When Jeremie Boga admitted on Friday he plans to walk away from Sassuolo in the summer transfer window, it was hard not to imagine some brave soul tentatively offering a raw slab of steak to a mass of ravenous piranhas.
“After three years here, it’s the right time to say goodbye,” the quicksilver winger told Tuttomercatoweb.
And, 24 hours later, Boga was already being linked with Napoli, Atalanta, Marseille, Lyon, Villarreal and Leicester City (Calciomercato).
You can guarantee, with skilful, goalscoring wingers always in demand, that more suitors will emerge during the next few days, weeks and months.
Like Arsenal, to name but one.
In March 2020, Foot Mercato reported Mikel Arteta’s side had expressed an interest in a 24-year-old Ivory Coast international who, like Kevin De Bruyne, Mo Salah and Romelu Lukaku before him, slipped through Chelsea’s fingers as a budding youngster, with just one Premier League appearance on his CV.
Boga has been a revelation since leaving Stamford Bridge for Sassuolo in 2018.
And while he may have fallen slightly short of the sky-high standards he set during that dazzling 2019/20 season, this could actually play into Arsenal’s hands.
Sassuolo are demanding an ‘affordable’ £35 million – a fee that keeps the winger within reach of the north London giants.
A right-footed left winger who loves to cut inside and curl shots into the far corner, Boga is a forward in the Nicolas Pepe mould.
His elegant movement, direct dribbling and long-range shooting would give Arteta’s often underwhelming attack another goal threat while dovetailing beautifully with an overlapping Kieran Tierney or Bukayo Saka.
“Honestly, I don’t know any dribblers better than him,” Sassuolo teammate Filip Djuricic said last year.
“I played with many people but, in beating his man, he’s the best I’ve ever seen.”
Just so you know, Djuricic played with a certain Sadio Mane at Southampton too…
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