When Arsenal purchased A. Lacazette for 53,00 Mill. € it propelled the North London club to the top of the League, top of the transfer league!
Other purchases across all the leagues in Europe, so far; Bernardo Silva 50m, Salah 42m, Tolisso 41.5m.
Arsenal should be knocked off the top of the transfer table when Man U announce the purchase of Romelu Lukaku for close to €100m. I predicted this price earlier in the year and was ridiculed. Few players in world football divide opinion as sharply as Lukaku, but, I reasoned, at 23 years old (which he was at the time, no I’m not trying to Meerkat you), with 53 Premier League goals in 110 apps, and with his record of working on his weaknesses, I figured he would be a big ticket player and sell for £75m to a team in England. Sure enough, that team is Man U.
Fans decry his first touch and lack of movement, both obvious flaws but he’s a center forward and no matter how bad his touch, or how poor his movement, as long as he scores consistently then he will be a huge value.
In my many years watching football I’ve seen forwards with great touch who can’t score. Fernando Torres has the touch of an angel but other than one or two seasons at Liverpool, he simply melts in front of goal.
Meanwhile, plenty of forwards have awkward first touch but as long as they score, it’s irrelevant. Giroud for Arsenal has a similar scoring record to Lukaku and his first touch is certainly not the greatest. Diego Costa is another player who plays like a bambi on ice skates but who just scores. This will be controversial but Wayne Rooney never had silky smooth touch either but hard work and scoring goals made up for his deficiencies.
Fans, especially Arsenal fans, are obsessed with loose touch and turnovers from forwards and it’s really not a problem. The problem from a forward is not whether he turns the ball over but whether he puts the ball in the back of the net. These players get maybe 30 touches in a match. If 20 of them are turnovers it’s not that big of a deal, especially if one or two are goals.
Arsenal are top of the transfer table for the moment. They will be knocked off that perch by Man U soon, and Man U will probably be knocked off by Real Madrid when they buy Mbappe. Unless Arsenal get to him first*!
Source: Transfermarkt
*This is not going to happen.
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