Transfer insider Fabrizio Romano has provided an update on Arsenal and their pursuit of Real Madrid midfielder Martin Odegaard.
The Gunners did not get off to a great start when it came to their Premier League campaign as they went down 2-0 to newly-promoted Brentford. It was a game in which they thoroughly dominated in terms of statistics as they had more possession, more total shots and more shots on target than the Bees.
But given that their expected goals rate was far lower than their opponents on the night, it suggests that the chances that they created weren’t the greatest and they still lack that killer creativity that they have been missing since last season in order to get better opportunities.
They have been taking steps to correct that this summer with their reported pursuits of players like James Maddison and Emiliano Buendía, but it looks as if they could be about to have a familiar face return to the Emirates Stadium, as speaking on his YouTube channel, Romano claimed that Arsenal are in negotiations with Real Madrid to make a deal happen for Odegaard:
“Martin Odegaard, midfielder of Real Madrid, he has chances to leave the club, and now Arsenal are negotiating with Real Madrid for Odegaard to understand if they can agree on the fee of the Norwegian midfielder to come back at Arsenal, but no longer on loan – [it would now] be a permanent deal.
“So Arsenal are now negotiating with Real Madrid for Martin Odegaard, who can become the new number 10 for Arsenal. They need new signings and they are working on Odegaard now as one of their priorities.
“So Martin Odegaard can leave Real Madrid to join Arsenal in the final two weeks of the transfer market.”
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Judging by Romano’s comments, it looks as if Real Madrid are willing to let Odegaard go, and this couldn’t come a moment too soon for Arsenal, as after the display that they put in on Friday night, the need for some added creativity up top has become all the more obvious.
And given how tough their start to the season is, with games against Champions League winners Chelsea and Premier League winners Manchester City coming up back-to-back, they are going to need all the help that they can get if they are to get something out of them.
So if Madrid are willing to sell and Arsenal are desperate to buy someone that played so well for them last season, then hopefully the deal will be able to get done quickly so that he can have an impact on the team as soon as possible.
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