Brace yourself, winter is coming, which means only one thing, the January transfer window is shortly around the corner.
Game of Thrones references aside, the transfer window is only a few weeks away and the rumour mill has once again been sent into overdrive. Everyone is linked with everyone in the football world, and one rumour that seems to be gaining pace is Mauro Icardi to Arsenal.
The story goes that Arsenal are set to bid £32 million for the 22-year-old striker in January, however they face completion from Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side, who still need a striker apparently. Which brings up the question, will Icardi be an improvement on Arsenal’s current strikers of Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott?
Better options in North London
Based on the form of this season, Arsene Wenger would be smart not to sign Icardi. The Argentine has not been at his best at this season, scoring just four goals in 12 appereances for the Serie A table toppers, and last weekend against Genoa, Roberto Mancini made the rash decision to drop Icardi from the starting XI due to Icardi’s poor form.
Walcott however has been just as poor as Icardi this season stats wise, scoring just two goals in nine Premier League appearances, but the Englishman has missed a good chunk of this season through injury, and Walcott is only just starting to return to the first team.
Giroud on the other hand has been fantastic for Arsenal this season. Yes the target man occasionally misses some of the easiest chances in football in the most important of circumstances, but when you look at the numbers, Giroud is actually a very good striker.
The Frenchman has scored eight goals in 15 appearances in the Premier League this season, and over half of his goals have come from off the bench, meaning that his minutes to goal ratio stands at a very impressive 109 minutes per goal.
Based off these stats, you could say Icardi would not be much of an improvement of Giroud or Walcott, however it doesn’t mean he would be a bad signing for the Gunners.
Last season, Icardi topped the Serie A scoring charts, along with Luca Toni, with 22 goals, outscoring strikers such as Carlos Tevez, Gonzalo Higuain and Jeremy Menez.
Different styles of football
What is more is that the Inter Milan of last season played a more fearless style football and in the process scored a lot of goals, but they also leaked in a fair few goals themselves. This season however, Mancini has got his Inter side to play very structured football, and in doing so Inter have scored a lot less, 18 goals in 15 games, but they have also conceded only nine goals all season.
So would Icardi be an improvement in Arsenal’s strike force? Absolutely. If Icardi was to move to North London, it is almost a guarantee that the striker will regain his form due to how attacking Arsenal’s football has been this season, compared to Inter’s slow, boring style.
Icardi will be surrounded by players that are more creative and more expressive to what he used to at Inter now if he moved to Arsenal. A large portion of his success from last season was because he was surrounded by the likes Hernanes and Mateo Kovacic, both who left during the summer.
Whilst he might come with a big price tag, Icardi would definitely be worth the money if he swapped Milan for London.