Arsenal: Layvin Kurzawa and 6 other bad ideas we’ve had recently

Apparently, Arsenal isn’t immune to the occasional stupid transfer rumor after all. Along with Layvin Kurzawa, here are six other bad ideas.

I feel like I’m at least partially responsible for this happening. It was just about a week ago that I remarked that Arsenal really isn’t linked to any stupid transfer rumors anymore. The sole exception was Chris Smalling.

The next day, Jesse Lingard happened and now, we have enough stupid ideas that I had to create a list to catalog all the stupid ideas, just so that I could keep track of them all. But these aren’t all stupid ideas. Some are just bad ideas. Ideas that shouldn’t be made necessary, that shouldn’t be our solution to a problem, that are just ill-advised.

While I have complete faith in the transfer chiefs at the club, and in Mikel Arteta, that doesn’t make them immune to the occasional poor judgment call. Even if they’re just calling in for a check-in.

And so, with all of that in mind, let’s dig into some particularly bad transfer ideas that shouldn’t be the solution to anything. We’ll start with the man who cued this article in the first place.

7. Layvin Kurzaw

Layvin Kurzawa being a bad idea is predicated on one thing—a sale. Being a leftback, a position we distinctly don’t need, Arsenal would have to offload either Kieran Tierney or Sead Kolasinac in order to justify signing someone else at the position. And even if they did, Bukayo Saka can still deputize there.

They aren’t selling Tierney. Which means they’d be selling Kolasinac. At most, he’s going to fetch us £15m. It’s hard to imagine getting much more. We’d then have to turn around and spend all that money on Kurzawa. Which is just a swap for zero purpose or gain whatsoever. That’s how a lot of bad ideas begin—doing something that doesn’t need to be done just for the sake of doing it. And that’s what Kurzawa is. He’s not needed, he doesn’t need to be needed, so if we do end up buying him, we would have had to prompt something to make him needed and that’s an awful lot of extra work for no gain.

On to No. 6.