Spurs ‘agree’ deal with Inter Milan for Lautaro Martinez
Tottenham Hotspur have reportedly agreed a deal to sign Lautaro Martinez from Inter Milan for a figure in the region of 60 million pounds.
The Argentinian forward has been subject to interest from a number of teams including North London rivals Arsenal.
According to The Athletic, Arsenal made an enquiry for Martinez during their discussions with the Italians over the future of Hector Bellerin.
Yet, no official bid has been reported by trusted sources and whilst suggestions of an offer being made to the player have surfaced, there has been little noise confirming these reports from aforementioned outlets.
Spurs are said to want Martinez to play alongside Harry Kane, which could possibly be a show of ambition from Daniel Levy in an attempt to convince their striker to stay. Although preparing for his departure is also a strong hypothesis.
Arsenal meanwhile have mainly been targeting midfielders with Leicester City’s James Maddison reportedly the main man for Edu and Arteta.
Are Arsenal making a mistake with Martinez?
A player of the quality of Lautaro Martinez is always going to sting Arsenal fans when they see their bitter rivals allegedly agreeing a deal to sign him.
Immediately thoughts of envy and jealousy will spread throughout most supporters, especially when the club are yet to make a meaningful move for a player in their attacking third. An area in great need of an injection of goals.
So far, whilst significant money has been spent on Ben White, Sambi Lokonga and Nuno Tavares, the forward line, attacking midfield and even starting pivot (Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey) remain unchanged.
Martinez is a very good striker and with the form of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and the uncertainty around Alexandre Lacazette, the idea of signing a player once lauded as the future replacement for Lionel Messi at Barcelona is an attractive one.
Yet, last season Arsenal’s problem scoring goals was not down to a failure to take chances, it was a failure to create them. Lacazette had the third highest shot conversion (28.9%) of players with over 10 goals in the entire league.
Yet, according to Wyscout, Lacazette only managed 1.97 shots per 90 across EPL matches. It is not rocket science to figure out if Lacazette had been given more opportunities to shoot, more goals would have been scored.
Therefore the question whether Arsenal should invest the majority of their remaining budget into another centre-forward seems to answer itself based on the statistical evidence.
Just to add extra weight to said evidence, again according to Wyscout, of the 102 Serie A shots Martinez took last season he scored 17. Meaning his shot conversion of 16.7% is considerably lower than that of the Frenchman.
Sometimes it is important to take a step back, reflect on the envy of a possible player joining your bitter rivals and question whether that scenario is skewing judgement away from the solution to Arsenal’s main problem.
Furthermore, the deal between the pair isn’t done and Italian media have reported after The Times’ claim of an agreed figure that Inter consider Martinez “not for sale.” The Newton’s Cradle of the transfer window and its sagas continues to stir the pot of hyperbole amongst the Arsenal fan base to its own enjoyment.
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