Oleksandr Zinchenko deal another shrewd piece of business for Arsenal

Arsenal are set to seal their fifth signing of the summer with Oleksandr Zinchenko all but signed, sealed, and delivered in what is a very good piece of business for the north London club.

At the beginning of the summer window, Gabriel Jesus was the main priority for Mikel Arteta and technical director Edu to go after. While it took some time, the Gunners got their man.

Months ago, another name was thrown up, and that was Ukrainian Oleksandr Zinchenko of Manchester City.

With the 25-year-old thought to be gettable, the Arsenal fans swooned over the versatile defender/midfielder. However, as quickly as the rumours started, they disappeared.

Arsenal instead turned their attention to Lisandro Martinez of Ajax. They were seemingly in the driving seat to secure the 24-year-old’s services, but Manchester United came into the picture and because of Erik ten Hag’s previous relationship with the Argentine, they moved ahead in the queue. Such is life.

Arsenal move swiftly for Oleksandr Zinchenko

After a month or two of nothing on Zinchenko, prior to Arsenal’s pre-season friendly with Everton, reports claimed that a deal and been agreed with Manchester City for his services. Then within 48 hours, reports from David Ornstein claimed that personal terms were done and that a medical is scheduled.

A fee of just £30m is a bargain for a player of Zinchenko’s ilk. It’s a great piece of business. When looking at what United paid for Martinez (£48.5m, plus another £8.5m in bonuses), the Gunners have done extremely well.

While people get caught up on the fact that Arsenal has signed two “Man City rejects,” what they fail to see is that Arteta has brought in two players who raise both the floor of the squad and its ceiling and can also hit the ground running in the league, know his system and neither broke the bank to get done.

Having two players of that pedigree who worked with Arteta at City and have that winning mentality that has been sorely missing from modern Arsenal sides will be imperative for the project.

While United paid £48.5m plus add-ons for Martinez, Arsenal has reportedly paid just £30m for Zinchenko, and that leaves more funds to potentially still go after Youri Tielemans of Leicester City.

What Mikel Arteta and Edu have shown this summer is that they are extremely clever when it comes to their deals, and unless they want the information to get out, it doesn’t.

There is a clear eye for what they want in a player, and so far this summer, with the arrivals of Jesus and, hopefully soon, Zinchenko, Arsenal have knocked their transfer business out of the park.