Arsenal are believed to be in pole position to sign Turkish youngster Orkun Kökçü.

The Metro reported last month that Dutch side Feyenoord have priced the teenager at £23m and are ready to sell as contract talks have seemingly broken down between the player and his current employers.

Even though he’s just nineteen years old, Kökçü has managed to gain twenty-one Eredivisie starts and five in the Europa League this term. In those games he has bagged himself two goals and six assists. He has a passing success rate sitting at 84% and makes around 2 shots per game.

He is a creative central midfielder, who can also be deployed as an attacking number ten if needed. He possesses great awareness, likes to play the ball forward and bring the forwards into play. Orkun manages to remain composed whenever he’s on the ball and likes to look up whenever possible. He isn’t scared of hitting a shot from distance with either foot. Plus the teenager is also able to drift out onto either wing and create from there too.

I think Arsenal would be better served bringing in talented youngsters and supplement the experienced stars that they have already within their ranks. Munch like Arsene Wenger did early on in his Gunners managerial career.

Mikel Arteta could learn a lot from that part in Arsenal’s history. It was about developing a philosophy and getting talented youngsters to buy into that. Pep Guardiola has done a similar thing at Manchester City, where Arteta worked for a few years as his assistant.

The Spanish boss outlined his philosophy before taking up the hot-seat at The Emirates:

“My philosophy will be clear,”

“I want the football to be expressive, entertaining. I cannot have a concept of football where everything is based on the opposition.

“We have to dictate the game, we have to be the ones taking the initiative, and we have to entertain the people coming to watch us. I’m 100 per cent convinced of those things, and I think I could do it.”

Via Football.London

I think to get that plan to work, Mikel needs to surround himself with hungry youngsters willing to learn and do as they are told.

I think Orkun Kökçü would fit the brief for what Artea wants to see from his Arsenal side. I think he along with Kieran Tierney, Nicholas Pepe, Lucas Torreira, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Mateo Guendouzi, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli would give Mikel a great core group to build upon.

Add a few experienced winners into that group and there’s no reason why The Gunners couldn’t make the top four and then use that as a platform in a few years to challenge for the Premier League title!

Posted on May 19th, 2020 by scott
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