A £6M bargain Arsenal cannot afford to miss out on

I recently read, in the Metro, that Barcelona are ready to sell playmaker Ibrahim Afellay and will apparently accept offers in the region of £6 million this summer! Now I don’t know about you guys but this is a deal Arsene Wenger must pursue and seal this summer.

The 26-year-old joined Barca from PSV in January 2011 for £2.3 million, but the midfield maestro has struggled for game time at the Camp Nou since, featuring just the five times last season for the Catalan club following a chronic knee injury which ruled him out for approximately seven months.

Despite this though, Arsenal should seriously consider the prospect of signing Afellay.

Barcelona will be desperate to sell the Dutchman in order to raise extra transfer funds this summer, and the Gunners could certainly do with a creative midfielder after losing both Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri last year.

I still firmly believe that this issue has not been dealt with by our club, despite Alex Song’s assist rate last season. We still lack someone in the middle of the park that can turn a game on its head and produce some magic when needed. Afellay is this type of player and our club would be foolish to look elsewhere.

We shouldn’t have a problem with the financial aspects of this deal, as he pockets around £80,000-a-week at Barca, which we could easily match, especially if we offload some deadwood. In addition, £6 million in transfer fees isn’t a lot to part with either; in fact, it’s a bargain price for a player of Afellay’s quality.

The potential signing of Afellay could also persuade Robin van Persie to commit his future to us, as they are very good friends, so Wenger should do all he can to acquire the former PSV man, especially if Barca are only asking for £6 million!

Tottenham, Liverpool and Newcastle are all believed to be interested in signing Afellay, but with the only team out of the bunch offering Champions League football, we should easily fend off the abovementioned clubs for his signature this summer.

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