Arsenal free-agent target highly praised by Cesc Fabregas – Should Arteta listen? | OneFootball

There is a very big contingent of Arsenal fans that have noticed that the Gunners seem to prefer signing players that are free agents or out of contract during the summer, and one of the biggest names on that list at the moment is the Turkey midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu, who has had an illustrious career all over Europe.

It seems clear that he has refused to sign a contract extension with his current club AC Milan as they won’t meet his wage demands, and there will be no more talks until after the Euros. Calhanoglu told football.london before the game against Italy: “I spoke to Paolo Maldini [Milan’s technical director] three days ago, he called me and we spoke about AC Milan,”

“I wish to focus on Turkey…I have great respect for Ricky Massara [Milan’s director of football] and Maldini and if something does come to pass, then I will talk to them.”

By then his contract will have finnally ended, and it is believed that he is keen to return to the Premier League, with both Chelsea and Arsenal being heavily linked in the media. It appears that the Arsenal legend Cesc Fabregas thinks very highly of Calhanoglu as talking on the BBC ahead of the Italy game, (transcribed by football.london) the Spaniard said: “He’s very talented. What I like about him is he takes risks, he plays forward, he’s not scared to create things when people don’t see them.

“He follows the game, he understands it. In football nowadays, you need a little bit of that because it’s become a little bit robotic.

“He comes into half spaces, he’s not afraid to shoot, another thing in football I think we’re losing a little bit from outside the box. He’s got a fantastic delivery in him.”

Calhanoglu is a vastly different proposition to the signing of free-agent Willian last summer, as the Turk is still only 27 years-old, so could even be considered in his prime.

The report says that Calhanoglu is looking for a wage of 4.5m a year, so a 4 year contract would only cost us 18million without any transfer fee.

Do you think Arteta should listen to Fabregas and go all out to sign Calhanoglu?