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Benteke To Snub Spurs For Arsenal Move?
Arsenal are ready to go head-to-head with rivals Tottenham for the signature of Aston Villa hitman Christian Benteke this January, according to reports.
The powerful Belgian has become one of the most feared strikers in the Premier League after a stunning debut season in England saw him score 23 goals in 39 games last year.
Predictably he caught the attention of several clubs in the summer with the likes of Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea all linked with an £18m move, but the 22-year-old ended up staying at Villa Park after being persuaded to sign a new long-term deal in August.
However, this doesn’t appear to have deterred us from showing an interest with the Daily Mail claiming that Arsene Wenger will battle north London rivals Tottenham for his signature when the transfer window re-opens in January.
The newspaper suggests that despite our impressive start to the season, Wenger is determined to bring in another striker this winter to provide competition to Olivier Giroud and Benteke is apparently on his radar.
While Villa are desperate to hang on to their star man, the Mail claim they may be willing to do business for around £28m.
Ideally, Benteke should have been signed in the summer as we’re now going to have to pay a premium after he signed a new contract, but he’d be an excellent addition if we could pull it off in January.
Tottenham have been strongly linked with him for a while but surely he’d opt to move to the Emirates if we do go in for him? Spurs do have a growing Belgian contingent at White Hart Lane but we’re a much bigger club and can offer bigger wages as well as Champions League football.
The only issue about trying to sign him in January is whether the player would want to risk his place in the Belgian team for next summers World Cup by switching clubs mid-season. Rumours were that he chose to stay at Villa for another year as he’d be guaranteed to play every week in the run-up to the World Cup, so he may not fancy moving to a new club in January and risk not getting regular minutes.
With the form Olivier Giroud is in, Benteke wouldn’t be guaranteed to start so he might not consider it a wise move for him.
Would you take Benteke at Arsenal?
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