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Cavani To Arsenal?

By on July 15, 2014

Sky Sports News claimed on Monday that Edinson Cavani has instructed his agent to seek out possible moves to the Premier League and Arsenal have been tipped as a potential destination by some newspapers.

The Uruguayan hitman has only been at Paris Saint-Germain a year but it’s understood he’s grown increasingly frustrated at having to play out of position and is also disappointed by the standard of Ligue 1 football, so has decided to jump ship.

PSG have made it clear they wont let him go without a fight, but many media outlets feel the French champions would sell for around £55m so they could use the money to land Angel Di Maria. Financial Fair Play regulations mean they can’t just go spending whatever they like anymore, especially after splashing £50m on David Luiz.

So, is there any chance Cavani could end up at Arsenal? 

Manchester United are currently the odds on favourites with most leading bookmakers at around 11/10, Chelsea are second favourties at 6/1, while Arsenal are on offer at odds of around 9/1, so we’re in the running but by no means considered as his most likely destination.

United would be an intriguing move as it’s difficult to see how van Gaal could fit Cavani in to his starting eleven along with RVP and Rooney. None of the trio are going to be content at sitting on the bench and a new striker is probably the last position you’d expect United to strengthen this summer.

Chelsea have already signed Diego Costa from Atletico Madrid so again, a move to Stamford Bridge would be something of a surprise, while Manchester City already have Aguero, Dzeko, Jovetic and Negredo on their books so unless they are planning to sell one if not two of these strikers, then any move for Cavani is unlikely.

Liverpool could be keen after the exit of Suarez but I doubt they’d be able to afford Cavani’s wages and how much of a temptation would a move to Anfield be without his compatriot there?

So with none of our ‘big four’ rivals desperate for a striker or capable of luring Cavani, we should have a good chance of landing him IF Wenger wants to bring in another forward this summer.

Obviously we’ve just signed Alexis Sanchez and many feel the boss plans to use him through the middle. He’s played there for Chile in the past but it’s certainly not his usual position so it will be something of a risk if Arsene does plan to convert him to an out-and-out striker.

My gut feeling is we’ll use Sanchez from the wide positions to start with and gradually move him more centrally as time goes by, so ideally we still need another striker to really compete at the highest level next season.

Someone like Loic Remy would be a sensible buy as he’s proven in the Premier League and would cost just £8m. However, he’s not world class and wouldn’t even command a first team place. He’d just be a squad filler, so to take us to another level, I’d love to see us be really ambitious and go for Cavani.

A front line of Sanchez, Ozil and Walcott behind Cavani is a match for any attack in world football, and we’d have the likes of Cazorla, The Ox, Podolski, Giroud and Rosicky waiting in the wings as well. That’s the kind of team and depth that wins European titles.

However, obviously the big problem is money. We have the funds available to spend £50m+ on Cavani but it would mean we’ll have less money available to strengthen other areas of the squad.

There’s lots of talk about Sami Khedira joining from Real Madrid for around £25m, but this move would most likely have to be shelved if we did go for Cavani. If we assume Arsene had £100m to spend this summer, we’ve already spent around £30m on Sanchez and another £10m is set to go on Mathieu Debuchy, while we’re also reportedly signing goalkeeper David Ospina from Nice for £3m.

With these signings we’d have roughly £57m left over, which would be just enough to pay for Cavani, but there would be nothing left over to buy a much-needed defensive midfielder.

However, let’s not forget we’ve earned around £15m from the Fabregas and Vela deals, plus we’re selling Djourou on a permanent deal, so if this money is available too, we would have enough to land Morgan Schneiderlin from Southampton.

Sanchez £30m
Debuchy £10m
Ospina £3m
Cavani £55m
Schneiderlin £15m
TOTAL: £113M

If we made those additions we’d win the league next year and have a real go in Europe. Make no mistake. We might even have a little left over to sign a young up-and-coming centre-back to add a little more depth to the defence. If Vermaelen leaves, then we’d simply use the money generated from his sale to find a replacement of similar value.

However, as great as all this sounds, it’s most likely to be nothing more than a dream. The figures don’t take in to account wages or agents fees and usually Arsene’s budgets have to include these ‘extras’.

So although on paper it looks like we could conceivably sign Cavani as well as Sanchez, Schneiderlin, etc, I don’t think it would happen in reality. Arsene is far more likely to go with a cheaper option like Remy if he does plan to bring in another forward.

But I suppose you just never know…..I didn’t expect him to sign Sanchez either…..

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