Can Arsenal Sign Raphael Varane?

Football is all about statements now. Manchester United have spent the summer making plenty, whether it’s the arrival of Jose Mourinho, Zlatan Ibrahimovic or, potentially, Paul Pogba; Manchester City made an early one with Pep Guardiola and now seem off the pace. Meanwhile, Arsenal’s £35 million spend on Granit Xhaka in June seems almost a lifetime ago.

If Arsenal really want to make a statement to their Premier League and European rivals, an opportunity has just presented itself with a long-term injury to captain Per Mertesacker: sign a top-class replacement who can become one of the best centre-backs in the world over the next decade. Like Raphael Varane of Real Madrid.

The list of players that Arsenal have been linked with since Mertesacker’s injury has been interesting, but none of the players on it would turn the Gunners into title favourites. Varane would.

He is a player that Arsene Wenger coveted from an early age. Yet he missed the chance to sign the Frenchman during his breakthrough year at Lens and he eventually opted for a reported £6 million move to Real Madrid in 2011.

It is a familiar story as Wenger also failed to make the most of his interest in a young Vincent Kompany before the Belgian moved to City from Hamburg for a paltry fee of £8m in 2008. Injury issues aside, Kompany would have surely helped Arsenal to a league title had Wenger taken a chance on him to replace Sol Campbell in 2006.

The chances of snapping up the next big defensive talent for a similar fee in the modern game is practically zero. These days, the advanced scouting networks of Europe’s elite, combined with the astronomical prices that will likely see Pogba sold for over £100m four years after being let go for £800,000, ensures that bargains are not as easy to find.

Wenger has shown that he is willing to spend big on the right player (such as £42.4m on Mesut Ozil and £35m on Alexis Sanchez and Xhaka), but that rarely translates to the area that Arsenal need it most: central defence. Laurent Koscielny and Mertesacker have formed a decent partnership over the past few years but both are over 30 and will need to be upgraded.

Calum Chambers’ failure to secure regular football, especially at centre-back, alongside the signing of young Bolton defender Rob Holding this summer, does not fill one with confidence that Wenger is ready to splash the cash on a proven talent. Even the January 2015 purchase of Gabriel from Villarreal for around £11m smacked of desperation and the Brazilian has shown little sign that he will be a commanding presence in the Gunners’ defence over the next five years.

Which is why a player like Varane (or, to a lesser extent, Atletico Madrid’s Jose Maria Gimenez or Athletic Bilbao’s youngster Aymeric Laporte) is required.

Varane, 23, still has room to develop, which is a scary prospect given how talented he already is. He can’t claim to have held down a regular place in the starting XI at the Bernabeu (having only made over 35 appearances in all competitions once in five seasons) with Sergio Ramos and Pepe around, while he missed out on the Champions League final and France’s run to the final of Euro 2016 through injury.

But he has everything at his disposal to become one of the best on the planet — something Jose Mourinho suggested when the then-Madrid coach threw him into the team at the age of 19 to replace Pepe, and reiterated at Chelsea in 2014 when he called him “the best young central defender in the world.”

Unlike his Portuguese rival, Wenger has stayed silent on Varane’s talent, though told Eurosport that he lamented not signing him earlier. Now, he would never speak directly about his targets, but even before news of the Mertesacker injury Wenger did reveal he is looking to strengthen “an offensive position and defensive position”.

Varane, for his part, is not thinking about moving: “I want to stay here this year. I think everything is here for me to continue my progression. The best players are here, everything is here for me to keep improving and I’m really enthusiastic about improving. The best is still ahead of me.”

But, as with most players, he could be persuaded. And the prospect of Wenger doing the persuading adds a dimension that other clubs do not have. Arsenal might not be able to offer Varane the status of a club like Real Madrid, but he would be guaranteed to be a cornerstone of their defence for the next decade and would relish the prospect of learning under an experienced coach like Wenger — arguably the most respected manager of young players in the world.

One way or another, Arsenal need to make a statement. Signing players like Holding is all very well for the future, but it’s not going to make a difference to their hopes of success over the next few years. They need someone to come in and make an impact right now.

They also need a player who will make the other clubs around Europe stand up and take notice. Just seeing the look on Mourinho’s face when he reads that Wenger has spent over £50m on Varane would be reason alone, but Arsenal need to use the injury to Mertesacker to secure a world-class addition to their defence.