There was a time when every club on the planet would have jumped at the chance to sign Kylian Mbappe if they had the opportunity.
For Arsenal fans in particular, there has always been a mystique around the Frenchman, which has led some of the extremely optimistic sections of the fanbase to think ‘What if we signed him?’ Perhaps it’s the fact Mbappe is still the closest thing the world has produced to a Thierry Henry regen since the King of Highbury hung up his boots in 2014.
The two Frenchmen bear a number of similarities, including being born in Paris’ suburbs, lightning pace, trickery with the ball, winning the World Cup early in their careers, and carrying an unmistakable aura on the pitch.
Mbappe grew up in Bondy idolising the Arsenal hero, having admitted to watching “everything Henry did.” What was even more fascinating to Gunners supporters everywhere was the viral photo of a young Mbappe wearing Arsenal’s 2003/04 yellow jersey, with Henry’s name and No.14 on the back.
He was closer than many realise to becoming an Arsenal player too in the summer of 2016. Then-manager Arsene Wenger famously visited his home in France while he was still at Monaco in an attempt to convince him to move to N5 off the back of a 26-goal breakout season.
But the teenage prodigy stayed at Monaco for another term and ended up signing for PSG the following summer, initially on loan, before sealing a £165million permanent transfer. The Gunners simply couldn’t match PSG’s financial package when they returned with a bid in 2017.
For years, they would rue Wenger’s failed attempt to sign another of Clairfontaine’s most coveted talents, watching from afar as he broke record after record for the Parisians and Arsenal dropped out of the Champions League. Yet, the Mbappe illusion has finally been shattered in the past year and a half – and few around the Emirates Stadium would genuinely want Mikel Arteta to sign him today to play ahead of Viktor Gyokeres.
For years, Mbappe-led PSG were unable to win their first Champions League title. Last season, in their first campaign without the Frenchman, Luis Enrique’s side played a far more team-oriented game and lifted the trophy.
Mbappe, meanwhile, broke the record for the most goals scored by a player in their first season at his dream club, Real Madrid, but ultimately won none of the biggest team prizes. That only served to amplify the belief that the France captain only played for himself and made his team worse overall.
That narrative has increased tenfold over the past month, with Madrid’s second season without a trophy leading to a toxic circus around the club and dressing room infighting. Mbappe is one aspect of that, having come under fire for suffering an injury at a pivotal point in the campaign and heading to Italy to spend time with his model girlfriend while his team-mates faltered on the pitch.
That culminated in an online ‘Mbappe out’ petition reaching over 70million signatures, though the authenticity of the signatures cannot be verified. Mbappe was jeered by his own supporters when he made his return from injury against Real Oviedo on Thursday and became embroiled in a public row with Los Blancos manager Alvaro Arbeola, having claimed the Spaniard told him he was the fourth-choice striker at the club.
The relevance to Arsenal is that the north Londoners have finally reached a point where they can look at Mbappe’s situation at Real Madrid and see the entire fiasco as a bullet dodged. That’s down to the fact they now actually have a striker in Gyokeres who can score goals and play for the badge.
Arteta has reached this year’s Champions League final and led the Premier League for most of the season off the back of several non-negotiables, which ultimately come down to no player being bigger than the team. The French superstar, while clearly a better individual player than Gyokeres, would have brought everything Arteta has built crumbling down thanks to his ego.
Arteta can actually rely on £64m summer signing Gyokeres, who carries all of his own core values into every minute of every game, putting himself on the line with every duel and loose ball chased. That same mindset has seen the Swede enjoy a remarkable transformation in recent weeks, one which has seen him register five goal involvements in his last six Premier League matches.
Gyokeres was slated and even ridiculed for long periods of the season but he never threw a strop or vented his frustration to the media. For all his faults, his attitude and work ethic have clearly paid off as he now fluidly links up with team-mates and scores vital goals to edge the Gunners towards a potentially historic double.
