Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed his admiration for Napoli striker Edinson Cavani, but understands that the striker would "cost a lot of money".

The Uruguyan international has notched 16 goals in just 17 Serie A appearances so far this season, and has added a further nine in seven domestic and European cup games to take his tally to 25 goals in 24 outings.

Manchester City assistant Angelo Gregucci has previously revealed the Premier League champions' interest in Cavani, but this marks Wenger's first public acknowledgement of the forward.

"Cavani is a player that I like. What is for sure is that he costs a lot of money," Wenger told reporters.

How did this ever become a 'thing'...

Heh.

We CAN afford him though...

Even if we were interested in Cavani and prepared to offer good money for him, Napoli are currently third in Serie A and there's no way they'll let him go just a few months after they lost Lavezzi.

That being said:

Arsenal have been backed in to 9/4 favourites to sign Edinson Cavani, with PSG (9/2) & Chelsea (10/1) drifting out http://sky.me/V75shm

:drool:

I'd be amazed if Cavani wasn't in the sort of price-range that would impact our transfer business for years to come if we signed him.

Fuck years to come, we've been in decline for worrying too much about future for years now. What we need to ensure now is that we actually have a future at top.

This is the type of transfer we need to remain relevant and give Jack the confidence that Robin lacked. Won't happen though.

Wouldn't this deal be counterproductive towards keeping Walcott? Wenger says Walcott is on the verge of committing his future to the club but one of Walcott's terms was getting a starting role upfront. I can't see how he would get anywhere near that position if Cavani comes in so he would be back to the position he hates or on the bench for most of the season.

Wenger would just play Cavani out wide. Problem solved...

YounGunner, so you're saying.... it is counterproductive to bring in Cavani because Walcott might get pissed off that a new number 9 is coming? Ok

Or we could play 4-4-2.

And I imagine it's more likely that Wenger's thinking about the sort of striker who'd play well with Theo (on the right, or maybe in a pair), than trying to hoodwink him into signing his deal under false pretences.

Or maybe we're not even after a striker.

Claudius wrote:

YounGunner, so you're saying.... it is counterproductive to bring in Cavani because Walcott might get pissed off that a new number 9 is coming? Ok

No it would just contradict the whole Walcott situation on both sides. Walcott wants a starting role upfront and he wouldn't get that if Cavani signs so why would he commit his future to the club knowing this? On the other side we are willing to make Walcott the highest paid player in the squad as a center forward yet he would either be shafted on the wing or benched with the arrival of Cavani. It makes no sense to me unless we plan to change up the formation and play with two strikers but that means one of Cavani and Walcott would have to drop deeper and neither are that sort of player

Wenger is most of the time, as we all know, very vague when it comes to details about players and signings. He was VERY clear though that Walcott had made no demands to play through the middle, and if he had that he would have immediately said no.

I believe Wenger here, and the way we have played in the last couple of games Walcott for all intents and purposes plays as a second striker. We just need a better first striker than Giroud...

Personally i think this was just leaked to keep the fans in high spirit and take the pressure off the club during a tough january fixture list where we could drop alot of points. At the end of the window Wenger will announce that we tried but no one was willing to sell their best players in the middle of the season.

fool me once shame on me, but fuck it i can't help get excited every time we're linked to a class player.

exactly the type of signing we need to make. would give us a huge boost, both on and off the pitch.

although i'm not a huge fan of cavani (think he's slightly overrated), he is a monster of a player. technically not the best, but the intensity is unparallelled. he'll chase everything, he'll score a ton of goals and he'll absolutely tear defenders apart.

Wengers chance to prove himself, this would put us on the map again, so to speak

This really isn't happening.

Joking aside, I wonder if it's Lewandowski?