Ian Wright has claimed that he never thought the rumours of Arsenal signing Gabriel Jesus could be true early on, before explaining how he believes he is ‘perfect’ for us.
The Gunners quickly established that the Brazilian was our priority signing this summer, and the striker has since been announced as our new number 9 ahead of the new season.
Wright claims that he didn’t imagine the rumours were true when he initially heard we was in the hunt for his signature, but later decided that the deal was ‘perfect’.
“When we first got linked with him I thought ‘oh, here we go, we are just getting linked with people, it’s not going to happen’,” Wright told followers of his Wrighty’s House podcast. “Then Erling Haaland comes in, so he is going to go somewhere. Can we get him? Is he going to come to us with no Europa League? No Champions League. Can we get Jesus?
“I started to think about what he brings and what he can do. I was thinking, he’s perfect. He’s perfect – I don’t think they have promised him anything, he is going to play.
“For him, to come to our place knowing that he’s our main man. See a player ready to be number one, go to a club that they want him to be number one, it’s got to be a massive incentive for him.
“If we are looking at Salah and Son sharing the Golden Boot from out wide and how Gabriel Jesus will play more regularly and hopefully score more goals. You don’t need to be in there as that number nine, scoring loads of goals to win the Golden Boot, you can do it from the wing.
“All that intense rivalry is needed (between Jesus, Smith Rowe, Nketiah and Martinelli) of quality players because everybody has to step up – that signing is an amazing signing in respect of what we want to do.”
The excitement around his arrival is yet to peak, with him still yet to make his official debut for us, but expectations are already growing.
It will be interesting to see if he can hit the ground running next term, but with him already with the club ahead of preseason, there should be no excuses when the new campaign gets under way.
I’m not going to lie, I’m not fully convinced he is the striker to guarantee 20+ goals year on year, but he does offer much more than just goals, and I dont doubt that he would be a hit.
Patrick
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There is always a lot of hope and excitement about every striker signed. They are the fans favourite item on the summer shopping list. Aubameyang Sanogo Park Chu-Young Bendtner Chamakh Sanchez Lucas Perez Lacazette Miyaichi( Ozil)-expeced to attract the worlds best strikers ,Asano Pepe all came in amid huge expectations of excitement goals and trophies. . Some had success, othere were average others still were abject failures. The mega expensive strikers do tend to do better. But then they should at the cost. Sanchez at 36mill was probably the best value for money till he lost faith in the team.W ho will succeed from the current crop? Nketiah free Jesus 50m Martinelli 7m Marquinos 7m Pepe 72m Balogun free. What is a players true “value”. Jesus at 95mill fee/salary will be expected to score goals but how many is reasonable? Auba 60m, Laca 50m and Pepe72m so far did not take us back into the CL. So what level of expectation should we place on Jesus? CL 3 out of the next 5 seasons? Cl semi final? Is that a reasonable ask? May be top 6?
Jesus could score 50 goals next season but if we don’t have a strong team overall, we could still miss out on top 4. So he’d be an individual success by any realistic thinking, but the team would fail their objective (and part of that may even be due to his role in the team, as some have posited about Ronaldo at utd last season). Conversely we could win the league with him playing every game and only scoring 10 goals.
Obviously these scenarios are ridiculous, I’m just saying, we all seem to want to judge strikers on numbers of goals, but that’s very surface level. He’ll be a success if he plays well consistently and adds something (which may not even be evident by the numbers) – if he does that and the team is still not successful, then there’s still a problem with the team
Fairfan, you keep quoting player’s price/ salary in your comments. I wonder how long you have been supporting Arsenal, we have seen this club penny pinch and miss out on transfers. The players you mention auba, laca, pepe, were worthy every penny paid… Well pepe maybe a little less! I really don’t care how much we pay for a player of more concern to me is ,them showing up on a match day and giving their all. Your insinuation point to an indication that players acquired for more money should perform better than the “free”
Jesus spoken about playing as a 9, and guaranteed starter. Forget the winger stuff, without an adequate striker our attack is still weak.
Saka, Jesus, Martinelli is our strongest attack presently, unless we pull off a top striker signing.
I’m lost for words to thank Mikel for getting a serious player hired. The last was PEA hired knowing very well that he had issues with BM, so it was a no brainer that there would be issues here as well. Then we had Mustafi who assisted Valencia in relegation and we expected him to defend us to our European/ EPL glory, how foolish! Then we have Ozil, who was released at a prime age by Madrid and the national team, why? Then by Mikel followed by Kartal and Jorge.
Lacazette never impressed me as he could not find his way to start for France. And before that a series of depressing signings – Gervino, Chamak, Assano, Sanogo, Podolski, Arshavin, etc etc. Due to naivety we did miss out Luiz Suarez, Juan Mata, Edin Hazard, Kante, Mahrez. GJ is the real deal, a workaholic who will bring the best out of our young talent and will thrive with us. Cannot wait to see Palace beaten up black and blue or should I say red and blue?