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Confirmed: Arsenal announce deal to sign Takuma Asano

By mac14 on July 3, 2016

Arsenal have announced on Arsenal.com that we’ve agreed a deal in principle to sign Japanese forward Takuma Asano from Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

Arsene Wenger is in the market for a new striker after losing Danny Welbeck to a serious knee injury and we’ve moved on to other targets after Jamie Vardy decided to remain at Leicester.

Asano emerged as a surprise target last week when the Mirror reported that we were expecting to wrap-up a deal to sign the 21-year-old after tabling a formal offer for his services and the striker then admitted he was left ‘stunned’ by our interest in him.

It looks like we’ve moved quickly to get a deal agreed as the club have now confirmed on our official website that we’ve beaten off stiff competition to agree a deal with Hiroshima and Asano will join Arsenal subject to a medical.

Arsene Wenger describes him as ‘one for the future’ so I think we’ll see the youngster head out on loan to a European club next year. The boss told the clubs website:

“Takuma is a talented young striker and very much one for the future. He has had an impressive start to his career in Japan and we look forward to him developing over the next couple of years.”

Asano has developed in to one of the brightest talents in Japan since joining Hiroshima in 2013 and has scored 11 goals in his 56 appearances to help them win two J-League titles over the past four years.

He’s also won the Japanese Super Cup three times and was voted as the J-League ‘Rookie of the Year’ in 2015 – which is the equivalent of the ‘Young Player of the year’ in the Premier League.

The young striker has already earned five caps for Japan – scoring one goal – and is expected to be part of their squad for the Rio Olympics next month.

Obviously he isn’t the striker we’ve all been waiting for Arsenal to sign this summer but Wenger is making it clear he’s ‘one for the future’ so I think it’s safe to say we’re still in the market for another more established striker.

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I don’t think I could take the outcry if Asano does end up being the only forward we bring in this summer….