Arsenal should make a serious effort to sign Hakim Ziyech

Hakim Ziyech is one of the best players available on the transfer market this year, and Arsenal should be one of the teams in hot pursuit of the Ajax star.

Arsenal have a tight budget to work with this summer, but they also need to make several key upgrades to both their attack and defense in order to become competitive in the Premier League again. Settling for yearly Europa League campaigns wouldn’t satisfy the fan base, even if it seems increasingly clear that Stan Kroenke isn’t as ambitious as the club’s faithful are.

One affordable, dynamic player for Arsenal to sign this summer is Ajax playmaker Hakim Ziyech, who can ably start either centrally or on the wing. Ziyech is one of Europe’s best chance creators, and there’s reason to believe a deal could be completed between Ajax and Arsenal.

In fact, those reasons were defined quite clearly by Ajax technical director Marc Overmars, who just happens to be one of the greatest players in Arsenal’s history.

It’s rare for an executive of a club to openly discuss a transfer, but Overmars literally admitted to calling up the Gunners and telling the London-based club that they should purchase Ziyech. And this wasn’t a case of an executive wanting to sell damaged goods. Overmars, again, used to play for Arsenal, and Ajax are a club interested in selling talented players to top clubs to keep their business model humming along.

Overmars told Voetbal International, via NBC Sports’s Kyle Bonn,  “I think Hakim Ziyech is better than Mesut Ozil. I would say sell him and you will get Hakim for half [the price]. But they [Arsenal] didn’t listen to me. So it could just be that he stays with Ajax.”

Ajax probably wouldn’t have any issues keeping a player as talented as Ziyech, who was key in the Amsterdam-based club’s Cinderella run in the Champions League. Ziyech was also one of the best players in the Dutch Eredivisie, scoring 16 times and assisting 13 times.

At Arsenal, Ziyech would start immediately and without much competition. Not only could he play as an attacking midfielder over the disgruntled Mesut Özil, but he could also spell the likes of Henrikh Mkhitaryan on the wing. Both Özil and Mkhitaryan are 30 years old, so the fact that Ziyech is in his prime at 26 is another factor to consider. Moreover, Ziyech can also replace the creativity lost by Juventus signing Aaron Ramsey, while being much more versatile than the Wels midfielder.

An issue for Arsenal is Özil, whose contract precludes him from really moving anywhere. He’s making 350,000 pounds a week, to the point where even Turkish-based club Fenerbahce was forced to balk at his wages despite having interest in the midfield maestro.

That said, Ziyech is much more than a one-to-one replacement for Özil, even if Overmars decided to make a direct comparison to persuade Arsenal. Though the two are great central attacking midfielders, Ziyech is four years younger, much better on the wings, and is superior when it comes to scoring goals and running at defenders. He may not have Özil’s technical class, but the dazzling dribbler clearly isn’t lacking in the skills, creativity or assists departments.

Arsenal can’t afford to be choosy, so any affordable star player is a player they should have a high degree of interest in. Ziyech may just be the best available fit for Arsenal in an attacking sense, and he could create a perfect combination with one of the world’s most enviable striker duos in Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang and Alexander Lacazette.

The price for Ziyech? 35 million euros. That is a reasonable fee for a player who had a combined 29 goals and assists in the Netherlands’ top flight while also performing well in the Champions League. There may not be a better deal than that for the Gunners this summer.