Arsenal: Sofiane Boufal Could Still Become A Gunner
Arsenal may or may not have been searching for a winger this weekend, but they were certainly, and wisely, in on Sofiane Boufal.
Arsenal’s transfer saga with Riyad Mahrez was drawn out and, to me, unbelievable. It never seemed likely that the pride and joy of Leicester City was going to head on over to North London, especially after Jamie Vardy ‘so easily’ turned down the Gunners.
Not wanting to toot my own horn, but I was all about the idea of targeting Sofiane Boufal, who was about half the cost and all the potential. The young Moroccan has made one hell of an impact in his brief career in France. In just over 3000 minutes he scored 14 goals and added 10 assists.
At just 22 years of age, I don’t care where he is playing, that’s impressive. Lille isn’t one of the bigger teams in France either, so he’s had to do a lot of the heavy lifting himself.
Boufal’s biggest contributions come in his ability to create. The man completes over four dribbles per appearance and creates 2.5 chances. That is the mark of a man that knows his abilities and can make a massive impact wherever he goes. All on his own.
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He went to Southampton. The Saints landed him for just £16m. And now we know that Arsenal were also interested in the winger, which makes us wonder – how would that fit have been? With Wenger insanely fascinated by the Walcott/Ox combination and the frustrations that come along with, would Boufal have been afforded the chance that has so eluded Gnabry and Campbell?
For starters, Boufal creates more (at least in France) than those two ever have. Walcott had a few years of concrete stats like Boufal, but has since been unable to replicate them. Meanwhile Ox has never gotten there.
The only real drawback to Boufal is that, for as much as he is a success dribbling, he loses the ball pretty frequently as well.
But that is stuff that comes with experience and age.
It’s not like this is over though. Southampton is notorious for training players up for a few years and sending them on their way (see Sadio Mane). Sofiane Boufal could very well spend two years at Southampton before looking for a move to a bigger club.
Look at it like Southampton generously training Boufal up for our use later on down the road.
Wenger does have a habit of filching some wingers from the Saints (see his English duo). Why not let Boufal iron out the kinks and then bring him on down?
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