Arsenal: Don’t let Hakim Ziyech become Frenkie De Jong
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal were a dream move for another Ajax player, but they were helpless to stop Frenkie de Jong from skipping on to Barcelona. Don’t let Hakim Ziyech do the same.
Frenkie de Jong solidified his move to Barcelona in January, at which point there was no point to talk about anything at all related to him and a move to Arsenal. But it has now emerged that de Jong always dreamed that he would take the “Marc Overmars” route and go from Ajax, to Arsenal, to Barcelona.
Yet another dutch player, inspired by the likes of Overmars and undoubtedly Dennis Bergkamp, who could have been a brilliant move for the Gunners.
It sounds just like Hakim Ziyech, another Ajax player who has talked openly about how much he wants to play at the Emirates, and how it has always been his dream to do so. Although, with Ziyech, it won’t have to take £70m to secure his services.
There have been a lot of viable names to pop up on the transfer spectrum this summer, but the two that I found to be the most sensible and ridiculously easy decisions to make were Joachim Andersen and Hakim Ziyech.
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Ziyech was rumored to have a £25m release clause, which has since been proven untrue, but since then, his price has only gone up to £35m. Marc Overmars has even said that Ziyech is free to leave this summer, and yet the Gunners are hung up on the likes of Ryan Fraser and Wilfried Zaha.
Meanwhile, Sevilla and Bayern Munich are swarming to snap up Ziyech because, guess what? He’s worth it!
De Jong got too big too quick. Once you get a fee from Barcelona in the region that he landed in, there was no competing with it. But Ziyech isn’t there yet. And he wasn’t going to be either, had we been able to secure him early in the window, when seemingly no one else was interested.
Now that Bayern and Sevilla are chatting it up, it’s going to be more difficult. But again… It shouldn’t be! Because he wants to play for us. Just like De Jong wanted to.
I don’t understand why, when players admit that they “dream” of a move to the Emirates, that it literally never happens. Like admitting this bit of flattery is an immediate disqualification from coming to the team. Don’t let Ziyech be another De Jong. Get him while you can!