The £30m transfer deal Arsenal must go all guns blazing to seal this summer
Arsenal have made a transfer bid for a player who’s already made a big impact at Euro 2024 - but what would he do at the Emirates?
At the start of the transfer window, Arsenal weren’t believed to be prioritising signing a new left wing-back – after all, between Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior and Taheiro Tomiyasu, who signed a new contract not long ago, they have options. But whether it’s uncertainty over the quality of their options or his impressive performance against Georgia at Euro 2024 that tipped Arsenal’s hand, reports now suggest that the Gunners have opened the bidding for Fenerbahçe and Turkey player Ferdi Kadioğlu.
According to the Daily Mirror and others, Arsenal have had an opening bid of £18m rejected, with the Istanbul side holding out for £30m amid rival interest from Borussia Dortmund and the Saudi Pro League. So if they are successful in signing the Dutch-born 24-year-old once he’s finished his stint with his national side in Germany, what kind of player would they be getting, and would he represent an improvement over their current options?
In common with Tomiyasu, who finished the season as Mikel Arteta’s apparent first choice, Kadioğlu is a right-footed left wing-back who often drifts inside and can also play on the right when required – but as he demonstrated several times against Georgia, he’s more than happy to burst down the left and look to get crosses in on his weaker foot. It was one such cross that led to Mert Müldür’s magnificent opening goal in that pulsating cross-Caucasus tie in Group F.
That gives him a versatility Arsenal’s current options don’t have and would give Arteta more options – the Spaniard started the season by using Zinchenko as an inverted wing-back who would drift in to supplement Declan Rice in midfield before switching to a more orthodox supporting left-back later in the season. Kadioğlu can do both, while also offering a genuine overlapping threat outside of Gabriel Martinelli or Leandro Trossard, something which was notably absent from an Arsenal team that came agonisingly close to winning a first league title in 20 years and which otherwise appeared to have few major tactical flaws.
Kadioğlu is also a superb runner with plenty of pace and the technique to take on and beat his man at pace – something that can’t be said of any of Arsenal’s left-sided full-backs now. All three who played the role last season are tidy, intelligent players with good passing and ball-retention skills and offer more control in possession, but none of them can break lines and penetrate defences in the same way that the 16-cap Turkey international can.
As you can see from the table below, Kadioğlu is also a fine defender who makes tackles and forces turnovers as well as doing the hard yards running up the field. All of Arsenal’s left-backs have their qualities, but the Turk may have a better all-round game than any of them and is certainly the best direct attacking threat both in terms of creativity and his exceptional dribbling (progressive carries measures the number of times a player runs with the ball at least 10 yards forwards or into the box).
The long and short of it is that Kadioğlu would balance Arsenal’s out rather than leaving it leaning too hard on the right flank without – on paper, at least – compromising their defensive solidity. Kadioğlu’s statistics may be padded a little by the fact that he’s playing at a slightly lower level in the Turkish Süper Lig, but all the evidence so far suggests that he is the kind of player who could genuinely upgrade Arsenal’s squad.
Signing him would have knock-on effects and it would surely be necessary to jettison one of the players currently on the books, and that’s without even considering Kieran Tierney, who has been injured on Scotland duty following the end of his loan spell at Real Sociedad. But if they can find a price somewhere between the £18m offered and the £30m asked for, they will probably be making a very shrewd signing indeed.
There will be competition, with Dortmund keen to move after missing out on Chelsea’s Ian Maatsen, who is on the verge of a move to Aston Villa instead, but the player is allegedly less than keen on a move to Saudi Arabia so the field may not be too extensive. This is a transfer Arsenal can absolutely make happen, and one that they should make happen too.