Arsenal: China eliminated Yannick Carrasco’s only problem

Arsenal have been linked to Yannick Carrasco before, but thanks to his time in China, the one problem he had has been safely eliminated.

Generally speaking, once a player goes to China, he tends to disappear from the face of the footballing world. And, to some, that would delete what value they have. For instance, consider Oscar, or Jackson Martinez, both guys that once carried tremendous value in the transfer market, the latter of whom was linked to Arsenal for outlandish fees before making the move, and now you never hear their names.

Yannick Carrasco looked to be another such case. Formerly at Atletico Madrid, the Belgian winger was heavily linked with a move to Arsenal when he was truly flashing his brilliance, but prohibitive transfer fees prevented the Gunners from landing him.

And off he went, to China, where promising players go to die.

Now, he wants back. He wants to return from the land of the dead, and the Gunners are still here, twiddling their thumbs, completely devoid of all wingers, and perking up.

According to the rumors, Carrasco wouldn’t cost more than £20m or so.

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Yes, that’s right. £20m. That’s cheaper than Ryan Fraser. Less than half the price of Nicolas Pepe and Ismaila Sarr and one-fourth the price of Wilfried Zaha. And all because Carrasco took some time to make a lot of money in China and realize that it wasn’t enough for him.

I don’t care where Carrasco spent his time, the fact that this incredibly talented player, once valued at well over twice what he is now supposed to cost, is available so cheap means that the Gunners could come out of this looking brilliant.

Not only did they not fork out the money before he went to China, which would have been crippling to their finances, they waited patiently while he tired of an inferior competition and then came in, with far less money, but suddenly meeting his current valuation.

In essence, China fixed the one problem that always stood between Arsenal and Yannick Carrasco – the ridiculous transfer fee.

Here’s a fun fact – Carrasco isn’t broken just because he played in China. He didn’t leave all his talent behind. He’s still just 25 and he still has tremendous talent and at such a low price, this could wind up being a steal.

Perhaps there is a use to all these ill-fated moves to the Chinese Super League after all. They destroy transfer value.