Arsenal take big step towards signing £85m “superstar”

The cogs are starting to turn at Arsenal.

After a month of what felt like inactivity to the fans, the Gunners are starting to make moves in the transfer window.

On top of the deal for Martin Zubimendi finally coming towards a conclusion, the club have now sealed a £5m deal for Kepa Arrizabalaga and submitted a bid for Brentford’s Christian Nørgaard.

Moreover, recent reports have now suggested that Arsenal are advancing in talks to sign a world-class attacker, someone who could be a dream team for another of the club’s targets: Jorrel Hato.

Arsenal ramp up transfer business

Arsenal were first credited with an interest in Hato back in December 2023, when he was still just 17 years old.

Links then popped back up last summer and then once again this spring, yet it’s in the previous few weeks that they’ve really started to feel significant.

For example, reports earlier this week revealed that the North Londoners are now ‘accelerating their move’ for the incredible teenage talent who could be set to cost them around £43m.

It would certainly be exciting to sign such a highly-rated youngster, and now it looks like the club are also making progress in their pursuit of someone who’d be a great teammate for him: Rodrygo.

At least that is according to a recent report from Football Transfers, who have reaffirmed that Arsenal remain incredibly interested in the Brazilian international.

The report goes further than that, though, revealing that the Gunners have ‘taken significant strides toward’ the massive signing and that they have ‘held positive discussions regarding a transfer fee with Real Madrid.’

Regarding that fee, the report claims that the North Londoners have now found out that the full package to land the former Santos gem would amount to a figure north of €100m, which converts to around £85m.

So, it looks like it could be a complicated and incredibly costly transfer to get over the line, but given Rodrygo’s outrageous talent, it is one Arsenal should be fighting for, especially as he could be the perfect teammate for Hato as well.

Why Rodrygo would be an ideal teammate for Hato

There are two reasons why Hato would surely love playing behind Rodrygo, and they relate to his output and positioning.

The first is really quite simple to understand, as while the Dutchman’s primary focus is to stop the opposition from scoring goals, he has shown an increasing ability to provide chances for his teammates, as in the league alone this season, he scored twice and provided six assists in just 31 appearances, 28 of which were at left-back.

Therefore, it tracks that should the 19-year-old have a more dangerous attacker ahead of him, then his own goal and assist numbers would likely soar, and in the Brazilian phenom, he’d have just that.

Rodrygo’s recent record
Season	23/24	24/25
Appearances	52	52
Minutes	3777′	3425′
Goals	18	14
Assists	9	11
Goal Involvements per Match	0.51	0.48
Minutes per Goal Involvement	139.88′	137′
All Stats via Transfermarkt

For example, even though he has had to spend the majority of this season out of position, off the right, the “world-class superstar,” as dubbed by Luka Modrić, still scored 14 goals and provided 11 assists in 53 appearances, totalling 3425 minutes, which comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 2.08 games, or every 137 minutes.

Moving onto his positioning, and by looking at the Real ace’s heatmap from this season and last season, it’s clear that what he likes to do is move from the outside in, so while he can operate on the touchline, he’s more comfortable inside.

In turn, he vacates space out wide, space which is perfect for an overlapping full-back to exploit, and while the Ajax star does like to invert, his own heatmap shows that he also likes to get forward and stay wide.

Moreover, respected analyst Ben Mattinson argues that his “dynamism would translate so well to an overlapping LB,” and when you add to that the fact he has some seriously impressive underlying numbers related to chance creation, there is every chance that he could form a dangerous partnership with Rodrygo from out wide.

For example, FBref places the teenager in the top 1% of full-backs in the next best 14 competitions for pass completion, the top 3% for goal-creating chances from live passes and the top 4% for overall goal-creating actions, all per 90.

Ultimately, on their own, Hato and Rodrygo would be great signings for Arsenal, but together, there is every chance that they could help revolutionise the Gunners’ left-hand side and make it just as dangerous as their right.