Arsenal: Ivan Perisic makes sense just one way

Arsenal are reportedly looking to sign Ivan Perisic on a six-month loan with a £35 million option to buy. There is only one way that this move makes sense: a loan and nothing more.

The January transfer window is entering its final week. As Unai Emery conceded earlier in the month, Arsenal still need some depth pieces at critical positions, including a versatile midfielder, an attacker who can play on either flank, and a central defender.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — Man. Utd Madness; Transfer Travesty

Unfortunately, as Emery also confirmed earlier this month, Arsenal have no money to sign any players on a permanent basis. And so, to counteract the financial restrictions but still try and solve a number of critical problems, they are looking for loan additions and including permanent clauses in the deal that can be activated in the summer.

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One such deal is for Inter Milan’s Ivan Perisic, the Croatian international being the versatile winger Emery was referencing a week ago. According to David Ornstein of BBC Sport, Perisic is the subject of a loan approach with a £35 million option to buy in the summer.

I’ll be honest, this is precisely the kind of deal that I think Arsenal should not be conducting. A declining, 29-year-old player who demands a significant transfer fee, substantial wages, will offer little sell-on value and will require replacing in two or three years is not the kind of signing you ever want to be making as a football club.

When that football club is already dealing with financial pressures thanks to poor decision-making in the transfer market in the past and has to replace a string of ageing players in the same positions that the potential acquisition plays in, then it is an absolutely calamitous decision.

In fact, signing Perisic on a permanent basis would be an utterly abysmal piece of business. And for that reason, there is only one avenue in which I believe his signing could be a positive thing for the Gunners: a loan and loan only.

Perisic would help Emery and his attacking options in the here and now. He is not as brilliant as those that have only seen him play in the World Cup would have you believe, but he is still another body who can play in the wide positions, and given the current depth issues, that would be helpful. Moreover, with Arsenal chasing a top-four finish, another creative and goalscoring wide player would be no bad thing.

But this can only be on a short-term, temporary basis. Not only is Perisic not a long-term solution to the wide issues that Emery needs to solve, but he actively creates another problem himself thanks to the transfer fee, the wages and the need to replace him in just a few years anyway.

I do not like this Perisic deal because I fear that it may lead to a permanent move, and a permanent move would be a travesty. But if Emery is keen on getting it done, then it has to be via a loan and a loan only. That’s the only way that makes sense.