Earlier in the week, it looked as though any late transfer window rumours linking Arsenal with a move for Paris Saint-Germain and Uruguay forward Edinson Cavani would fail to get going.
Respected French journalist Pierre Ménès tweeted about the rumours on Tuesday, revealing that Arsène Wenger has never been interested in the Uruguayan.
Pour être clair Arsene Wenger n’a jamais voulu de Cavani. Quelle surprise…
— Pierre Ménès (@PierreMenes) August 25, 2015
“To be clear Arsene Wenger never wanted Cavani.
“What a surprise…”
That, however, is not enough to stop the South American media from reporting that a move could happen before the window shuts early next week.
Speaking to talkSPORT, South American football expert Tim Vickery has given his, and the local, view on Arsenal’s proposed interest.
“The angle the Uruguayan press are going with is that now with Benzema now not going to happen, Arsenal have set their sights on Cavani,” Vickery said.
It all seems to depend on whether or not Arsenal get desperate and – indeed – if Cavani is actually available.
The Gunners have Olivier Giroud, Alexis Sánchez, Theo Walcott and Danny Welbeck all capable of leading the line. Is Cavani such an upgrade on them that he would be worth a huge fee? PSG will surely look to recoup much of the €64.5m they signed the striker for two years ago – is he really worth that much to Arsenal?
And does he even want to move? Sure, he has agitated to play centrally at times over the last two years but he has finally started all three of PSG’s games as the central striker this season, failing to find the back of the net thus far.
“He’s a box to box centre-forward, his workrate is outstanding. He is quite happy to chase well back into his own half and he really does put in a shift,” Vickery said.
There’s no question that attitude and desire would win over fans, but his profligacy may not.
“My doubt about him – and I’ve seen a lot of him from Uruguay u20s – is that he never quite manages to score the goals that you think he should.”
With Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck already more than capable of leading the line, do Arsenal need another striker who is talented yet wasteful in front of goal? Not for somewhere in the region of £50m, they don’t.