Why Arsenal should avoid re-signing Donyell Malen at all costs
As per a report by The Sun, Arsenal are willing to bring PSV forward Donyell Malen back to the Emirates Stadium after selling him for just £200,000 two years ago. To bring him back, the Gunners would need to fork out a fee of around £50m.
Malen spent his youth career at Ajax (2005-15) and Arsenal (2015-17) but failed to break into the Gunners’ senior squad under former coach Arsene Wenger. However, ever since he left the London club, the 20-year-old striker has gone from strength to strength.
Currently the top scorer in the Eredivisie with ten goals in nine games so far, Malen has also scored three goals in two UEFA Europa League games this season.
However, keeping Malen’s form aside, Arsenal have a trio of lethal attackers backed by potential rising stars, who have shown their worth. The duo of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette already share nine league goals between them while Nicolas Pepe is just settling in the Premier League.
Pepe has scored one league goal but assisted twice in the season so far – a stat which is surely going to increase.
Arsenal strengthened their attacking options with Gabriel Martinelli and Pepe during the summer transfer window. Martinelli, who is just 18, has already established himself as the Gunners’ future.
Even though he is yet to score in Premier League, he scored two goals in his solo appearance in the Europa League and a brace in the EFL cup.
Youngsters Joe Willock and Bukayo Saka have also grabbed their opportunities and even though none of them has opened their goalscoring account in the league so far, the duo shared four goals in one Europa League game and one EFL Cup appearance.
With such potential in the Gunners’ attack, investing £50m in Malen just to keep him on the bench with limited opportunities would be a bad deal for Arsenal.
Instead, Unai Emery should focus on how they can improve defensively and bring in at least one more central defender during the winter transfer window.
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Although Arsenal bought David Luiz from Chelsea, the Brazilian has struggled and has only kept one clean sheet in his seven league appearances while conceding 11 goals in the process.
Thus, since Arsenal have bigger fish to fry and wasting a sizeable sum to boost an already-padded unit would be a futile move.