Ex-Arsenal winger Jermaine Pennant has taken aim at his former club for failing to stump up the money required to prise Ollie Watkins away from Aston Villa.
A season-ending injury to Gabriel Jesus and Mikel Arteta’s perceived overreliance on Kai Havertz as a false No.9 role intensified calls for a proven goalscorer to be added to Arsenal’s squad in January.
Arteta even confirmed that Arsenal can be exploring every possible avenue to strengthen up front however the deadline got here and went and not using a single signing being made in north London.
A variety of top strikers were linked with moves, including Newcastle’s Alexander Isak, RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko, Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic and even Alvaro Morata, who would go on to hitch Galatasaray on loan.
With days remaining of the transfer window, though, Arsenal set their sights on Watkins, testing Villa’s resolve with an ambitious offer to land the 29-year-old England international.
Watkins, a lifelong Arsenal fan, has previously spoken of his ‘dream’ to play for the Gunners at some stage of his profession and was reportedly able to agree terms over a switch to the Emirates.
But crucially, Villa had little interest in losing one among their key men midway through the season, especially within the wake of Jhon Duran’s move to Saudi Pro League outfit Al-Nassr, and the bid was swiftly rejected.
‘Yeah, I used to be just a little surprised by that [Arsenal’s failure to strengthen],’ former Arsenal, Liverpool and Stoke attacker Pennant told Tribal Football.
‘We’ve seen certain games where they’re missing that little little bit of sharpness, that little little bit of leading edge in front of goal at times.
‘I don’t think they’ve made their title challenge any easier by not getting a striker in.
‘They’ve still got enough ability, but I feel they are actually putting their hopes on Liverpool slipping up relatively than Arsenal catching Liverpool.
Pennant believes Arsenal’s overreliance on Havertz for goals will ultimately prove ‘costly’ of their attempts to shut the gap on Liverpool at the highest of the Premier League table.
‘With a striker, there’d be just a little bit more pressure on Liverpool,’ he added.
‘We’ve seen Havertz have many possibilities, but not put the ball away. In some unspecified time in the future that may prove costly.
‘We’ve seen what Ollie Watkins has done throughout his tenure at Aston Villa. He can rating goals, he’s a threat behind, he can delay the ball.’
Based on Pennant, Arsenal’s reluctance to pay the required money for Watkins is ‘crazy’ given their apparent need for an out-and-out centre-forward.
‘You’d say he’s your modern-day number nine. Yes, he’s 29, but he looks in great shape,’ he went on.
‘He can offer you at the least three or 4 years and not using a shadow of a doubt. If you happen to have a look at Harry Kane, he’s still putting within the numbers at Bayern Munich.
‘Not being willing to spend the £60 million these days and on this marketplace for an England striker is crazy. Especially if you spent £65 million on Kai Havertz.’
Once the January transfer window had closed for business, Arteta made no secret of the very fact he was left bitterly ‘disenchanted’ by Arsenal’s failure to herald any attacking reinforcements.
‘We had a transparent intention which is at all times when a window opens to explore the opportunities to enhance our squad,’ the Arsenal head coach told reporters.
‘With players with injuries, we’ve been impacted and we haven’t achieved it.
‘We’re disenchanted in that sense but as well we’re very aware that we only need to bring certain sorts of players and we now have to be very disciplined with that as well.
‘Whenever you try your best and do things, you see the people and we share the identical intentions, if you don’t achieve it okay, of course there are things to learn from it.
‘But you’ve to maneuver on and that may be a piece that was necessary within the moment, but now we’ve moved on.’
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