Eli Junior Kroupi wants to play for “the biggest clubs in the world”, and he said so in the same week he returned from a broken foot and set up a goal against Leeds United. Arsenal have not stopped thinking about him. The awkward bit is the calendar.
Reports suggest the Gunners are set to look at the 20-year-old again when the transfer window opens on 1 January. Bournemouth have a very different plan: they have no intention of letting him go midway through the season, and next summer looks far more realistic.
So this isn’t a story about a done deal, or even a close one. It’s about a player who has just made his ambitions public, a club in no hurry to sell, and an Arsenal attack that could use him sooner than anyone can realistically get him.
What did he actually say about his future?
Kroupi was talking to DAZN France about how the Premier League went from a childhood wish to a plan: “When I was little, I wanted to play in the Premier League, it was my dream. The more I grew up, the more it became a goal.”
Then came the line that travelled: “I’m going to give everything to play for the biggest clubs in the world, in the biggest leagues in the world. And in any case, here at Bournemouth, I’m going to give everything for the supporters and to help the team perform.”
The more revealing moment came when he was asked straight out if he would have stayed at Bournemouth this summer without the injury. “I can’t tell you, but in any case I’m at Bournemouth now, I’m giving everything for Bournemouth,” he said. Asked if the injury had changed his thinking, he insisted he had been focused on the club “from A to Z”.
That isn’t a transfer request, and nobody should read it as one. But it is a young forward getting a simple question about staying and not answering yes. Gooners can take some encouragement from that, as can everyone else on the list.
Eli Junior Kroupi’s return: three games in a week
The Frenchman fractured a metatarsal in pre-season and needed surgery, with the first estimate being around four months out. That ended any chance of a move in the summer window. It was his first big injury, and he gave an interesting explanation for it: “I think it was a bit of a fatigue injury,” he said, adding that one wrong movement was enough for the foot to break.
He made his first appearance of the season as a substitute in the 3-0 win at Manchester United on 25 October, then came on in the 80th minute of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup win over Aston Villa. On Saturday he came off the bench again against Leeds at the Vitality Stadium, with Bournemouth a goal up and the game still alive deep into stoppage time.
What he did next was the best thing about it. Kroupi could have gone for goal himself. Instead he weighted a pass through for Amine Adli, who finished past James Trafford to seal a 2-0 win. Last season this was the player who scored a 93rd-minute equaliser at Elland Road, so the instinct to shoot is clearly there. Choosing the better option, three games into a comeback, is what catches the eye.
Nobody at Bournemouth is getting carried away, though. “I’m really happy to have him back, to have his quality,” Marco Rose said before the Leeds game, but “he knows that he has to be patient in this situation to not get in a difficult situation with another injury. We need to get him fit, in a good spot with more and more match time in between good sessions of training.”
Why would Bournemouth sell in January?
Put simply, they have no reason to. The Cherries are seventh in the Premier League with 12 points from nine games, they have won six in a row in all competitions without conceding, and they have a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Liverpool to look forward to.
Selling your brightest young forward in the middle of that run makes no sense, especially in a season with European football to play. Rose was pretty clear in September, when he was asked about keeping Kroupi and another key player beyond the summer window: “They know they’re Bournemouth players for the next 12 months and I’m grateful to the club for that.” They paid Lorient just £10m for him, so they aren’t under any pressure to cash in either.
Then there’s the price. Kroupi’s value has been put at around €100m, about £83.5m. Bournemouth were reported to be demanding more than £80m in the summer and to be planning on something similar for January. Before the injury, Arsenal were said to be ahead of Spurs because they were willing to pay more. At that level, January would mean paying a full summer fee for a player whose own manager is still talking about patience.
Who else wants him?
Arsenal have been seen as the frontrunners, but they are not alone. Tottenham were keen before the injury, and Barcelona haven’t gone away.
Barcelona looked at Kroupi this summer as an alternative to Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez, and ended up with neither. As with Arsenal, next summer looks a more realistic moment for them than January.
Why Arsenal keep coming back to him
It’s easy to see the appeal from N5. The club went through a summer shortlist of more than 20 names and finished the window with Christos Tzolis as the only new forward, while Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus all left. Bukayo Saka’s quad injury has since thinned things out further, and Tuesday’s Carabao Cup exit on penalties at League Two Fleetwood Town, after a 1-1 draw, only got people talking about the attack again.
Kroupi’s numbers explain the rest. He scored 13 Premier League goals in 33 games in his first season in England, as a teenager. Arsenal saw it first-hand on 11 April, when he opened the scoring from close range in Bournemouth’s 2-1 win at the Emirates.
He isn’t the only forward they have looked at either. They have also asked about Monza striker Gustavo Varela, who cost around €2m in the summer. That’s a long way from €100m, and a reminder that Arsenal’s January options and their summer ones could look very different.
Verdict: Eli Junior Kroupi to Arsenal is a summer deal
January would be the wrong time for everyone. Bournemouth don’t want to sell, Kroupi needs minutes rather than a new dressing room, and Arsenal would be paying top money for a player who has only just got back on the pitch after surgery.
Next summer is different. If he stays fit and gets back towards last season’s level, he’ll have shown the foot is fine, and those words about the biggest clubs will mean a lot more. The risk for Arsenal is obvious: the better his season goes, the higher that €100m climbs and the louder Barcelona get. Waiting is the sensible call, but it won’t be the cheap one.
