I don’t usually like to get myself involved too heavily on transfer-related stuff – especially in March – but given that this isn’t really a ‘real’ March, in a footballing sense, I thought I’d indulge my curiosity for a change and have a look at NewsNow this morning to see how Odsonne Edouard is linked to us and what type of a guy he is.

A striker.

Job done.

Seriously though, he’s banging in goals for Celtic left, right and centre and has 27 this season, which is a pretty nifty return, even if it is in a Micky Mouse league.

It’s funny you know, because for me personally I look at players from Scotland and almost immediately dismiss them because of the pedigree of the divisions there, but you only have to look at the likes of Virgil van Dijk or Andy Robertson to see that it is possible to pluck gems. Let’s also not forget that Mikel Arteta was also at Rangers and whilst I think he probably left Scotland a little too late in his career, you could probably look at Henrik Larsson at Celtic as a player who ultimately showed his quality in both Spanish and English top flight leagues.

But I do question strikers though. Larsson made it at Barca for a season and then had a good loan stint at United, but one of the hardest things to do in football is to score goals. We all know that. 27 goals in Scotland is impressive but how does that equate to the Premier League? Do you need to half that tally to get a better picture? I know it doesn’t work like that, but even if it did we’d be looking at a player with coming up to 15 goals this season and give Lacazette’s woeful form in front of goal so far this season, coupled with the over reliance on Aubameyang, it does feel as though the forward positions will need a bit of surgery once the season does start again, then finish, so we can get into the transfer window.

The guy is only 22 as well which still means he’s learning his trade at the club. He’s had a good grounding too; it’s not as if he arrived in the summer last year, had one hell of a Michu season, so we aren’t sure whether or not he can do it consistently. He signed for them on loan in 2017, got nine goals in 22 games, followed by last season in which he upped his scoring to 15 in 32. These are the sort of stats that, as a 22-year-old, you expect to see if the trajectory of a player is to rise even further than what we’re seeing currently. So I suspect there will be a few clubs sniffing around him this summer.

By the looks of his career too, this might be the right time to move, because he’s done a decent stint in Scotland and at his age he’d probably be thinking that the Premier League is the perfect place to move to in the next transfer window. Apparently Celtic are looking for around £30million for the player and with our links to them following the Tierney transfer it feels like there might be some form of connection that might already be in place that could hopefully get the deal done if the appetite was there from Arsenal’s side.

The question then becomes whether or not other clubs are in for him. Apparently Leicester and Everton are intrigued and without wanting to come across too arrogant, if we were interested and if those two clubs were the only other bidders, I’d fancy our chances of landing him. We still have the reputation, if not the current position at the top table of world football and even if I was a neutral I’d probably be more inclined to join an Arsenal over an Everton or Leicester. Sure, Leicester will have Champions League football and sure, Edouard may be attracted to the idea of teaming back up with Rodgers, but consider that this season is Arsenal’s worst in literally decades, yet we could still finish in the Europa League places. Within the last decade Leicester have had a couple of relegation scraps and even last season before Rodgers arrived they looked a little ropey.

So I’d fancy we could snaffle him if the straight fight was between us and Leicester. Especially if we do end up offloading Aubameyang because he won’t sign a new deal. It would free up a space that Edouard would fancy he could play regular football in and so the attraction of Arsenal  is only heightened more.

Anyway, that’s probably enough salivating over another player who it isn’t even clear that we’re definitely in for. Time to get on with another work from home day.

Catch you peeps tomorrow.