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Arsenal are reportedly lining up a move for ex-Aston Villa midfielder Jordan Veretout.

What's the story?

According to French outlet Le Foot, as reported by TEAMTalk, Arsenal are eyeing Veretout as a possible replacement for the outgoing Aaron Ramsey.

Ramsey of course will join Juventus at the end of this campaign, despite being one of the Gunners’ better performers for most of the season.

The north Londoners tried to sign Veretout way back in 2014, and the report claims they are now considering a €30m (£25.9m) move.

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Simply not good enough

There is no doubt Veretout has improved since flopping at Aston Villa. The all-action Frenchman has become an important part of an improving Fiorentina side, scoring 15 times in 68 games from defensive midfield.

At 26, he is extremely intelligent, reads the game well and sprays the ball around wonderfully.

However, this is a player who has only ever played in England once, and he was truly awful, and for every Mohamed Salah that comes back to the Premier League and turns his career around, there are a hundred more who don’t.

In 25 Premier League showings for Villa, Veretout failed to find a goal and managed just 1.3 tackles per game, an extremely low rate considering his side were dominated in nearly every match that season, a season that ended in relegation.

He is versatile enough to play Granit Xhaka’s position or Ramsey’s, but despite his improvement he is nowhere near the quality of Ramsey, particularly in attacking areas.

Quite simply, Veretout will not budge Xhaka or Lucas Torreira from the base of midfield and he is just not good enough to walk into the starting XI and replace Ramsey.

Arsenal fans better hope this is a late April Fools joke, because if £25.9m on this deal is what the club sees as good business then it’s going to be a very long summer.