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Arsenal: Jean Michael Seri is nowhere near a miss
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal did not sign Jean Michael Seri, but that’s perfectly fine. In fact, it’s more than fine, so stop treating this like a missed opportunity.
You may have noticed that the media has a knack for taking every even remotely Arsenal-related story and finding a way to spin it negatively.
What’s that, Unai Emery ran the team ragged in training? Fans must be outraged!
Yeah, shut up.
The next rendition takes the form of the recent transfer of Jean Michael Seri to Fulham. Seri was heavily tied to the Gunners and it looked very likely that he would end up at the Emirates, given their need for a new midfielder.
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That’s all well and good. But now that he has signed with Fulham, regardless of any context clues, the media spun this as the Gunners “missing out on Seri,” even though that is so far from what actually happened.
What actually happened is that the Gunners found better options than Seri. They found Lucas Torreira, a 22-year-old engine with enough garra charrua (my new favorite term) to run rings around Seri.
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They found Matteo Guendouzi, who I admittedly know very little about, but if a 19-year-old is worth 8m to this club, then he’s worth a lot to me too.
Those are two important players for the present and the future of the club, two players that have a much longer shelf-life than Seri, who is hitting his prime years and ended up costing just as much as Torreira, who is superior to Seri in terms of what we needed in a midfielder.
Seri looked so good for this club for so long because there weren’t a lot of names being tossed around. But once Torreira hit the spotlight and we all got a good, long look at him, it became perfectly clear that he is the midfielder we needed, and that’s why we went after him so vehemently.
There’s a reason why the pursuit of Seri was less inspired. His name had been tossed around for the better part of a year and now he has his home away from the Emirates, while the Gunners have exactly what they needed.
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There was no missing out. Everyone got exactly what they wanted.