Arsenal move for £40m Nelson upgrade with a better left foot than Merino

Although Arsenal suffered a defeat at the hands of Liverpool in the early hours of this morning, so far, their pre-season has been going relatively well.

Mikel Arteta survived the US tour without any significant injuries to his squad. He’s also been able to give valuable first-team minutes to a host of Hale End prospects while finally announcing Riccardo Calafiori’s signing to the world.

The Italian is the first major addition to the first team this summer, although, based on reports, Mikel Merino should be signing for the club any day now, which would be another impressive addition to the team.

However, Edu Gaspar and Co aren’t quite done there. The club have also been heavily linked with another exciting star who could be the perfect man to replace Reiss Nelson and who may well have a better left foot than both Calafiori and Merino.

Arsenal transfer news

According to a report from Thursday’s print edition of The Sun via Sky Sports, Arsenal are keen to sign Bayern Munich star Leroy Sané this summer.

In fact, the report claims that this is a move spearheaded by Arteta, likely due to his previous relationship with the player, and that the German would be willing to ‘swap Bavaria for north London.’

No price is mentioned, but previous reports have revealed that offers in the region of £40m should be enough to tempt FC Hollywood into selling the winger this summer.

It wouldn’t be a cheap transfer, but with it looking like Nelson will leave this summer, Sane would be the perfect upgrade, and his left foot is even deadlier than Calafiori and Merino’s.

Okay, so before we compare Sane to Nelson, let’s examine this brilliant left foot of his as if he does join this summer, he’ll have to compete with Merino and Calafiori for the title of best left foot at the club.

So, the first thing to look at are his statistics from his time in the Premier League, and when we do that, it becomes abundantly clear why people like journalist Tom Young have described the German’s left foot as being “like a traction engine.”

For example, in his 90 league appearances, he scored 25 goals, and a whopping 23 of them came off of his left boot, with just one coming off his right. How he scored that last one is anyone’s guess.

However, while it’s fun to wax lyrical about the German’s incredible left peg, let’s look at how his underlying numbers stack up to Nelson’s.

Well, unsurprisingly, it’s an emphatic win for the former Manchester City ace, as he comes out way ahead in every relevant metric, such as non-penalty expected goals plus assists, actual non-penalty goals plus assists, progressive passes and carries, shots and shots on target, shot and goal-creating actions, and successful take-ons, all per 90.

Ultimately, if Arsenal can get their hands on Sane for a reasonable fee this summer, signing him as the upgrade on Nelson seems like a no-brainer, as he beats the Englishman in practically every comparison and by quite some way at that.

Moreover, if he can rekindle the form he showed under Arteta at the Etihad, the Gunners would have a genuinely exceptional winger on their hands, a winger with a wand for a left foot.