
Originally Posted by
Master Splinter
Konoplyanka is the Ukrainian Messi. He's at Sevilla now.
Yarmolenko is an excellent player and has always looked impressive for both club and country. It's actually surprising that he hasn't moved to one of the bigger leagues yet.
If you're dismissing a player of his renown it speaks of your own ignorance rather than his lack of ability or Arsenal's terrible transfer policy.
I'm not saying he's the hottest prospect in Europe or we should be signing him or that there's even a 1% chance this is true. But the incessant, default negativity on anyone who's not a £90m product of hype or a Neymar or Lewandowski is a bit pathetic. It's not even parody anymore.
Players like Kante, Monreal, Zabaleta, Azpilicueta and even Payet probably didn't have a quarter of the recognition Yarmolenko has but have proven to be excellent players in this league. Money is almost completely irrelevant now since Chelsea, Citeh, Real Madrid, Barcelona, QPR and PSG distorted reality. It's about finding the right player to fit your team. Sometimes that player is hidden in plain sight or sometimes you pay £35-85m for them.
Yarmolenko would probably be our second best wide option after Alexis, but it's still that complete, devastating striker we really need to make us a consistently efficient attacking unit. Not that a daily dollop of transfer bollocks from the Star was worthy of this much discussion anyway.