Arsenal: Why Yacine Brahimi makes sense

Arsenal need a winger, that much is certain, and Yacine Brahimi could be the answer that no one expected to make as much sense as it does.

It’s common knowledge that we need a winger. Ryan Fraser, Yannick Carrasco and Wilfred Zaha have all been mentioned with Zaha being the clear fan favourite. Two nights ago, the rumour broke that Arsenal were in advanced talks to sign Yacine Brahimi and Arsenal fans lost their collective minds.

Let’s be honest, we are not going to sign Wilfred Zaha for the reported £80 million. Not with our transfer budget and current financial situation.

In fact, I don’t even want to sign Wilfred Zaha for £80 million. He’s worth half that value and anything more is quite frankly pushing it. Some fans are so desperate to sign Zaha that they were quite happy to let our top scorer and Golden Boot winner leave the club in order to raise extra funds to complete the deal.

Then when the rumour about Brahimi came about, to some it was like we were scraping the barrel. I will admit, when we came into the summer transfer window Yacine Brahimi wouldn’t even have cracked the top 10 list of wingers I would have liked the club to sign and if I’m being honest he’s not a name I’m all too familiar with.

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I remember Wenger was interested in him a few years ago but nothing came of it. But the more I think about it, the more I think it makes sense. He’s a free transfer which is automatically a bonus, and his stats were pretty impressive last season with 14 goals and nine assists.

Some will say these stats have come from a weaker league, but how many players have come over to the Premier league from Portugal in the last couple of years and impressed straight away?

He is very much a Wenger type player with a lot of pace. He possesses a powerful shot where he likes to shoot from outside the area.

On a negative point, he’s 29 years old, but the thought process around this signing is that he’s more of a solution to a problem position right now rather than a solution to the bigger picture at the club, and at 29 he will carry vital experience also. I mean he’s not a marquee signing, far from it, but with the state that our club is in at the minute our marquee signing will be few and far between.

There is a good chance that this club could end up signing both Zaha and Brahimi, as last night, the Gunners have submitted an opening offer for Zaha. But if we do end up signing Brahimi, I don’t think we should be so dismissive of his quality and his chances at the club just because he’s not a name that fans want to be associated with the club. At this point in time, a move for him makes sense.