. I do. He has very real and useful qualities that this team lack. But there is just something that I am not quite convinced on. Perhaps it’s his age, 29. Perhaps it’s his temperament, or lack thereof. Perhaps it’s his inconsistent time at Stoke prior to Sevilla.

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I’m not sure what it is. But N’Zonzi makes a lot of sense, and I still have this feeling of ‘and yet…’