Arsenal target club legend Mislav Orsic after Tottenham heroics

While there there is significant hyperbole thrown in there, it’s also a fair assumption to make that Arsenal fans can all agree on who their favourite Croation footballer is: Dinamo Zagreb’s Mislav Orsic.

It’s quite the achievement when you single-handedly make an entire football match disappear off the face of the earth. Especially one that secured the Gunners place in the Europa League quarter-finals.

Mislav Orsic‘s outstanding hat-trick – aesthetically as well as sentimentally – against Tottenham in the second leg of Dinamo Zagreb’s Europa League last 16 clash succeeded in making the red half of north London forget about their desperately poor 1-0 defeat Olympiacos, even if the result was enough for progression.

Already halfway towards earning himself a statue outside the Emirates, talk has emerged, much like it does when any one player has a standout performance in a World Cup group stage game, that Orsic is a wanted man.

https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/1372641850377535488

Arsenal target club legend Mislav Orsic after Tottenham heroics

By Arsenal.

Whether this is purely a display of exceptional sh*thousing or legitimate interest, it comes from The Times (via Rich Forrester) who state that Arsenal are ‘looking into the possibility’ of signing the forward.

There is no mention of fee for Orsic, who has bagged a healthy 53 goals in 123 matches for the club since joining them from Ulsan Hyundai in 2018.

A fairly nomadic career with the odd season in South Korea, he finally has settled for the long-term at Dinamo where he has won the Prva HNL title on each occasion (as is the usual outcome) with another league scalp this term.

Operating out on the left wing but also capable of playing more centrally in a No. 10 role, exactly why Arsenal would be pursuing the Croation is best left to the imagination. Mikel Arteta has a mountain of transfers both in and out to contend with, yet precious few are in advanced positions.

Only at centre-forward is there expected to be movement, as Nicolas Pepe, Willian, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Emile Smith Rowe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang offer plenty of options in wide areas.

Furthermore, at 28 years old there will be no resale value on Orsic – who isn’t credited with an asking price – therefore this particular rumour is unceremoniously predictable and requires a good fistful of salt for seasoning.

Unless, he’s a loan acquisition brought in solely for north London derbies. That might work.