Arsenal: Dani Ceballos has a lot to prove to get to £30m

Arsenal may have a window of opportunity to land Dani Ceballos for just £30m, but the Spaniard still has a ways to go to amount to even that fee.

If you had said, after the Burnley match, that Arsenal could get Dani Ceballos for £30m, the majority of fans would have soiled themselves and offered to chip in themselves. That’s a hell of a price for someone we assumed wouldn’t even entertain the idea of leaving Real Madrid for the Emirates.

But now, I wonder if that’s too expensive just yet for the Spaniard’s permanent services. And this ties back into the article I wrote a few weeks back, about figuring out if we want him before worrying about if he wants us.

The thing is, Ceballos is falling to the wayside in a team that can’t create chances when he is essentially here to create chances. Sure, he does more than that, he has the work rate of a box-to-box midfielder, so he has other facilities.

Let’s not kid around though. He was brought in to create chances. Same as Denis Suarez. And same as Denis Suarez, right now he isn’t providing much in this crucial facet of the game.

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We saw it again against Sheffield United.

Benched for Joe Willock, who almost amounted to next to nothing, Ceballos came on at half to try to inject some life into a lifeless club. While he did provide a little spark, in the end it was easy enough to snuff out, and that just doesn’t work for a club that he is trying to convince to invest money in him.

As of right now, for £30m, I’d rather invest in a new talent. A young talent. Maybe even a better defensive midfielder and let youth fill the gaps for the time being, because the creativity just isn’t there. And maybe that’s a byproduct of Unai Emery’s philosophies, but that doesn’t help the case anyway. Whoever is at fault, it isn’t working, and that includes Ceballos.

There’s still time to turn that around. I would honestly be surprised if Ceballos doesn’t improve as the year goes on. But right now, that is a price that we should not be willing to pay.

The last thing we need is another creative midfielder that we can’t rely on for consistent performances. And right now, that’s what I’m seeing from Ceballos. Promising? Yes. But £30m? Not quite yet.