‘The only reason’: Pundit says Arsenal only signed 26-year-old because they were lucky

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According to Keith Treacy, both Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus only ended up at Arsenal through sheer luck.

The Arsenal-supporting pundit was speaking on Off The Ball, and he stated that these two transfers just so happened to fall well for Arsenal, claiming that the Gunners were in the right place at the right time due to the fact they have Mikel Arteta, a coach who knows them well, at the helm.

Indeed, Treacy says that this time last year most players of this level wouldn’t have considered signing for Arsenal, but due to Jesus and Zinchenko’s affiliation with Arteta, they did decide to head to north London.

Lucky signings

Treacy gave his verdict on these signings.

“The only reason we got Zinchenko and Jesus is because they knew Arteta from their Manchester City days. I don’t think there are many players in Europe who would say they’d go to Arsenal and Arteta unless they knew them. Those two signings were a bit off the cuff and they happened to fall well, maybe we could raid Man City’s reserves again,” Treacy said.

Things have changed

Arsenal may have been a bit fortunate to land both Jesus and Zinchenko last summer. After all, they were circumstantial signings in that they wanted to leave City and they knew and trusted Arteta.

However, that isn’t the case these days. After a very successful season, Arsenal are back at the top table of English football, and now they can look to sign top stars on merit rather than through a sense of being owed a favour.

That’s why they’re able to target the likes of Declan Rice this summer, and it wouldn’t surprise us one bit to see the Gunners make more and more marquee signings from here on in.