Arsenal: As expected, fans looking at Yacine Brahimi the wrong way

Arsenal fans are known to be fickle, and guilty as charged, they are looking at Yacine Brahimi in all the wrong ways, and not focusing on what matters.

I have a long, ongoing beef with those Arsenal ‘fans’ that always see the negative. No matter what positives happen, no matter what progress we see, it’s not good enough because it we aren’t going undefeated every year and winning trebles.

The same goes for the transfer window. Last summer, the Gunners did really good business for a limited budget and, of course, it wasn’t enough. Sokratis wasn’t enough, Bernd Leno wasn’t good enough, etc. etc.

This summer is almost assuredly going to be the same deal. With a very limited budget, fans are going to gripe about all the people we don’t buy, but if we do sell to raise money, they are going gripe about how we would ever sell them.

Enter Yacine Brahimi. Doomed from the get-go because he is free and naturally, that is all most fans are seeing. A free winger past his prime. Which, granted, on the surface, isn’t that appealing, is it?

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Many are taking the logic, “how good could he actually be if his contract ran out at Porto?” but to that I say, “how good could Aaron Ramsey be if his contract ran out at Arsenal?”

Not the same? Fair. But the numbers don’t lie with Brahimi, and while I’m always hesitant to cite numbers, because you absolutely cannot make decisions based on numbers alone, but even when you watch Brahimi, sure he may not be who he was at 24, but it’s not like he’s completely over the hill.

And for that matter, it’s not like we need him for ten years. We need him for a good year, maybe two, while Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka, Xavier Amaechi and more grow up around him and take the reigns. That’s the thing right? All these people that say “just give Reiss Nelson a chance” are also the some of the same people saying they want to sign Wilfried Zaha and Yannick Carrasco. We can’t block our youth options if we want them to thrive.

In Brahimi, we are getting someone who blocks no one, yet still provides an immediate value to the team in his ability which, believe it or not, will be good for at least another year.

Look at all the facts and you’ll see that this is an intelligent move, albeit not a blockbuster.