Jamie Carragher stunned Arsenal didn’t try to sign Liverpool star: ‘He’s the one’
Jamie Carragher is convinced Arsenal should have made Bradley Barcola their top priority after it became clear they wouldn’t be able to sign Vinicius Jr and Julian Alvarez this summer.
Barcola, a double Champions League winner with Paris Saint-Germain, completed his £123million move to Anfield in the final days of the summer window, signing a five-year contract.
Arsenal explored a move for the France international earlier in the window but instead focused on other targets with Liverpool given a relatively free run at signing the 24-year-old winger.
The Gunners have looked at bringing in an established left winger for the last two summers, exploring moves for the likes or Rodrygo and Anthony Gordon last year with Vinicius Jr emerging as a top target this year.
While Arsenal were said to be confident of signing the Brazilian superstar, Vinicius instead signed a new contract with Real Madrid.
Mikel Arteta was also desperate to sign Julian Alvarez from Atletico Madrid, pursuing a move throughout the summer despite it being made clear the Argentina international was holding out for a move to Barcelona.
Arsenal have also moved on the two left wingers who served them well last season with Leandro Trossard joining Besiktas with Gabriel Martinelli’s £60million move to Al-Hilal set to be confirmed.
Believing the left wing area to be the biggest area of concern in Arteta’s title-winning machine, Carragher fears not signing Barcola will be looked at as a missed opportunity.
‘I’m happy it didn’t happen but I was looking at the Barcola thing,’ Carragher said on the latest episode of Stick to Football.
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‘For me with Arsenal, left wing has always felt like where the drop is compared to [Bukayo] Saka, [Martin] Odegaard, [Kai] Havertz.
‘The new kid [Christos] Tzolis has made a decent start. But the longer the Barcola thing went on, and then Arsenal didn’t get Vinicius Jr or Alvarez, I was thinking is that [signing Barcola] not the one?
Arsenal legend Ian Wright was in agreement his former side needed to sign a player of that profile, having also missed out on Morgan Rogers who signed for Chelsea.
‘That is the player Arsenal need to sign. He comes in from a brilliant PSG side and he’s played with players who are on that level. Now he’s coming into a Liverpool side where he is that superstar and will bring them [his teammates] up there.
‘That’s what we needed. Whether you think Morgan Rogers could have done that, I would have been happy with that. But Barcola was available.’
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