Arsenal: Forgive me, but I just want Wilfried Zaha

Arsenal are facing an astronomical fee to sign Wilfried Zaha from Crystal Palace. The price may seem illogical, but I don’t really care. I just want to see him at the Emirates.

As the wave of tactical and statistical analysis sweeps through football, with fans as much as reporters and journalists breaking down every element of the game as if it some puzzle or scientific problem to solve, it is sometimes easy to forget that sport — and the beautiful game in particular — is meant to be fun.

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I am certainly one of these analytical types. I enjoy delving into the details of matches and digging into the numbers that make up the patterns of play that we see at stadiums throughout the world, but at times, it is important to remember that sport is meant to be enjoyed, not just analysed. This is fandom, not physics, after all.

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This summer, Arsenal have chased down winger Wilfried Zaha with little success. Crystal Palace have remainded stern on their eyewatering £80 million valuation, while the Gunners have lowballed them with a £40 million offer. This week, there have been murmurs that Arsenal are set to up their efforts, potentially offering as much as £65 million plus certain makeweight players, but Palace are still set to stand strong. They do not want to sell for anything less than top dollar.

At this point, many of the fans who were on board with the Zaha signing initially have now fallen off it. The price is simply too much to make the deal palatable. And that does not include the many who were not particularly overjoyed with the transfer in the first place, some arguing that Zaha’s production did not match up to his talent.

From a purely logical, scientific standpoint, it is difficult to justify spending north of £60 million on Zaha. I am on the high side of the Palace winger and I would not reasonably go higher than £70 million. However, football is about more than just numbers and resale value and ‘outsmarting the market’. There is meant to be an enjoyment to all this.

Forgive me, but I just want Zaha. I do not care if there are cheaper, more suitable options. I just want to see him play in an Arsenal shirt, on the Emirates pitch, ripping defenders to shreds. There are few players that would be more exciting to witness on a regular basis than Zaha. Like a prime Alexis Sanchez, he is wholly unpredictable. You could never look away because in a flash, he will be wheeling away having stuck the ball in the top corner.

And if we are being honest, Arsenal have not been a very exciting team. Unai Emery relied on a bulldozing Sead Kolasinac to bludgeon his way to the byline, Arsene Wenger’s style had deteriorated completely by the latter years, and the only imagination we have seen from this team has come from two centre-forwards.

Is Zaha the most sensible signing? No, probably not. Is he the most economical? Definitely not. Is he even the best player that Arsenal could add? Perhaps not too. But my word is he exciting. I want to enjoy Arsenal football again, and it all starts with Zaha and those twinkle toes.