Ayto can redeem Arsenal’s dreadful January by signing £150m “nightmare”

And just like that, any optimism slowly building around Arsenal has been dashed within a few days.

Mikel Arteta’s side went into the weekend eight points off of Liverpool atop the Premier League table but with a game in hand.

However, Mikel Merino wasn’t able to repeat his goalscoring heroics, and, thanks to a Jarrod Bowen strike, the Gunners fell to a shock 1-0 defeat to West Ham United, made worse by the Reds picking up all three points away to Manchester Cityjust a day later.

While there were a lot of problems with Arsenal’s performance, their lack of firepower was once again evident, which only further puts a spotlight on the club’s dreadful January transfer window, which interim Sporting Director Jason Ayto could make up for in the summer by bringing in a genuinely game-changing attacker.

Arsenal’s appalling January

In early November last year, amid a rocky run of form for the team, it was announced that then-Sporting Director Edu Gaspar had resigned from his position at Arsenal, which, in truth, came as quite a shock to fans and pundits alike.

The former Invincible had been a key player in the club’s recent resurgence and rebuild under Arteta, so there was plenty of uncertainty over what this meant for the project as a whole and, specifically, how this would impact the January transfer window.

In the Brazilian’s absence, Ayto, the assistant Sporting Director, stepped into the hot seat, and while there have been reports that the higher-ups at the club have been impressed by him, it would be fair to say the supporters have not.

The simple reason for this disconnect between the board and the fanbase is that, despite the squad’s evident need for attacking reinforcements, which was made all the more acute by the recent injury crisis, nobody was signed in the recent window.

Worse yet, there were undoubtedly deals that could be done, as evidenced by Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa’s significant business and then the fact that it appeared as if Ollie Watkins might’ve been attainable in the closing days.

In all, the abject failure to address the club’s dire needs in the last window has obliterated much of the fans’ goodwill that had been built up in recent seasons, and unless Ayto pulls off a miraculous game-changing signing in the summer, he might never win the fans back onside – fortunately, there is one star who could be just that for him.

The game-changing signing Arsenal could pull off

A number of attacking talents have been consistently linked with Arsenal over the last year, such as Nico Williams, Benjamin Sesko and Dušan Vlahović.

However, while all three of those forwards would undoubtedly improve the Gunners’ squad and even the first-team, it would be hard to honestly describe any of them as genuine game-changers who’d be able to come right into the first team and almost single-handedly fire the North Londoners to Premier League or even European glory.

On the other hand, Alexander Isak certainly could and, therefore, would, without doubt, be a truly game-changing addition to Arteta’s squad.

The Newcastle United striker is one of the most exciting forwards in world football and has been consistently touted for a move to the Emirates for quite some time now.

While signing him would be incredibly challenging, reports from late last year revealed that the Toon might be willing to cash in for a whopping £150m.

Now, that is an extraordinary amount of money, but the Swedish international is an extraordinary player, and from what we have seen of him over the last season and a bit, he is likely worth every penny.

For example, in just 40 appearances last term, totalling 2973 minutes, the Solna-born “nightmare,” as dubbed by Alan Shearer, scored 25 goals and provided two assists, which comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 1.48 games, or every 110.11 minutes.

Somehow, the 25-year-old monster, whom Jamie Carragher labelled “the best striker in the Premier League,” has done even better this season and, in just 30 appearances, totalling 2367 minutes, has scored 21 goals and provided five assists, which comes to an average of a goal involvement every 1.15 games, or every 91.03 minutes.

Ultimately, Arsenal have done incredibly well to get back to the top table of English football in recent years, but their lack of business in January has undoubtedly damaged the trust the fans had in the board.

So if they, and especially Ayto, want to win that back in the summer, they have to go big in the transfer market, and they can’t go much bigger than signing Isak.