Arsenal could have signed £35m target for just £9m two years ago

Two years ago, when Moroccan publication Assahifa claimed Arsenal were ready to spend £9 million on Youssef En-Nesyri, you’d have been forgiven for asking the simple question – why?

Yes, En-Nesyri had become the first Leganes player to score a La Liga hat-trick, against Real Betis a few months earlier, and scored one of the finest, gravity-defying headers in recent European Championship history against Portugal the previous summer.

But while a scorer of great goals, a great goalscorer he most certainly was not.

En-Nesyri would end the 2018/19 campaign with just nine goals in Spain’s top flight, wild swipes into the stands fast becoming an unfortunate trademark.

Then again, perhaps Arsenal saw something we didn’t.

Because, flash forward to September 2021 and with Arsenal once again being linked with that same striker, no-one – well, no-one who knows their Espanyol from their Elche anyway – is questioning En-Nesyri’s goalscoring potential these days.

26 strikes since the start of last season is an outstanding tally from a man who netted two hat-tricks in the space of a fortnight – against Cadiz and Real Sociedad – in January, finishing above the much-admired Alexander Isak in the Pichichi race.

Could Youssef En-Nesyri be the new Aubameyang for Arsenal?

According to Andalucian publication La Colina de Nervion, Arsenal see En-Nesyri as a potential long-term replacement for the now 32-year-old Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

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And there are similarities between the pair. Searing pace from a standing start, a tendency to come alive when the ball drops loose, and ice-cool finishing one-on-one – something En-Nesyri has improved immeasurably in the past 12 months or so.

But agreeing a deal with Sevilla – or the man himself for that matter – won’t be easy.

Sevilla have already turned down big-money offers for the £35 million-rated frontman, including one from West Ham United in January (Guardian), while his agent has played down reports suggesting he could go the way of Dani Alves, Wissam Ben Yedder and Sergio Ramos.

“En-Nesyri doesn’t want to leave. He wants to continue improving at Sevilla,” agent Anass Ouzifi said earlier in the summer.

“We believe he can continue to progress – and where better than at Sevilla?”