Premier League underachievers Arsenal reportedly want to sign Dayot Upamecano from Bundesliga and Champions League high-flyers RB Leipzig.
Pace and power, skill and strength, Dayot Upamecano has everything you could possibly want from a young centre-back.
Especially if you’re an Arsenal fan forced to watch on in horror as David Luiz and Sokratis lumber through games and make a mockery of their considerable top-level experience on an almost weekly basis.
According to The Sun, The Gunners are already planning to offer RB Leipzig £40 million for their France U21 stopper in the January transfer window – though Upamecano might have just added a few more pounds to his price-tag with a stand-out performance in a 2-0 Champions League away win at Zenit St Petersburg on Tuesday night.
Diego Demme and Marcel Sabitzer fired Leipzig to within touching distance of the knockout stage for the first time in Leipzig’s admittedly short history but it was Upamecano, producing a performance belying his 21 years, who really caught the eye in Russia.
The former Salzburg starlet made four clearances, more than any other player in the Leipzig team, and bullied the ‘Iranian Messi’ Sardar Azmoun with his excellent reading of the game and recovery speed clear to see. With an 88 per cent pass completion rate too, Upamecano wouldn’t struggle to build attacks from the back should the Gunners get their man.
Even Artem Dzyuba, Zenit’s 6ft 4ins monster of a centre-forward, didn’t get any change out of him.
The scary thing is, Upamecano is only going to get better too.
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