If Arsenal really are going after Jamie Vardy, then it's only right that we all hypothesise over whether it's going to work, right?
News that Arsene Wenger was going after the Leicester City forward caught everyone - yes, everyone - off guard, not least because it represents such a vast shift from his usual policy in the transfer market of signing younger players who can offer potential for improvement. Maybe a change of tack is what is needed; maybe it isn't. Vardy's mooted arrival at the Emirates is likely to be a divisive move by the Gunners - let's take a look at both sides of the argument..
Three reasons Why Jamie Vardy is the perfect signing for Arsenal...
Vardy Scores Goals, Arsenal Need Goals
The logic is simple: Arsenal have long been after a 20-goal-a-season centre-forward, and Wenger has long persisted that there isn't one out there who represents sufficient value to make him worth signing; Vardy is a 20-goal striker.He scored 24 Premier League goals last season; fewer only than Harry Kane. His chance conversion rate of 25.8 per cent was equal to that of Sergio Aguero, and far better than Kane's.
Predictably, Arsenal missed more chances the football statisticians would call 'clear cut' than any other team in the Premier League in 2015/16, letting 69 such chances pass them by. Put a clinical Vardy at the spearhead of that attack and he solves all the problems. Simple.
He Will Offer Arsenal One Thing They Lack
Jamie Vardy proved to be more than just a goalscoring threat in the Premier League last season. At full pelt, challenge him in the penalty area at your considerable risk...
Arsenal were notably light in the penalty-winning department - the extended absences of the pacey Danny Welbeck and Theo Walcott may have played a part there - and Jamie Vardy brings you penalty shouts: lots of them.
Age Is But A Number
Vardy was a late bloomer. He didn't burst on to the scene as a plucky teenager; hell, he didn't even play much football after he all but gave up on a professional career when he was abandoned by Sheffield Wednesday.
So the fact that he is 29 - and just one year younger than the depressingly slow Wayne Rooney - does not matter. He is in the peak years of his career and those will continue for a while yet.
A certain Ian Wright joined the club at a similar age and went on to become the club's record goalscorer. Don't expect the same heights from Vardy, but don't for a second start to think he is too old to to command a £20m outlay.
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