According to ‘reports in Spain’ (h/t football.london), Real Madrid are looking to sell Martin Odegaard on a permanent basis with Arsenal interested in a move. The club have appointed Carlo Ancelotti as their new manager after Zinedine Zidane bid his farewell recently.
Odgaard, who is linked to Arsenal, would cost at least £51.5million to sign in the summer.
The Norwegian attacking midfielder was signed by Real Madrid as far back as 2015. But he failed to cement a position in Los Blancos’ starting XI. In a bid to see more game time, he joined the Gunners in this January transfer window on a 6-month deal. And the report cites that Arsenal want to sign him permanently in the summer after an impressive season.
Arsenal did not have much going in their favour this season. Despite a great streak of results at the end, the Gunners missed out on European football altogether as they finished 8th in the league. But amidst this, one of the positives was their loaned star, Odegaard, doing well. Ever since he came in, Mikel Arteta started him regularly in his side’s midfield.
In fact, the former Real Sociedad midfielder missed just four Premier League games since his move, of which two were due to an injury. Deployed in a creative playmaker role, Odegaard shone on occasions.
While he had just 2 goals and 2 assists to show for, Arteta himself underlined how Odegaard’s mobility, work rate, and creativity brought something to Arsenal that they didn’t have before when he spoke in an interview earlier this season.
“Well, I love talented and creative players that all the time are willing to take the ball and make that happen, that they are mobile and as well hard working. He’s one of them. We have some others with different qualities. It’s true that Martin is giving us now a level in certain things that we didn’t have.”
Ever since Mesut Ozil was ousted from first-team football, Arsenal have lacked a creative playmaker in the purest sense. That could be one of the reasons why the Spaniard sanctioned a deal for Odegaard in January. And that move worked to a great extent. To see that, we must refer to Odegaard’s xA90 (expected assists per 90 minutes) over the past few months.
Image A shows that since Odegaard’s debut against Manchester United in the league, only two players have more xA than the Norwegian The xA90 is a good parameter to judge a player’s creative actions and Odegaard is doing pretty well for the Gunners in that regard. This is something that would also benefit them and their strikers next season.
We have already talked about the lack of No.10s at the Gunners. The 20-year-old Emile Smith Rowe is perhaps is the only other natural attacking midfielder in the team apart from Odegaard. The Norwegian is himself yet to see his peak years, with him being only 22 right now.
That means the £51.5million being quoted for a possible transfer does not seem like a bad amount for a player that could very well end up spending a number of years at the Emirates. It remains to be seen, however, what Arteta does, but if he does end up signing Odegaard, it wouldn’t be a bad move at all.
