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Arsenal linked with swoop on Liverpool for unsettled attacker

By mac14 on May 4, 2016

According to the Express, Arsenal are lining-up a surprise swoop on Premier League rivals Liverpool for unsettled winger Jordon Ibe this summer.

Ibe was announced as the ‘next big thing’ in English football after breaking in to the Liverpool first team towards the end of last season and continued to be a regular at the start of this campaign.

However, the 20-year-old has fallen out-of-favour in recent months and has managed to complete the full ninety minutes just twice in his 23 Premier League appearances so far.

With the likes of Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho, Adam Lallana and James Milner all ahead of him in the pecking order, Ibe has been restricted to cameo roles off the bench and has only started twice in the last 15 games, and those were against Swansea and Bournemouth when Jurgen Klopp fielded his reserve team.

There have also been rumours of a fall out with Klopp at Anfield – something the German has denied – and it’s all led to speculation that Ibe is going to consider his options this summer and may look to leave in search of regular action.

And he could be heading for North London as the Express claim that Arsenal are showing a keen interest in the England Under-21 winger and Liverpool are understood to be ready to listen to offers for the youngster this summer.

We’ll have to wait and see how much truth there is behind these reports but with the futures of Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in doubt, perhaps Arsene Wenger is eyeing Ibe as a potential replacement.

It would certainly make sense if one of the attackers was to leave Arsenal, and Liverpool have been linked with both Theo and The Ox, so there could even be talk of a potential swap deal.

Due to their age, it’s easier to compare Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ibe against each other and I’d personally rather we stuck with The Ox. Sure, he hasn’t progressed as we’d all have hoped but like Ibe he’s still young and a raw talent so we need to nurture him.

It would just be a sideways step if we swapped him with Ibe, in my opinion.