Arsenal: Cristian Pavon is the right kind of marquee

Arsenal are being linked with a £44-million move for Argentina winger Cristian Pavon. The 22-year-old is the right type of marquee signing.

Of the four signings that Arsenal have all but made this summer — one is still to come but has essentially be completed bar a failure to pass the medical or a last-minute disaster –, it would be difficult to say that any of them are especially ‘marquee’.

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Sokratis Papastathopoulos is a 30-year-old centre-half who cost only £16-18 million depending on the report that you believe; Bernd Leno is a goalkeeper, a position that will never really excite, even if it was an area of the team that required addressing; Stephan Lichtsteiner is 34, was signed on a free, and will only start when Hector Bellerin is injured, suspended or in need of a rest.

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The only player that could lay claim to being ‘marquee’ is Lucas Torreira, a £26 million midfielder who directly addresses the lack of balance in the Arsenal midfield that has unsettled this side for far too long. He is a genuinely exciting signing. The position he plays, his age, at 22, and the prospect of being able to build the team around his qualities for a decade.

But if the club really does want to set the fans’ hearts racing, then they are yet to do it with their current business. Now, I am quite aware that appealing to the fans’ sense of excitement is not a good plan for player recruitment. Some of the Premier League’s best signings have not been the exciting ones, and given the January additions of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and the signing of Alexandre Lacazette six months prior to that, Arsenal have already invested in their big-name attackers.

So I do not think that this team needs a marquee signing. But if they were to look for an exciting, ticket-selling star, then they could do far worse than young Argentinian winger Cristian Pavon. , who has been linked with a £44 million move to the Emirates.

Pavon may not quite have the European pedigree of other targets, but he is one of the brightest talents in Argentinian football, having impressed at the World Cup with his pace, his dribbling ability and his willingness to be direct and deliberate in the final third, and is coming off a six-goal, 11-assist for Boca Juniors.

And most importantly, he is still only 22 years of age. He has time on his side and Arsenal could easily get a decade out of him. Rather than pursuing a more experienced signing where the shelf life is waning, Pavon is just now entering his best years. That is the type of marquee signing that this club should be signing, not 28 and 29-year-olds who only have two or three years to offer.

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Does that mean that I think the Gunners should sign Pavon? Well, no, not necessarily. He’s probably overpriced and significant funds would have to be raised and I’m not sure it’s totally worth it. But if they were to sign him, then it is the type of move that I can behind because of his age and his talent. He is the right kind of signing, and that is important.