With the transfer window gone by, there’s no choice for Arsenal and Arsene Wenger to look to the future, which means they set their sights on a younger talent, such as Stevan Jovetić of Fiorentina, to bring over to the team in the 2013 summer.
After the attempt to sign David Villa from Barcelona in January failed, Wenger is left with Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott, although he plays both of them at the same time, Walcott still not the “real” striker he wants to be. Jovetić is more of a second striker than a classic number ‘9’, but with Wenger short in that position as well (although not usually playing with one), and short of a trusted goal scorer as well, the 23 year old Montenegrin seems like an excellent choice.
Jovetić has been with Fiorentina since 2008, signed from Partizan for £8 million, slowly becoming one of the more coveted young talents in Europe, not letting an injury that kept him out of the 2010-2011 season stopping his progress. He became a much more dominant play maker and goalscorer for the team upon his comeback, scoring 14 Serie A goals last season, and leading Fiorentina to an excellent campaign this season so far, scoring nine goals in 18 matches for La Viola.
Price? Although it’s hard to see Fiorentina really looking to sell their best player, Italian clubs not called Juventus aren’t in the best economical shape and Arsenal, not really in a position to worry about the Financial Fair Play regulations, putting up impressive profits each season in recent years, can probably afford to offer something between £15-20 million, if Fiorentina don’t attract more, how shall we say, aggressive buyers.
In a total of 103 Serie A matches, Jovetić has scored 31 goals for Fiorentina. He has also appeared 24 times for the Montenegro national side, scoring 10 goals in 24 caps.