Arsenal: Steven N’Zonzi has one insurmountable hang-up

Arsenal’s midfield is shaping up so nicely that it would almost be a shame to throw someone in there who didn’t belong. That may be Steven N’Zonzi.

There is this rogue band of Arsenal fans that just love the idea of Steven N’Zonzi coming to the club. They see him as the culmination of what Francis Coquelin could have/should have/would have been, or something like that.

I see the appeal. And for a modest fee, I see the viability of signing someone like him. He has his uses – he’s a wrecker, plain and simple. That’s what he does and that’s all he does. But that’s all Coquelin did too, and that didn’t go very far.

The problem with N’Zonzi and this ongoing saga of just how badly he wants to be a Gooner is the price tag attached to him. £35m is a bit steep for someone that is going to be a squad player at best.

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And that’s the thing, N’Zonzi is not better than any of our other midfielders. Not even close. Lucas Torreira rounds out then midfield with exactly what we needed, and part of that ‘needed-ness’ is his athleticism and fearlessness.

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He isn’t a pure wrecker though, like N’Zonzi, and that’s why he is worth the fee he is being paid for. He has abilities beyond just winning the ball and enforcing the law in the middle of the pitch, and those abilities will develop more as he grows. He’s only 22 years old and being surrounded by world class talent will only make him better.

N’Zonzi is past his prime. He is into his downturn years where he isn’t going to get any better.

£35m was what we paid for Granit Xhaka and people still aren’t happy about the product that he has delivered, even though he has grown into the role and made it his own.

If we pay that same amount on N’Zonzi, we will never get the return on investment for the price. Never. Unless you think that a one-dimensional squad player is someone that’s worth investing so much money in.

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Unless Sevilla relent on requiring the total fee of his release clause, this is a non-factor. We’d have to pay about a third of this rumored fee in order for it to make any sense whatsoever and that isn’t exactly sounding very likely.