'I hope': £77m forward reacts to Arsenal interest, Gunners move is clearly not his top choice
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With the January transfer window only six weeks away, that time-honoured debate is surely about to kick into life once again as Arsenal struggle to keep the pace in the Premier League.
Mikel Arteta’s team have won none of their last four top-flight games, scoring only twice from open play.
While Kai Havertz has proven himself to be an effective leader of the line, and The Gunners have shared the goals around pretty impressively in recent times, is the well-publicised lack of genuine top-level number nines finally catching up with a suddenly misfiring Arsenal side?
TBR understands that the London giants are indeed looking at strikers ahead of the January transfer window. Arsenal are watching Sporting Lisbon sensation Viktor Gyokeres, arguably the most in-form centre-forward in European football at present.
TBR have also been told that Arsenal are in the mix for Paris Saint-Germain’s Randal Kolo Muani too.
The French champions will consider letting the France international leave on loan in January, just a year-and-a-half after a £77 million deal with Eintracht Frankfurt made Randal Kolo Muani the third most expensive player in PSG’s history behind Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
Randal Kolo Muani keen to stay at PSG amid Arsenal interest
Unlike two thirds of that famous if flawed Neymar, Mbappe, Lionel Messi frontline, Kolo Muani has found goals hard to come by in a PSG shirt. A tally of two from 12 appearances this term rather makes a mockery of that eye-watering transfer fee.
Though, while PSG may be ready to cut their losses, the former Nantes ace is not yet willing to give up the ghost and call time on his Parc des Princes career.
"You have to keep the mental side,” Kolo Muani tells reporters while on international duty. “It is up to me to continue to work so that the manager [Luis Enrique] trusts in me.
“I am keeping my head on my shoulders and I'm going to continue to work.“
When pressed further on whether Kolo Muani still has a part to play at PSG, meanwhile, the goal-shy centre-forward said; ‘I hope so’.
The final decision is likely to rest with Les Parisiens themselves, of course. Kolo Muani has played only 24 minutes during PSG’s last four Ligue 1 fixtures. Damningly, Enrique has taken to utilising Ousmane Dembele or Marco Asensio through the middle as something of a ‘false nine’ with Kolo Muani watching on from the bench.
To think, the Bondy-born 25-year-old appeared on his way to become one of the game’s best all-round centre-forwards during that short but sweet Frankfurt spell. He scored 23 goals and set up 17 more during the 2022/23 alone.
Kolo Muani determined to prove Paris Saint-Germain critics wrong
Kolo Muani’s struggles away from Frankfurt, then, may act as a warning to those considering a move for The Eagles’ latest free-scoring talisman. TBR understands that Arsenal are in the mix to sign Frankfurt’s Omar Marmoush too, alongside Liverpool, with the Egyptian following in Kolo Muani’s footsteps during a unexpectedly prolific spell at the Commerzbank Arena.
“I have seen the criticism since I arrived at PSG,” Kolo Muani told Onze Mondial in February, admitting that his £77 million price-tag had taken it’s toll to an extent.
“The criticisms make us evolve. That's good to hear. It’s like advice. You have to take criticism into account and improve so that these same criticisms disappear. It’s logical.
“Concerning the transfer price, personally, it’s hard to digest. It’s another pressure for me to take on. I am digesting little by little. But I’ll tell you a secret; over time, people will say that it was a good price for Randal Kolo Muani.
“I know that at the moment people are saying: ’90 million euros for Kolo Muani, what is that?’ I say: ‘They will see’, quite simply.”
Nine months and only two PSG goals later, Kolo Muani’s self-confidence is starting to feel a little misplaced.
