The Daily Mail is reporting that Arsenal have been quoted £16 million for Barcelona striker David Villa. I wrote earlier in the week about Arsene Wenger’s interest in the 31-year-old striker.
Arsenal need a top quality striker, but while Wenger is said to prefer a short-term loan for Spain’s record goalscorer, who is also a target for Chelsea, he is reportedly willing to offer a permanent move if the price is right.
But at £16m, that might be a too much for Arsenal because of Villa’s age to which I disagree.
Villa is fully recovered from the broken leg that he suffered a year ago, and is a proven goal scorer on the world’s biggest stages. There is no doubt that he would fit perfectly into the Arsenal attack, which is the closest thing to Barca’s style of football that he is going to find anywhere in Europe. Plus Arsenal have a glaring hole in the left side of their attack where Gervinho has been a major disappointment since arriving from Lille 18 months ago for around £10.8 million
But at 31, Villa is probably good for three productive years in the Premier League. If Arsenal offered him a three-year contract at £100,00 a week, the total cosy of his deal will be around £31 million. That works at £10 million a year. or £200,00 a week for a world class striker.
Considering the deadwood that Arsenal have in its squad on £50-60,000 a week, if they simply got rid of the likes of Arshavin, Squillaci, Chamakh and Bendtner they could use those saved wages to pay for the Villa deal.
