Arsenal Linked With Lille Star Dubbed the ‘Next Mesut Ozil’

Comparisons such as these are lazy and cheap.

Just because a player may play in the same position, have ties to a certain country and be of interest to a specific club, they’re immediately labelled the ‘next so-and-so’. Arsenal, needing a creative midfielder, are apparently on the hunt for ‘Mesut Ozil‘s successor’.

The latter term being painfully overused.

Watching on in horror as Arsenal continue to put in laboured attacking performance week after week, the glaring lack of creativity and offensive structure has been cranked up a few notches after the Aston Villa humbling prior to the international break.

Who could absolve them of their problems? Yusuf Yazici.

Those are the lines coming out of the Daily Mail, who report that the Turkey international has been on the Gunners’ radar for a couple of years, even going as far as to suggest a £14.5m bid was lodged by Arsenal during Yazici’s days with Trabzonspor. Arsene Wenger watched him in person, too.

The 23-year-old creative midfielder moved to Lille last summer – he is still under contract until 2024 – and has impressed in the No. 10 role, but speculation surrounding his future has become rife in the rumour mill after he scored another Europa League hat-trick for the French side in the recent 3-0 win over AC Milan.

Given he is a player who flourishes playing just off the striker, but is also capable of drifting into wide positions, comparisons have been drawn to Ozil. Throw in the Turkish heritage and hey presto, there you go. Oh, and he’s left-footed.

We can confidently expect Yazici to be one of a plethora of creative midfielders to be linked with a move to north London in January, and perhaps even the coming summer. Houssem Aouar was the one this year, while since the window closed the speculation linking the Gunners with Dominik Szoboszlai continues to mount.

If, and it’s a big if at this stage, Arsenal were to move for Yazici, then he’d become the third player from Lille to make the switch to the Emirates in three seasons. First Nicolas Pepe, then Gabriel Magalhaes and then potentially Yazici.

A trend? It appears so. Well, if he’s good enough, then all Mikel Arteta needs is for Napoli to swoop in for him and it’s done deal.