Time and time again Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has been criticized for not having a star striker on the books.
Now he could be turning to a man who Arsenal let go to bolster his options up top.
Mexican international striker Carlos Vela was nurtured at Arsenal after joining the club as a teenager in 2008 but found his chances in the first team extremely limited. After spending time out on loan at Real Sociedad, Vela signed for the La Liga outfit permanently in 2012.
Since then the 25-year-old striker has been banging in the goals for Sociedad and has attracted the attention of many top clubs across Europe. With only Olivier Giroud as a recognized striker at the Emirates, the Gunners will be keen to bolster their attack during the summer transfer window. When it comes to Arsenal’s current crop of strikers Yaya Sanogo is young, Nicklas Bendtner is injury prone and other players such as Lukas Podolski and Theo Walcott prefer to operate out wide.
The Gunners could certainly do with getting Vela back on board.
Vela, who will not be heading to the World Cup this summer after a long-running dispute between himself and the Mexican Football Federation, is keen to sort out his future and is open to a move back to the Emirates Stadium.
“If I have to return, I will do things in a different way,” Vela said. “What happened in the past will not be repeated. We will try and reach an agreement in which we all win – Real, Arsenal and me. We must see what can be done. We will decide what will be my future, it is all about finding the best way to be happy.”
Arsenal, the clever clogs, inserted a buy-back clause of just $5 million in Vela’s deal when they sold him to Sociedad and could now trigger that as he continues to develop into a predatory striker of the highest quality. It is believed that the Gunners can buy Vela back at any time they want and with his blistering form over the past three seasons, Vela has notched 29 assists and scored 48 times in 124 games for Sociedad, Arsenal are set to exercise their option to bring the hotshot back to North London.
Cheap, a potent goalscorer and heading back to Arsenal with plenty to prove, could Vela be the perfect answer to Arsenal’s need for a new striker?
