Transfer Talk: Julian Brandt to Arsenal?

According to football.london, Arsenal are seriously interested in bringing in a creative midfielder to bolster their attack for the second half of the season. Several names have been mentioned, and one of them is Borussia Dortmund midfielder Julian Brandt. A figure of around 25 million is being thrown around in several media outlets to get this deal done. I think caution must be exercised when reading these reports, since everything seems to be coming out of England, and there have not been any reports coming out of Germany. Borussia Dortmund Sporting Director Michael Zorc has been quoted in several German media outlets saying that there has been no contact with Arsenal Football Club in regards to this rumor.

Brandt arrived in July of 2019 from Bayer Leverkusen for a fee of $27.5 million, which seemed like a steal for the German International. Seen by many fans as the successor to Marco Reus at the club, Brandt had a very good 2019-20 campaign making 42 appearances for Die Schwarzgelben, scoring 7 goals and creating 12 assists. Brandt especially thrived playing a free 8 role when Lucien Favre made the tactical switch to a 3-4-3 formation, which saw him linking the play all over the midfield.

This season has been a different story for Brandt. He has seen his playing time decrease in the new campaign with the likes of Mahmoud Dahoud and Jude Bellingham impressing in deeper roles, while Marco Reus and Giovanni Reyna continue to keep him out of the squad further up the field in attack. Brandt just has not played very well this season and with his status as a German International, rumors will continue to circulate.