If it's true, you might have been saved from having badly invested a lot of transfer fees and wages.
Is a hit or miss, £80m winger what Arsenal need right now? He's not a EL signing and given your wage issues, he doesn't fit your current pressing requirements of sorting out your defence.
If you're seriously going to try to sign him this summer, your management want slapping.
You could be right, Brian, it would certainly be an expensive risk - and as we have shown the last few years, most of the big-money investments we've made have backfired on us drastically.
I think (one of) the issue(s) we've got is a lack of width in our team. We have no wingers that can take players on or really stretch defences/create space for others.
Most of our attacking players last season wanted ball to feet, rather than making intelligent, darting runs in behind. It became too easy and predictable to defend against, despite how many goals we scored overall.
You look at our wide options right now and you'd have to say, a winger of some sort is a necessity:
Iwobi - 23 years old, homegrown academy player on low wages. Looked like he turned a corner at the start of last season, then reverted to type. Lost confidence. Can't handle pressure. Good dribbler and strong on the ball, but his end product is sorely, sorely lacking. Not reliable.
Mkhitaryan - 30 year old winger, who can carry the ball forward well and has decent acceleration, but is weak, doesn't score/assist enough and loses the ball a lot. Not reliable.
Kolasinac - has a lot of power and is strong, but is too one-dimensional. Doesn't offer a lot. No subtly or variety to his game. Can't cross for toffee. Gets into good positions and frequently lets us down with final ball. Not reliable.
Maitland-Niles - central midfielder by trade, yet forced to play as a wing-back because we had so few other options. Felt sorry for the kid to be thrown in the deep end so often. Not reliable.
Reiss-Nelson - probably the only real attacking/wide talent we have that can take players on, get in behind, create chances and scores goals. He's not played for us for over a year though. Is it fair to pin our hopes on a 19-year old with very few Premier League minutes?
Willock - prefers playing in attacking midfield, but can play on the flanks. Not his natural position though. Only 19. Not had much first-team exposure bar EL and domestic cup action.
So out of that bunch, two of whom aren't even actual wingers but have played wing-backs & one of whom is a CAM, we have one decent winger.
It would be criminal to neglect such a crucial position this transfer window.