Arsenal: Philippe Coutinho is absolutely one step too far

Arsenal are now remarkably linked to Philippe Coutinh, but let’s be honest here, he is at least one step too far for this transfer window, don’t you think?

Arsenal just broke a transfer record bringing in Nicolas Pepe and the subsequent transfer rumors seemed to be trending in the right direction. Kieran Tierney and Daniele Rugani were next up on the to-do list and then, just when you thought things were going nice and sensibly, in steps Philippe Coutinho and the circus was back in town.

You’d think that being linked to another attack would be exciting, right? Anything to compliment the presence of our superstar striking duo. That’s why we brought in Nicolas Pepe.

But Coutinho is one step too far. Maybe even two steps. Really, where are you going to put all these people? And for that matter, how are you going to pay all these people? Look at how stacked this attack is, and with Mesut Ozil still sucking wages like a bloated mosquito, we have to be conscious about the wage structure here.

You can’t put all these attackers in the same formation. Maybe that’s the point, having rotational options, but if you’re going to have Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Nicolas Pepe and Philippe Coutinho,  you’d like to be able to start them all.

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That’s six players. No formation in the world allows you to have six attackers. At most you get four. Not six.

The only way this is feasible is if we are planning to offload Ozil and Micky, like we should have been planning to do all along, but suddenly everyone is all high on Ozil again, which completely baffles me. Still, Unai Emery probably isn’t. So if the plan is to move for Coutinho solely as a replacement for Ozil and/or (preferably ‘and’) Mkhitaryan, then maybe I can wrap my head around it, but otherwise, this is foolishness.

It just doesn’t fit with the current narrative of the team. Of course, now I’m hung up on the potential exit of Ozil or Micky and Coutinho coming in to replace and that’s all I can think about. I don’t care who replaces them, as long as they make way.

Still though, this sounds like a long shot. Like a “what the hell is happening?” long shot. The amount of things that would have to happen between now and the close of the window is just insane.