Arsenal: 3 better PSG transfer targets than Mauro Icardi

Arsenal is supposedly eyeing up a swap deal—Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for Mauro Icard. Here are three better targets than Icardi.

Arsenal is supposedly eyeing up a swap deal for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and while initial reports of a swap to Real Madrid for Luka Jovic sounded so wonderfully attractive, subsequent rumors of swaps have not been as delectable. For instance, the most recent rumor of swapping PSG for Mauro Icardi.

This isn’t the first time we’ve been linked with Mauro Icardi, but just like last time, I’m equally not enthused about it this time. Icardi is now 27, in his prime years, but his career hasn’t ever really taken off, despite the headlines claiming he is “world-class.”

Icardi isn’t world-class. That isn’t me bashing him, that’s just the truth. He’s a quality striker, but he would cost a lot of money, a lot in wages, and he wouldn’t provide much of a lift coming in for Aubameyang, if any at all.

Mauro Icardi is not Arsenal’s best transfer option at PSG

We shouldn’t be onboarding similar wages by losing Aubameyang. We need to get younger, we need to get cheaper. For now, anyway, and that doesn’t happen with Mauro Icardi.

Instead, let’s look at three other PSG targets I’d rather have. Realistic targets, I should say. Not Kylian Mbappe‘s here.

3. Thomas Meunier

Okay, so this wouldn’t be a swap deal, but I would still rather outright sell Aubameyang and get Meunier for free than I would swap for Icardi. Meunier has also been linked to the Emirates before, and it may be more relevant than ever, depending on where the Gunners go with their rightback situation.

Hector Bellerin could well be sold this summer, bizarrely enough, and Cedric Soares is not yet locked in on a permanent deal—which would cost money—and Ainsley Maitland-Niles is a big question mark too.

Meunier is a fairly elite fullback option who could be our starter very easily if we can’t retain any of our current stock.

More than that, he’s free! If Arsenal really is prioritizing free and swap deals, then wouldn’t free be even better in this case? I sure think so. On to No. 2.