Arsenal

Arsenal

Premier League • England

Arsenal transfer truths revealed as Gunners shot down by attacker now tearing up the Premier League

Miguel Almiron, Joelinton, Newcastle United, October 2022

Miguel Almiron’s agent has revealed Arsenal wanted to sign him while he was in the MLS, but he eventually opted for Newcastle United.

Almiron was a slow burner when he first entered the Premier League. Indeed, his first goal didn’t come until almost a full year after he signed.

That would not have been a great sign after the Magpies shelled around £24million on him. Especially not since he left Atlanta United having scored 12 goals and registered 13 assists in his final season.

Almiron’s goals output slowly improved over the past few seasons. In the 2019/20 campaign, he scored four times in all competitions, as well as providing two assists.

The following season, he scored five times and provided three assists in all competitions.

Last season, with more talent around, he regressed to being a less positive player. The Paraguayan international scored just one goal in all competitions, and did not register a single assist.

However, he has had a major turnaround, and is really thriving this season. Indeed, Almiron has scored eight goals in 14 Premier League games this term, with seven of those goals coming in the last seven games.

He is currently the Premier League’s joint fourth-highest goalscorer. Unsurprisingly, he is also top of Newcastle‘s top scorers list.

Almiron turned down Arsenal

Newcastle’s snare of Almiron was not an uncontested one. The forward was subject of reported interest at the time from both Tottenham and Arsenal.

While speaking on Alimron’s incredible journey, his agent has now confirmed that the Gunners were keen, but they were turned down.

“Miguel Almiron is a footballer who went from less to more, now he is a more complete footballer,” he said on Paraguayan radio station ABC Cardinal.

“There was interest shown by Manchester United in Miguel but they never made an offer. Arsenal and Southampton offered loan deals for him but we did not want it to be a loan.”

Almiron’s Premier League career could have panned out very differently had he gone to Arsenal.

Newcastle faith paid off

The faith shown in him by Newcastle can be attributed to a few reasons. The Magpies did not throw around the kind of money they spent on him during that period.

They were not going to have done so just to see it go to waste. Indeed, even though he did not perform initially, the club would have wanted to get their money’s worth, given, at the time of signing, he was their second most-expensive transfer ever.

Signing another player to replace him would have been very unlikely at the time.

At a club the size of Arsenal, he would likely not have been afforded the same time to find his feet. The Gunners would have probably cut their losses after he did not perform and either sat him on the bench, or sent him back.

As such, the fact they were rejected has done wonders for Almiron’s career. He was given ample time to settle in at Newcastle and they are now reaping the benefits of that massively.