Ousmane Diomande the Right CB for the Gunners?

Welcome back to Rating the Rumour, which does exactly what it says on the tin. We’ll be taking the biggest transfer rumours related to Premier League teams and rating the likelihood of the moves coming to fruition.

The final rating will be decided based on the potential fit of the player into the rumoured buying club, the need for that club to sign a player for the position played, whether the player is of the level required by the club, whether the club could afford the rumoured price and whether or not the player is even likely to be available for transfer.

We will not factor in the reliability of the rumour, as it would likely cause mass amounts of crying from outlets, journalists and “journalists” who would have to be denounced as spoofers.

With the ground rules laid out, let’s look at Ousmane Diomande to Arsenal which has been reported by Record in Portugal.

Fit

Diomande is an excellent young defender with outstanding physicality and is a very comfortable ball player. He definitely ticks the boxes that Mikel Arteta looks for in his defenders.

Diomande would be an ideal fit on the right of Arsenal’s two-man central defensive pairing.

Fit Rating – 2/2

Need

The issue here is that Arsenal don’t need a starting right-sided centre-back, because they have William Saliba. They do need a back-up, but Ousmane Diomande is far too good and would be far too expensive for such a role.

They could potentially be looking at an upgrade in the left-sided centre-back role so buying Diomande and shifting Saliba to the left-sided role he played at Nice could potentially be an option but it seems unlikely for one simple reason.

Mikel Arteta wants his left-sided central defender to be left-footed. He has been clear on that since the day he took over at Arsenal. If Arsenal are going to upgrade on Gabriel, then a left footer will be the desire.

Need Rating – 1/2

Level

Ousmane Diomande is one of the best young defenders anywhere in world football and despite being only 20 years of age he gives the impression of being ready to play for any team in world football. His development in the past 12 months has been enormous, thanks to the outstanding coaching of Ruben Amorim.

There’s little doubt that Diomande has all the tools to be a major success in the Premier League.

Level Rating – 2/2

Affordability

Diomande has a buyout clause that sits in the £70mil range and that is why we can rule this deal out for Arsenal, if the right footedness of the player hadn’t already made it a non-starter.

Arsenal do not have the financial capability to do anything in this transfer window. After splashing well over £600mil in the last 42 months, they are up against the wall for FFP and P&S so they are handcuffed. There isn’t any way to make this deal work as the buyout would need to be paid in full, and there’s no possibility that Sporting would agree to any sort of loan with an obligation to buy without pushing the price north of £100mil which would be a huge overpay.

Affordability Rating – 0/2

For Sale?

Diomande is not for sale, but he does have the buy-out clause so he is technically available to any club willing to spend big.

Availability Rating – 1/2

Final Rating

Overall this rumour rates out as a 6/10 but when logic is applied it becomes clear that there’s no possibility of this deal coming to fruition in this January transfer window.