It’s no secret that Arsenal will be one of the teams searching for a striker in the upcoming summer transfer window. Six months on from January, where the Gunners were looking for reinforcements, Mikel Arteta has another chance to strengthen his attack when the window opens at the end of the season.
Injuries to both Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus have left Arsenal without a recognised striker over the last few months. Midfielder Mikel Merino has been filling in as a central striker, but it’s far from an ideal scenario.
Arsenal did make a move for forwards in January. One of those was Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins.
The club saw a £40 million bid turned down by Villa, with football.london understanding that the Midlands club set the asking price of £60 million. It was a fee that Arsenal felt was too much, meaning they walked away from negotiations.
Watkins has scored 15 goals in 34 Premier League appearances for Villa so far this season. He has, however, found regular starts hard to come by for the last couple of months.
In the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup, he has started on the bench for six of the last eight games. January loanee Marcus Rashford has been preferred to Watkins in the central striker position.
After playing just 14 minutes of the Champions League quarter-final second leg against Paris Saint Germain - a game which Villa lost 5-4 on aggregate, Watkins did start last weekend’s Premier League game against Villa. He made an immediate impact, scoring in the first minute and providing an assist for Ian Maatsen’s goal in the 4-1 win over their rivals in the race for the Champions League.
Watkins’ performance saw him named as man of the match for the game. But that didn’t stop him again being named on the bench for Villa’s crucial Premier League clash against Manchester City on Tuesday night.
Rashford was again preferred to the former Brentford man, with Watkins playing the final 14 minutes of the game. An injury time winner from City saw Villa fall to a 2-1 defeat.
The decision to not start Watkins, means that he has been overlooked by Unai Emery for three crucial games - both legs of the Champions League clash against PSG and the game against City.
It therefore points to the former Arsenal boss being open to letting Watkins leave in the summer. That could especially be the case if Rashford’s loan move from Man United is made permanent.
It seems that the player would be open to a move to. Last week he spoke about not being happy at being named on the bench.
"For me, I’m not happy to sit on the bench,” he said. It’s disappointing every game that I’m on the bench, but it’s the manager’s decision at the end of the day."
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game against Newcastle, Watkins doubled down on his comments. "Obviously, being out of the team, no one's happy to sit on the bench when you're a professional player and you always want to play in the starting lineup,” he said.
"Obviously, I found myself out of the team for a few games, so today I was raring to go and I wasn't going to let that opportunity slip being in the starting lineup again."
The fact that he was back on the bench on Tuesday, therefore, may not have gone down too well with the player. It’s a situation that Arsenal could maybe take advantage of in the summer transfer window.
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