Everton are now in for the wrong Arsenal striker

Reports from the Mirror suggest that Everton are willing to spend £30m on Danny Welbeck if their pursuit of of Olivier Giroud falls through. £30m is the same price quoted for Giroud himself in multiple reports, so the implication here is that the Blues would end up with whichever Arsenal didn’t want.

Picking up Arsenal’s table scraps isn’t exactly appetizing. It’s one thing to look at Giroud, a proven starting caliber striker at a high level who is simply out of his depth against talents like Alexis Sanchez and Alexandre Lacazette. It’s quite different to pay £30m for the fourth string striker of a club that finished in a Europa League place.

The last time Danny Welbeck broke 1000 league minutes was 2014-2015, and the last time he scored more than four goals was the year before that. He’s 26 and honestly isn’t going to get much better. He’s not a starter for a club that fit the ambitions Everton has. This radar is practically ancient but it’s as good as he is ever going to get:

“Even among stat people, opinion on Welbeck is heavily split.”

Oh. Great.

Look, Danny Welbeck isn’t as good as Sandro Ramirez. Why would Everton spend that kind of money to make a better player’s life more complicated?

Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Sandro averaged more shots per 90 and shot with more accuracy, he’s more of a threat on free kicks by a long shot and completes a significantly higher percentage of his dribbles (Sandro, 50%; Welbeck, 33%).

Sure, Welbeck is 5 inches taller, which I guess makes him that ‘target man’, but goodness, for thirty million pounds, surely there’s a better tall striker out there.

I am not suggesting that we keep Sandro in as our starting striker this season. Frankly, I think Sandro will spend more time out wide, all I’m saying is that if Everton are going to spend this kind of money, they should get something better for the job at hand than what is already in place.