Arsenal plan £123m move for ‘one of the best talents in the world’

For the first time in a long time, if not the first time in history, there is a strong argument being made that Arsenal are currently the best team in the world.

Mikel Arteta’s side are top of the Premier League and also top of the Champions League following Wednesday night’s 3-1 win over Bayern Munich.

However, this incredible run may not be surprising. That’s because the club has built a squad full of world-class talent, yet their most important player, Bukayo Saka, is yet to find his best form.

The Hail Ender is a total game-changer at his best, so fans should be very excited by reports that Arsenal are being linked with another attacking monster who will be compared to him.

Arsenal eyeing another Saka-style star

With the winter transfer window rapidly approaching, Arsenal are starting to be linked with a number of talented players.

For example, Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton is linked with a £100m move to the Emirates, while Porto’s Sam Agehowa is also linked with a £79m move.

However, while both of these brightly talented players would improve the Gunners’ squad, neither of them can be compared to Saka, unlike Michael Oliseh.

Yes, Arsenal are now one of the few teams planning to sign the Bayern Munich monster next year, according to recent reports from Spain.

In addition to the north Londoner, Liverpool and Manchester United are also reportedly interested in the France international, who has been nothing short of world-class since his move to Germany.

However, in addition to fierce competition, the Gunners will have to shell out a huge fee of up to €140m to sign the player, which equates to around £123m.

That said, it would be an expensive and complicated transfer to get over the line, but Olise’s immense ability and similarities to Saka make him one of the players Arsenal should be in contention for.

Comparison of Olise and Saka

One of the most important comparisons between Saka and Olise comes from FBref, which ranks the Englishman as the eighth most similar attacking midfielder or winger to the Frenchman across Europe’s top five leagues.

The best way to understand how this conclusion was reached is to look at the underlying numbers that rank the pairs closely.

In this example, metrics include expected goals without penalties, progressive carries, shot-producing actions, and successful take-on rate, all around 90 points.

In addition to these statistical similarities, they are both considered two of the best players of the two huge clubs.

But while it’s great that the former Crystal Palace star can draw comparisons to the Gunners’ talismanic number seven, there are other reasons why the North Londoners should consider signing him.

For example, although he didn’t score on Wednesday night, the 23-year-old has played in 19 games this season, totaling 1,538 minutes and has nine goals and 10 assists.

This translates into a sensational average of a goal involved in every game, or every 80.94 minutes, and fully justifies Oliver Glasner’s previous claim that he is “one of the best talents in the world.”

But it’s not just this year that the 13-cap international has excelled, he was just as dangerous last year.

He played 55 games in all competitions and was involved in 43 goals in a total of 3842 minutes, which means on average he was involved in one goal every 1.27 games, or one goal every 89.34 minutes.

Arsenal should do everything in their power to sign Olise next year, even though it will ultimately cost him an arm and a leg. Because, like Saka already, he has the potential to be a real game changer.