Arsenal: Ismail Sarr headed in the exact wrong direction

Just when I started to get excited about Ismaila Sarr coming to Arsenal, the rumors have swooped in to deal a blow to our hopes of nabbing him.

Transfer rumors ruin everything. They link Arsenal to players that we know we would never get, and they put ridiculous price tags on the players we know shouldn’t cost as much as they are supposedly going to cost.

The latest player for the transfer rumor mill to strike down is Ismaila Sarr. I’ve spent all month talking about the merits of Ismaila Sarr and how, alongisde the likes of Hakim Ziyech and Leandro Trossard, there were far better options than dropping £80m on Wilfried Zaha.

Arsenal need help on the wings, but they need it in more than one person, not just blowing the entire bank on one guy. Even with the idea of trading three players to drop Zaha’s £80 to £40m, it still sounded like far too much money, never mind the players that would be leaving along with.

But now, Ismaila Sarr is supposedly out of our price range too, as rumors have indicated that Rennes will be looking for a stern £44m to part with their goal-scoring winger.

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Sarr was previously supposed to only cost £20-25m, which was a bargain price to pay for a player who scored 12 goals and added eight assists between Ligue 1 and the Europa League. He boasted a creative mind, dribbling potential and enough security on the ball to give us hope for improvements down the road.

But most importantly, he is a huge goal threat from out wide, which is exactly what we need this summer.

As I said though, we need more than one, and with Sarr now costing £44m, the chances of getting two quality options, which we need (at least) is slim to none. The idea was to nab him before he went the way of Nicolas Pepe, but clearly Rennes understand that they can get much more for Sarr if their Ligue 1 counterparts can get what they want for Pepe.

This is a bummer, if the rumors prove true, because he did feel like a realistic option to bolster our wide attacking options, though now he looks to be outside of our ever-narrow price range.

It’s not done and dusted just yet, and this is just a rumor, but regardless, it doesn’t look good. We can’t be spending that kind of money on one guy, not when he’s not a sure-fire thing.