Arsenal willing to pay Alexander Isak £60m release clause

Arsenal Should Pay £60m for Alexander Isak – if They Can

How believable are reports coming out of Spain? Depends how swept up one can get in the rumours. Boiled down, they can talk a fair bit of rubbish. Not all the time, but some of the time.

In the case of Isak, his future is the source of plentiful news in Spain. La Liga’s Young Player of the Year is always going to be a hot topic and especially after he put in a masterful performance against Luis Enrique’s side at Euro 2020 there is even more scope for discussion.

The report is focused on Real Madrid exploring the option to purchase him, as Los Blancos prepare for the eventual departure of Karim Benzema who will be 34 years old later this year.

As a cheaper alternative to Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland, the cash-strapped side could turn to the Sweden international in their stead. Are they really going to do that, though? Aiming to raise funds to launch the 2022/23 summer swoop for Mbappe, there will be widespread disgruntlement around the club over the failure to secure either. Florentino Perez will do all in his corrupt power to bring one of them, probably Mbappe, in.

https://twitter.com/EURO2020/status/1406011414788063232

In Arsenal’s case, Edu is a known admirer of Isak and the eventual need for a striker isn’t far around the corner.

Financially, do they have the means to launch such an assault possibly even this window when their finite amount of money has to be spent in other priority areas of the pitch? While we don’t know the origins or the extent of Stan Kroenke’s cash accumulation, £60m this summer on a striker who is unlikely to usurp the captain in the pecking order appears like more than just a stretch.

If we can piece together some truth from the report, it’s that contacting the agent to see whether Isak will be interested falls in line with the inquiries made over Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez. Arsenal are testing the waters of their pulling power without European football and this could be a similar ploy.

Should, by some miracle, Isak stay at Real Sociedad this window then Arsenal should move heaven and earth to bring him to the carpet. Isak is everything you could possibly want in a centre-forward and at 21 years old is on a trajectory leaving this galaxy.

£60m for a player who will be the centre-forward for years to come, has bags of development potential and resale value that could make the initial outlay look like pocket change, there is nobody better.

And until he inevitably moves to a Champions League club and breaks hearts, Arsenal will be left to rue not taking the chance when it comes.