According to the The Sun Arsenal are currently weighing up a move for Swansea City midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson, who’s currently on loan from Hoffenheim. The 22-year-old Iceland International was named Premier League player of the month for March and has been a major part of the Swans continued success this season scoring 6 goals in 11 games since January.
On the basis of that kind of form it’s likely that Brendan Rodgers will want to keep hold of him, but may struggle to do so if a club as big as Arsenal start chasing him.
Whatever you think of the player, there’s some evidence to suggest that Arsenal’s interest is genuine. Speaking to The Sun, Reading boss Brian McDermott revealed that Wenger had been in touch to ask about Sigurdsson who left the Royals back in 2010: “I spoke to Arsene about him and you could not tell me he could not play for Arsenal.”
So with the Gunners interested, it’s worth asking whether he could make the step up to the top end of the Premier League. He’s certainly adapted back to English football extremely quickly, he looks very assured on the ball and he likes to get forward and try and score goals (just like your typical Arsenal midfielder). He also wouldn’t cost an outrageous sum of money (just like your typical Arsene Wenger signing).
Swansea boss Brendan Rodgers recently compared Gylfi to Frank Lampard: “He is in the Frank Lampard mould, he gets into the six-yard box, is willing to get his shot off with his left or right foot and can score with his head like he did at Fulham.”
Hence the plethora of ‘Arsenal interested in new Frank Lampard’ headlines. Whether the comparison is a logical one or not (they are both certainly goal scoring midfielders) Sigurdsson would come with Premier League experience from a club who are known for attacking football. In that regard you’d imagine that he’d fit in pretty well at Arsenal.
Despite this, it strikes me that if he arrived at Arsenal he’d probably be a squad player. Wenger has made it clear that he doesn’t like signing players unless he’s improving on what he’s already got and it’s hard to suggest that Sigurdsson is better than too many members of Arsenal’s midfield.
I’m sure most fans would sooner see Arsenal go after Yann M’Vila who would add a little more steel to their midfield than yet another attacking midfielder. M’Vila is also the type of player who would likely embed himself as part of the Arsenal starting line-up, so to that extent he’d be favourable.
Whilst he’s a fine young talent, Arsenal need to look towards improving their starting eleven if they are to challenge for silverware next season. So perhaps it’s best they looked elsewhere?
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