I am sure that, like me, many Arsenal fans have taken great pleasure in seeing Chelsea and Jose Mourinho start to crumble spectacularly as their Premier and Champions League campaigns begin to hit the skids. And the not-so-special-after-all one ranting yet again about his strikers was music to our ears.
But it does mean that Arsene Wenger is likely to have a tougher time of it in the transfer market this summer, especially when it comes to strikers. One of the front men who is reportedly high on Arsenal’s shopping list is the Bayern Munich and Croatia international striker Mario Mandzukic, but according to a Metro report, Chelsea have stolen a march on us in the race to sign the prolific 27-year old and have already met with his agent in London.
Bayern are trying to persuade Mandzukic to stay and sign a new contract and their chief, Karl Heinz Rummenigge has confidently predicted that he will, although most independent observers expect the striker to leave – as his chances of first team football are set to be greatly reduced when Robert Lewandowski arrives from Borussia Dortmund in the summer.
Rummenigge said, “We want him to stay, and I remain fairly confident he will.
“But I know that many clubs throughout Europe want him, and that is not surprising. You only have to look at his scoring record to see his quality, so we will see what happens.”
It sounds to me that Bayern are resigned to losing their player but are also determined to get full value for him. That seems to equate to around £20 million, which is about twice what they paid Wolfsburg for him just two years ago. His wage demands are likely to be pretty steep as well, which makes me think that Arsenal would be better off going for the man who used to keep him on the bench at Wolfsburg, Edin Dzeko. The Bosnian is also likely to be cheaper as he will have just a year of his contract left (although not a free transfer as I said the other day).
What do you think, Gooners, should we leave Mandzukic to Chelsea?
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