In April 2016, The Mirror dedicated five short paragraphs to claims Arsenal wanted to sign Dusan Vlahovic.
You can see why.
At the time, Vlahovic was a little-known 16-year-old, valued at just £2 million with a mere handful of first-team appearances under his belt. In truth, there was little more the Mirror could say.
Flash forward to May 2021, however, and the self-professed ‘next Zlatan Ibrahimovic’ is a far more regular presence in the gossip columns.
Barely a day goes by without someone saying something about the future of a striker who, with 21 goals in 34 games for an underachieving Fiorentina side, is challenging Erling Haaland to be the most exciting young number nine in European football.
Vlahovic continues to resist Fiorentina’s attempts to tie him down to a new deal and, while his contract runs down, his price tag rises with every brilliantly taken goal.
La Viola are expected to demand about £50 million when the summer feeding frenzy gets under way.
Arsenal may one day live to rue their failure to seal cut-price deals for Samuel Chukwueze or Dejan Kulusevski but Vlahovic, an explosive centre-forward whose devastating finishing skills are starting to put meat on those ‘new Ibra’ bones, feels like the biggest missed opportunity of them all.
Calciomercato reports Arsenal are still in the mix for Vlahovic’s signature, with the striker now valued at £50 million and commanding interest from Liverpool, Milan, Atletico Madrid and others.
It has been six years since Arsenal first sent scouts to watch a fresh-faced teenager strut his stuff in Serbia. If only they had done more at the time to seal a deal that would have set the club back just £2 million.
Now, the Gunners must find £48 million more from somewhere.
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