Arsenal actively exploring deal for Real Sociedad’s Alexander Isak
Arsenal are actively exploring a move for Real Sociedad’s Alexander Isak amid the lack of progress in signing Fiorentina striker Dusan Vlahovic, The Athletic’s David Ornstein reports.
Vlahovic has been identified as the club’s top striker target for the transfer window, but they face a major stumbling block in convincing the player and his agent over a mid-season deal.
It has come to the point that they are looking for possible alternatives. Isak is hugely admired by technical director Edu Gaspar, and the Gunners could make a formal approach to sign him.
Sociedad increased Isak’s buy-out clause from €70 million to €90m last summer with a fresh contract extension, but the Gunners are likely to negotiate a lesser price for his services.
Our view:
Vlahovic has been in excellent form this term with 20 goals across all competitions, and there are no surprises that he is attracting interest from several elite European clubs.
The Gunners are the only ones who have made an approach to sign him this month, and they are willing to meet the transfer valuation of the Serie A outfit.
However, the Serbian has no plans of leaving Florence midway through the campaign, and plans to see out the season before pursuing a bigger challenge elsewhere.
The Gunners are aware that they could miss out on his services altogether if they wait until the summer with interest from Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Juventus.
Hence, they have been trying their best to push through a winter deal, but it has come to no avail.
The club are desperately in need of a new striker with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang no longer in favour while Alexander Lacazette has been fluffing his lines for a while.
Isak has been a long-term target for the north London giants. They were heavily linked with him in the last transfer window before he put pen-to-paper on a renewal.
His record this term has not been overly impressive with just eight goals from 25 outings, but has shown plenty of potential with his link-up play and dribbling qualities.
The 22-year-old has been touted to become a star of the future, but there will be question marks raised, particularly if the club end up spending a club-record fee.
They could sign a top quality Premier League striker for less, but the chances are slim that any of their domestic rival would be willing to lose their player at this stage.
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