‘I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS’: Allardyce can’t believe Arsenal have been allowed to sign 26-year-old
Speaking on the No Tippy Tappy Football Podcast, Sam Allardyce has been discussing Arsenal’s summer transfer recruitment and the two signings they made from Manchester City.
Mikel Arteta raided his former employers in the summer transfer window. He signed both Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko from City, and both players have proven to be key players this season.
Allardyce believes that Pep Guardiola will get all sorts of stick for these sales if Arsenal do end up winning the league, stating that he can’t believe City decided to sell Zinchenko to Arsenal when they have such a lack of depth at left-back.
Allardyce shocked Arsenal signed Zinchenko
The ex-England boss spoke about Arsenal’s signing of the City players.
“He’s (Guardiola) going to get some stick though for selling those players to Arsenal if they win the league. He’s going to get some stick about that by the way. All the fans will look and say ‘look at what it’s cost us’ if they don’t win the league, he’ll be right under the cosh I think,” Allardyce said.
“It’s his buddy isn’t it, he was with him for years and he helped him get the job at Arsenal and now he’s given him two quality players to go.
Allardyce then spoke specifically about the signing of Zinchenko.
“It’s a strange one for me because he can play left-back and left midfield, but left-back particularly, they haven’t really got a natural left-back now, they’re playing a centre-half there at the moment and they let the other full-back go on loan, Joao Cancelo, which is another unusual one.”
Blunder
If Arsenal win the league, selling Zinchenko may go down as one of the biggest blunders in Manchester City’s and the Premier League’s history.
The Ukrainian has a genuine claim to stake regarding being the Gunners’ Player of the Season this term, and City could really do with him at left-back right now.
Of course, we’ve seen these types of moves backfire before – most famously when Leeds sold Eric Cantona to Manchester United in the 1990s, and Zinchenko could be the same sort of story between City and Arsenal.
