Arsenal have been nothing short of surprises this summer after landing superstars in Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City. The Gunners are now planning major transfer coup for former City winger Leroy Sane. The German left for Bayern Munich in the summer of 2020 in a deal worth £43 million.
The Gunners have now set their sights on the 26-year-old in what could be labelled as an ambitious want. Sane direly wanted to return to his homeland with Bayern, and only a miracle could see him end up back in England with Arsenal. Nonetheless, the North Londoners will still try to lure away the winger according to journalist ben Jacobs.
‘Obvious they admire the player’- Jacobs on Sane to Arsenal links
Sane has impressed at both his stints with Manchester City as well as Bayern Munich. He racked up 37 goals and 46 assists in 134 appearances for the English champions, and has so far amassed 25 goals and 27 assists for the Bundesliga champions across 90 games.
Arsenal are eyeing a swoop in for Sane, after they missed out on one of their top targets in Raphinha. The Gunners pushed till the end to sign him, only for Barcelona to outclass them. Jacobs has revealed that Arsenal want Sane as Raphinha’s replacement, who also has a rich experience of playing in the Premier League.
However, the journalist adds that this operation won’t be as feasible as were the cases of Jesus and Zinchenko. While talking to GiveMeSport, Jacobs said, “The Sane links were prior to Raphinha and I think that Arsenal gathered quite quickly, when they turned their attention to Raphinha, that it’s going to be tough to get Sane to move away from Bayern.”
He further added that Bayern do not intend to part ways with their player who has a contract which runs through the summer of 2025. “I think Bayern’s preference is still to try and keep Sane, so that one is going to be a challenge, but it’s obvious they admire the player,” said Jacobs.
Sane has proved his mettle in both the Premier League as well as the Bundesliga, and could be the addition to Arsenal’s squad which would take them back to Champions League. Further on, Sane’s comments from 2020, lavishing praise Mikel Arteta have resurfaced further adding fuel to fire to his Arsenal links.
The two worked at City for three years before Arteta took over Arsenal job followed by Sane’s departure within the next six months. Back in 2020 while speaking to the Independent, Sane said:
“I can just say positive things about Mikel Arteta. Since we started working together, he helped me a lot on the pitch. He tried to improve my football, he told me what I did good and what I did wrong, and he tried to work on it. Next to Pep, they both really helped me and improved me, to bring me to the next level. Even now, at Arsenal, for me you can see he’s doing a great job. You can see he has a concept, a way that he wants to play, a way that he wants his team to play, and obviously it will take some time until everybody really understands it. I think he will do a great job as a [head] coach too.”
However, the Gunners will certainly find a lot of difficulties in prising away a player who looks settled in at Bayern. Moreover, it will hardly make any sense if Sane, at 26 leaves the Bavarians and joins an Arsenal team which still is rebuilding and competing in the Europa League.