Arsenal hope for Cantona copy while avoiding Vardy transfer repeat with unprecedented £70m signing

Arsenal could sign Julian Alvarez in what would be an unprecedented Premier League move. The ‘perennial also-rans’ have been burned by Jamie Vardy before.

Not many transfer stones remain unturned in this era of booking pure profit, teams striking multiple deals together which are specifically referred to as ‘separate’ while being entirely serendipitously mutually beneficial, multi-club ownership commodification and teenage moves being announced years in advance. But Arsenal signing Julian Alvarez would be unprecedented.

Never before in Premier League history has a champion sold a player to the runners-up. The last time it happened in the English top flight coincided with the transition to the breakaway league, when First Division winners Leeds happily handed their closest challengers Manchester United the final piece of their title jigsaw in November 1992.

It took Eric Cantona a matter of months to help deliver a first league championship to Old Trafford in 26 years. With Arsenal’s own such wait ticking into a second decade despite campaigns of consecutive excellence, Alvarez could provide that necessary push over the line.

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Arsenal have been in a similar situation before. The attitude of the elite was transformed by Leicester in 2016; the established order would never be so simultaneously complacent as to allow such insurrection again. Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United all changed managers that summer, appointing paragons of coaching brilliance, each potentially dynastic at least in theory.

Liverpool signed Sadio Mane, Georginio Wijnaldum and Joel Matip, allowing Jurgen Klopp to build on promising foundations. Tottenham bought Vincent Janssen and Georges-Kevin Nkoudou, because Daniel Levy always secretly resented Mauricio Pochettino.

As perhaps the most forgettable runners-up ever, finishing second in that apparent two-horse race between Leicester and Spurs, Arsenal were the best-placed team to reinforce the glass ceiling and reclaim that throne. In came Shkodran Mustafi, Granit Xhaka and Lucas Perez, but the player Arsene Wenger craved most was polishing his new Premier League winner’s medal.

Jamie Vardy has spent most of the subsequent years intermittently explaining why he turned down the Gunners after they met his £20m release clause. For a player who remains at the King Power while approaching his 40s, it could perhaps – and entirely justifiably – be boiled down to a big fish not wishing to leave his relatively smaller pond to swim in shark-infested waters.

“Deep down if you don’t think it is the right move for you, you don’t do it,” Vardy said at the time. “It is as simple as that. You get that much time to think about every single thing down to the tea lady. You think about what might happen, what might not, where you could be, where not. Every time I thought about every little thing, both head and heart were saying, ‘You need to stay’.”

There are parallels between his crossroads then and that of Alvarez now. The immediate futures of both were slightly complicated by participation in international tournaments, with the overriding sense that they had achieved the absolute maximum possible at their clubs.

Vardy would prove that wrong by playing Champions League football and lifting the FA Cup in 2021 but Alvarez has already won almost everything with Manchester City; it seems unlikely he would stick around at the Etihad long enough just to complete his personal set with a Carabao Cup he could secure elsewhere.

Some would even suggest the description of Arsenal as ‘perennial also-rans’ has only been solidified in the eight years since, even if it feels a harsh characterisation of this wonderful team.

Arsenal offered Vardy a permanent seat at the top table but their presentation to Alvarez would focus on regular playing opportunities. Only Phil Foden (54) made more than the Argentinean’s 53 appearances for Manchester City in 2023/24, yet eight players enjoyed more minutes under Pep Guardiola. Mikel Arteta would have to guarantee a more prominent role for the temptation to develop into a consideration.

And then there is the obvious issue of money. Arsenal have already committed to around £70m in transfer fees this summer. Mikel Merino has been lined up too. Even after indulging in some lucrative academy sales it seems unlikely they would double their window spend on a single player. As good as Alvarez is, he does not quite represent that near-assurance of title-winning evolution which such figures essentially demand.

He might not even be a significant improvement on Kai Havertz, if indeed one at all. But then that deal was wrought with similar doubt, scepticism and risk before Arteta’s expensive insistence was vindicated.

It is not difficult to envisage Alvarez having a similar effect on the Arsenal attack, but tough to see the gap between champions and runners-up being bridged by him simply switching between the two. The Gunners found their feet at this level in large part thanks to picking up Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus, but they need more than Manchester City cast-offs to make the next step.

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