It seems clear that Arsenal’s Premier League rivals are in no mood to make transfer deals easy for the North London side .
Manchester United are reportedly in pursuit of 23-goal attacker Henrikh Mkhitaryan who has one year left on his contract at Borussia Dortmund and has in recent weeks, been linked with the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal.
The Red Devils have now entered the race in an attempt to ‘hijack’ Arsenal’s proposed deal for the player, as reported by Independent. The Armenian captain and Dortmund playmaker is said to have rejected what he has been offered by the German giants for a new long-term contract, and Dortmund are willing to let him leave for a fee of around £25 m.
While he has already bought in a more deep-lying defensive midfielder in Granit Xhaka, it looks like Arsene Wenger is interested in reinforcing his attacking department and is eyeing Mkhitaryan as an ideal competitor for a what seems to be a rather large attacking department at Arsenal.
However, it is newly appointed Manager Jose Mourinho, who in his attempt at restructuring United’s midfield, has been attempting to bring Mkhitaryan to Old Trafford.
While United too have a plethora of creative and offensive talent, it is quite self-evident that no squad player can offer what the Dortmund attacker can, both in terms of scoring goals and creating chances for goals in the 18-yard box. In other words, there can be little disagreement that Mkhitaryan can only be an upgrade over the creative players currently contracted to Manchester United.
Speculation would have it then, that Arsenal would have to do a number of things if they are to capture Mkhitaryan before United do with a sky-scraping weekly wage offer. For one, they would have to make him an offer as early as possible, both in financial terms as well as in the ways Wenger intends to draft him into the team.
Second Wenger would have to let go of at least one attacker, and perhaps two considering the rigor with which the club is pursuing a striker. Who would Wenger let go of to bring in Mkhitaryan? History suggests that Wenger does not go in for a player who would otherwise over crowd a sufficiently equipped department, making it hard to believe that United will not win over Arsenal for the playmaker’s signature.
Regardless of who is eventually able to sign Mkhitaryan, one thing is for certain: he will bring something new to his side and to the premier league.
