According to TuttoJuve, Arsenal could sign Turkish midfielder Orkun Kokcu this summer for £12 million. The Gunners have long been admirers of the Juventus target.
Former Eredivisie favorite Ali Boussaboun predicted that Kokcu could blossom into a ‘50 or 60 million’ footballer if he followed the path of Robin van Persie from Rotterdam to North London.
Whatever he’ll cost in the future, the Turkey international is available for a fraction of that fee right now. According to reports in Italy, Juventus have scouted Kokcu and recently held talks with the 21-year-old’s father.
And it is understood that Feyenoord would be tempted to cash in on their academy graduate for as little as £12 million. That, eagle-eyed Arsenal supporters will realise, is 50 per cent less than the fee The Gunners were willing to part with two years ago, when Kokcu was in negotiations over a summer move to the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal held talks with the teenage Kokcu in March 2020. According to The Mail, the deal would have set the three-time Premier League champions back £23 million – claims later corroborated by veteran Feyenoord coach Dick Advocaat.
“It seems that what I read is true,” said the former Sunderland and Rangers boss.
The New Luka Modric?
So why has Kokcu’s value diminished so drastically? Well, it’s certainly not down to his form. The former Dutch U21 star is playing the best football of his career this season, taking his game to an all-new level under Advocaat’s forward-thinking successor Arne Slot.
In 44 games, he has eight assists and nine goals – some of them truly spectacular shots from long range. Maybe the explanation for Kokcu’s reduced price-tag is a little more straightforward. Perhaps, in a post-COVID world, the fees demanded for even the Eredivisie’s brightest young talents have simply declined.
The bargain fees paid by Atalanta, Shakhtar Donetsk and Monaco for Teun Koopmeiners, David Neres and Myron Boadu certainly seem to back up that particular theory.
“He won’t cost much, he has a low salary and, for me, he is the right player for Juventus,” says Momo Sissoko, who spent three years in Turin after joining from Liverpool.
“He is ready for the leap to a great club like Juventus. After all, players from the Eredivisie are having a big impact in Italy (see Denzel Dumfries, Matthijs de Ligt, Hans Hateboer).”
Sissoko even goes as far as to compare Kokcu to one of the 21st century’s greatest playmakers; The masterful Luka Modric.
“For me, (Kokcu) has the same quality of play,” Sissoko adds. “He has the potential to reach (Modric’s) level.”
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