Arsenal will soon be in desperate need of a striker with Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah both out of contract in the summer and Mikel Arteta will need some serious backing ahead of the 2022-23 campaign, with a centre-forward an absolute priority.
Goalscorers are always the toughest to find when it comes to recruitment. They come at a premium, and substantial price tags are floated about as player agents look to ignite bidding wars to capitalise on their slice of the final transfer fee. The Gunners tried to sign one of Europe’s most in-form strikers in January, Dusan Vlahovic, but he ended up staying in Serie A by joining Juventus from Fiorentina. The Serbian joined the Old Lady for a fee of £62.8million which, along with Champions League football, was something Arsenal could not match at the time.
More recently, the north London outfit have been listed as having an interest in Espanyol striker Raul de Tomas, one of the players who slipped through the fingers of Real Madrid, but his career record highlights he was a late bloomer to discover his goalscoring touch. He has been having an enjoyable season in La Liga, having scored his 13th goal of the campaign in the derby match with Barcelona over the weekend. To say he has been crucial for the Periquitos is a huge understatement and one particular astonishing stat proves it.
The forward has been directly involved in 55.1% of Espanyol’s goals in La Liga this term (13 goals and three assists) and it is not surprising that he is attracting Premier League interest as only Karim Benzema has more league goals than him this term. As the Spanish side languish in mid-table, the Madrid-born star is proving that he is capable of playing at a much higher level and if his impeccable form continues for the remainder of 2021-22, he will likely be inundated with offers in the summer.
De Tomas’ form has not gone unnoticed in his homeland as Spain’s national boss Luis Enrique called up the forward to La Roja in November following an injury to Barcelona's teenage superstar Ansu Fati. He has already earned two caps for his national team and as the goals continue to fly in for him, he will likely earn a call-up next month on merit alone. At 27, De Tomas has entered the peak years of his career and while he has had an impressive record in front of goal at Valladolid, Rayo Vallecano and now Espanyol, he may also be interested in a challenge that they be offered to him at a higher level to give him the chance to improve his footballing legacy.
His journey so far has been an enjoyable one and although it may have taken him a lot longer than expected to find his feet in professional football, just look at Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy. The man that Arsenal tried so desperately to sign in 2016 has proved that you cannot write a player off at such a young age, development is different for players and if De Tomas can have a similar impact on football to Vardy, he will provide another inspirational story within the beautiful game.
If he were to make the bold step and leave for England, Arsenal would be an exciting challenge for him. His compatriot Arteta has built a well-balanced team of experience and youth, with much more of the latter, and while De Tomas’ age wouldn’t follow the trend of the current recruitment drive, he would undoubtedly add some much-needed firepower to the Gunners’ attack - which has been their downfall in a number of matches this season. With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang already shown the door at the Emirates Stadium, he is likely to be followed by the two remaining senior strikers at the Gunners and the club should ideally already have a plan in place to strengthen their forward ranks at the end of the season.
Perhaps in De Tomas, they will finally get their hands on their very own 'Jamie Vardy'.
