Way better than Williams: Arsenal want to sign "best player in the world"

All eyes might be on next week’s Champions League semi-final for the fans, but behind the scenes, Arsenal are preparing for a massive summer transfer window.

The Gunners are set to finish with fewer points in the Premier League than their previous campaign under Mikel Arteta for the first time, and as they’ve scored 12 goals fewer than Liverpool, it’s clear they need attacking reinforcements.

One of the standout players most heavily touted for a move to the Emirates in recent months has been Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams, who would be available for around £50m thanks to the release clause in his current deal.

However, while the Spaniard is a supremely exciting winger, recent reports have now linked the club with another sensational wideman, someone having a way better season than the Basque star.

Arsenal looking to sign one of the best players in Europe

As we get closer and closer to the opening of the summer transfer window, the links to incredible stars have been steadily increasing, so before looking at the potential Williams upgrade, it’s worth going over some of the other names touted for a move to N5, such as Rafael Leao.

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According to reports from earlier this month, the Portuguese international could be available for around £86m this summer, and while that’s a lot of money, it could prove to be a fee worth paying, as in just 46 appearances for AC Milan this term, he’s scored 11 goals and provided 12 assists.

However, a far cheaper option would be Kingsley Coman, who has been touted for a £39m move to the North Londoners.

The Bayern Munich star, who scored the winning goal in the 2020 UCL Final, has somewhat fallen out of favour in Bavaria this year but has still managed to rack up a haul of seven goals and four assists in 1666 minutes of action.

With that said, perhaps the most exciting winger linked with Arsenal at the moment, and the one who would be a better signing than Williams, is Raphinha.

According to a recent report from Spain, the Gunners are one of several sides interested in the Brazilian game-changer, including Liverpool, Chelsea and teams from the Saudi Pro League.

However, the key information is that, per the story, Barcelona have not ruled out selling the former Leeds United star, and that should an offer of around €100m – £86m – be made, they’d be willing to cash in.

It would be an incredibly costly and potentially complicated transfer to get over the line for Arsenal, but given Raphinha’s immense ability, it’s one worth fighting for, especially as he’d be a better signing than Williams.

How Raphinha compares to Williams

So, with the fees being reported, it seems likely that Arsenal would sign Raphinha or Williams and not both, so how do they compare?

Well, when it comes down to the most important metric for an attacking player, their raw output, it’s the Barcelona star who comes out way ahead.

For example, in 49 appearances this season, totalling 3952 minutes, the “amazing” Porto Alegre-born star, as dubbed by analyst Ben Mattinson, has racked up an outrageous tally of 30 goals and 23 assists. He is truly living up to his billing as “the best player in the world” this season, as hailed by Statman Dave.

That means he is currently averaging 1.08 goal involvements a game or one every 74.56 minutes, which is a simply world-class rate of return and makes Thierry Henry’s tip for him to win the Ballon d’Or earlier this year look like a shrewd one.

In contrast, the Pamplona-born dynamo has scored 11 goals and provided seven assists for the Basque side in 43 appearances, totalling 2971 minutes, which comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 2.38 games, or every 165.05 minutes.

Now, it should be said that, in and of itself, that is an excellent rate of return for a winger, but it’s simply incomparable to the Brazilian’s mind-blowing efforts this year.

Ultimately, Arsenal need to sign an attacker who can propel them forward this summer, and while he won’t be cheap, that attacker is Raphinha, not Willimas.

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