Arsenal: £50m magically solves the winger situation

Arsenal have been without true wingers for far too long, so how is it that a mere £50m can solve the entire problem, just like that?

I’m convinced that, last transfer window, Arsenal made no moves for wingers because the situation was just too dire to even begin to address. They got a keeper, two midfielders, a centerback and a rightback without so much a name being bandied about.

Between Alex Iwobi, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Mesut Ozil, you’d think we’d have come up with something that could have at least tided us over until the following window. But it wasn’t those three that served that purpose at all.

The only stand-in solution was what we had at wingback, with Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Sead Kolasinac both stepping up in a big way to provide for created chances as well as a presence out wide that could not be replicated.

With such a lack, it looked like it would take a massive overhaul to get in the right names. And by overhaul, I of course mean money.

You sell Mkhitaryan and Ozil (ideally), and maybe hold onto Iwobi for the future’s sake, and give Reiss Nelson a chance, and still you have the unfortunate reality of not having any reliable wingers.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

Then you see names like Nicolas Pepe set to fetch upwards of £65m and you wonder how we can possibly solve the problem in £100m or less, not to mention the other problems on the team that we haven’t even talked about yet.

But it’s looking much more modest than that. In fact, for just £50m, our entire winger situation can be fixed. And not by one guy, but by two.

First, you fork out the £25m release clause for Hakim Ziyech and second, you pay the supposed £25m fee for Ismaila Sarr.

Done.

Wash your hands of the situation, the winger problem is fixed, we can revert Alex Iwobi to a prospect role, with rotational options, and same with Nelson.

In Sarr and Ziyech, you have two players experienced with contributing lots of goals at the top level, with versatility to make it in any formation that Unai Emery wants to experiment with depending on the opposition and availability.

It’s crazy to think that so little money can get us so much in the modern transfer spectrum, but how could you not be pleased with that return on investment? We would probably even be able to sell off enough players to negate the £50m, too.