Mikel Arteta will be hoping to strengthen his Arsenal side when the January transfer window opens and he will be making good use of the World Cup break to assess exactly where his squad needs to improve.
Its most likely Arteta will bring in a central midfielder, with Adrien Rabiot recently being linked, however, there may be a surprise move for Bayern Munich star Leroy Sane, with journalist Dean Jones telling Football FanCast that the Spaniard could utilise his links with the German player from their time together at Manchester City:
“I think there are some nice links between the two.
“And I think in an ideal world, Arsenal would love a signing like Sane to come into the squad for the second half of the season.”
Sane can be Arteta’s own Vinicius Jr
According to Bild (via Teamtalk), Arsenal were linked with Sane during the summer, although Bayern valued the player at £59m and this type of fee might be required to prise him away from the Bundesliga champions in January.
He could be Arteta’s own Vinicius Jr, however, with the two players displaying extremely similar statistics. According to FBref, the Brazilian is third most similar to Sane across Europe’s top five leagues, and considering the impact the youngster has had at Real Madrid recently, it isn’t a bad comparison to have.
This season has seen the two players register very similar statistics with regard to goal contributions (9 to 8), shot-on-target percentage (42.5% to 41.7%), and goal-creating actions per match (0.66 to 0.64).
This proves that the two forwards both excel in the final third and Sane could give Arteta another attacking option that would surely improve his squad.
Bayern manager Julian Nagelsmann has even dubbed the 26-year-old as “unbelievable” and with the form that he is in recently, it might prove to be difficult to tempt him back to the Premier League.
Although if Arsenal win the title and secure Champions League football for next season, Arteta may just have a greater chance of landing the former City gem, and what a coup it would be.