Opinion: Raphinha transfer never made sense for Arsenal, they should now beat Spurs to a superior alternative

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Arsenal look set to be beaten in the race to seal the transfer of Raphinha, with Chelsea now ahead of their rivals and closing in on signing the Leeds United star.

The Gunners had been pursuing the Brazil international, but they may now have to look for alternatives as The Athletic claim Chelsea are now ahead of them in the running for this deal.

As much as their fans will be disappointed, this might not be the worst news for Arsenal, whose pursuit of Raphinha arguably never really made that much sense to begin with.

Mikel Arteta already has the excellent Bukayo Saka as a left-footed wide-forward to start on that right-hand side, and he’s hardly likely to drop the popular home-grown star any time soon, or move him to another position. Saka may have shone as a wing-back earlier in his career, but his best form came on that right-hand side last season, and the addition of Raphinha fighting for that place would likely have disrupted Arsenal’s shape, or else just left this expensive signing sitting on the bench a lot of the time.

Raphinha looks set to join Chelsea over Arsenal

At Chelsea, Raphinha will surely be a starter and could become a key player in the front three after the struggles of the likes of Timo Werner, Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech. From the player’s perspective, it also looks a good move for him in order to play Champions League football and compete for major honours.

So who could Arsenal turn to? There’s one alternative that immediately springs to mind…

Richarlison should now be Arsenal’s transfer priority

If Arsenal want a Brazilian forward from a team lower down in the Premier League whose name begins with ‘R’, then Raphinha is certainly not the only option; Everton star Richarlison actually makes a lot more sense.

The Toffees front-man is right footed, and can operate from the left, so wouldn’t get in the way of Saka. Instead, he could be an upgrade on youthful duo Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe on that left-hand side, whilst also providing an alternative to Gabriel Jesus in the centre, if and when that’s required.

Of course, there’s the issue of interest from Tottenham, as reported by The Athletic, with Richarlison emerging as a top target for Arsenal’s north London rivals.

Spurs have Champions League football to offer, so will surely be a tempting destination for Richarlison, but could Arsenal try to hijack this deal?

Richarlison could be a better option for Arsenal than Raphinha

After all, Richarlison surely wouldn’t be guaranteed a lot of starts in Antonio Conte’s attack when he already has Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and now new signing Ivan Perisic, so a move to the Emirates Stadium might be better in terms of nailing down regular first-team football.

This might not be an easy deal for Arsenal to get done, but it shouldn’t be out of reach just yet, and it’s probably a more sensible move than Raphinha anyway. If Mikel Arteta, Edu and co. know what they’re doing, they’ll surely switch targets as soon as possible.

More Stories Bukayo Saka Gabriel Jesus Gabriel Martinelli Mikel Arteta Raphinha Richarlison

18 Comments

  1. Why pay a fortune to relegate Martinelli and Smith -Rowe who will both turn out to be better players ?
    Doesn’t make sense , they should get an upgrade on Xhaka instead.

    1. Couldn’t agree more…They already have ESR,Martinelli,Saka and Vieira who can all play out wide in attacking roles.Obviously they need to sell Pepe and with that money I would hope that they will go back in for Tielemens…who’s purchase would make a lot more sense and also allow Xhaka to leave if he wanted to do so.

  2. Are you following the news from the last century? Richarlison already REJECTED Arsenal He only wants to play for a Man and with Men and in UCL. Arteta is a Child no Grown up will play for him.

    1. Anyone with half a brain would already have acknowledged that Richarlison has made it clear that he isn’t interested in signing for Arsenal, so this second rate reporting really makes no sense at all.
      As for other views expressing notions that either Martinelli or Smith Rowe are or will eventually be better players than Richarlison I would have to say that on the basis of form and stats their is no evidence to support these notions…. other than pure arsenal based bias! I also believe that Richarlison has made no secret of the fact that he would prefer to hook up with Conte at Tottenham a notion well supported in present media reporting!

    2. Hahahahaha Tottenham fan. You are intimidated because London is red and white. Spurs never win anything even if they play in champions League nothing to be jealous of they can even afford to win a Carabao Cup and their position in UCL is temporary.

    3. Really!. Or perhaps you just wanna take a dig at Arsenal probably you’re representing our noisy neighbours

    1. Lack of backup (I mean good quality backups) cost Arsenal top four and acquiring a right signing will solve this puzzle,

  3. Whenever a team fails to sign a target you always find funny excuses and you always upgrade the existing players saying that ‘no big deal the ones we have are good enough’. You are not serious.

  4. Do we really need Raphinha or even Richarlison when we have Saka, Martinelli, and Smith-Rowe all hungry to play for the club? Some dubious agents are trying to use Arsenal to sell their players.

  5. Please their is no need to by Raphi.. Since we are having Our young talented boys in the same possition!

  6. Yes it’s more sensible for Arsenal to sign Richarlison than Raphinha. If Saka needs competition, Fabio Vieira can already provide that. More than Richarlison though, Arsenal needs a different type of a centre forward in the mold of Tammy Abraham and Calvert-Lewin to complement Gabriel Jesus.

  7. Really!. Or perhaps you just wanna take a dig at Arsenal probably you’re representing our noisy neighbours

  8. Raphinha addition to arsenal player will make the team really strong to compete because even saka need a competer
    Arsenal team are young players butthe get tired a time but if you have experience bench player then it will help a lot
    Look at man city, Liverpool,madrid ,and other club

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