Arsenal are considering a bid for Villarreal’s young winger Yeremy Pino, according to the reports confirmed by GOAL.com.
Yeremy Pino has been one of the most exciting young wingers to come out of La Liga. He already has racked up two seasons’ worth of Spanish top football and with Arsenal coming for the youngster to bolster their already impressive attack, it would be definitely another savvy signing if completed by Arsenal’s sporting director Edu.
A BIT OF BACKGROUND ON YEREMY PINO
Born in the Las Palmas, Canary Islands, the youngster joined his local team at age of 12. Yeremy Pino quickly rose through the ranks and this caught the attention of FC Barcelona and Villareal. The Yellow Submarines were victorious in their pursuit and Pino soon made the debut for the club’s reserve side.
After showing continuous progress and training under the watchful eye of former Gunners boss Unai Emery, Pino made his professional debut on 22 October 2020, replacing Francis Coquelin in a 5–3 UEFA Europa League win over Sivasspor. Three days later he even made his La Liga debut and bagged his first professional goal in a UEFA Europa League league stage game against Qarabağ FK. He capped off his impressive season, made 14 starts and scored 5 goals and assisted one, with a UEFA Europa League winners medal when the club defeated English giants Manchester United on penalties.
In the process he also became the youngest Spanish player to start a major European final, aged 18 years and 218 days, breaking the previous record of Iker Casillas in the 2000 UEFA Champions League Final, aged 19 years and 4 days and also became the youngest player to win the competition, eclipsing the record set by Robin van Persie in the 2002 UEFA Cup Final.
WHAT KIND OF PLAYER IS HE?
Pino is not the flashiest of players. He is not Vinicus Jr. who takes the ball and tries to make something on his own. Rather he is a player with lots of agility, trickier and understands the flow of the game pretty easily. Small and shifty, Yeremi Pino is a bit of a con artist. Someone who changes direction with such good control on the ball is rare to find at his age.
He has that bit of Hazard-esque kind of quality where he will lazily take the ball in front of his opposite number and when his opponent loses its balance trying to retrieve the ball, Pino with his pace and trickery moves away quickly from the defender. Even when the opposition feels they cornered him, Yeremy has the ability to get out of this situation pretty easily.
This is a kid that knows how to handle pressure on a big stage as asserted by his coach Nando Martínez at the u-23 level at Villareal, “The more difficult the challenge, the more he is able to show his talent.”
A quick glance at numbers given by FBRef and we see that even the numbers supplement the eye test. Pino is a hard worker on and off the ball but getting involved in the play is not his style of gameplay.
Considering the limited amount of minutes the youngster is getting right now, his attacking numbers look really good. Once he starts regularly we can definitely expect these numbers to shoot up. Competition from the likes of Giovani Lo Celso, Samuel Chukwueze, Moi Gómez and Arnaut Danjuma has seen most of those minutes being split from the left to the right-hand side.
Luis Enrique, the head coach of the Spanish national team, is a big fan of the youngster, handing him his international debut in the game against Italy in the UEFA Nations League semifinal replacing the injured Ferran Torres after 49 minutes in a 2–1 victory.
SHOULD ARSENAL GO FOR HIM?
Short answer would be yes but at what price the Gunners get him will be a point of discussion. The 19-year-old penned a contract extension last season which now has an €80 million (£67m/$83m) release clause but the Spanish side are willing to accept a deal worth around €45m (£38m/$46m) if Arsenal were to table an offer.
Arsenal have moved on from the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and with the club’s record signing still to make a noteworthy impact it is clear that the Gunner will need to add depth to this department. Having said that this is not the area of the utmost need and a defensive midfielder should be a bigger priority. But if Villareal and Arsenal agree to a fair compensation then we can soon expect to hear ‘HERE WE GO!’ for this deal.
