Micah Richards names ‘superstar’ Arsenal should have signed to win CL – not Vinicius Junior | OneFootball

Micah Richards has said that Arsenal will not win the Champions League this season because they did not sign Julian Alvarez in the summer transfer window.

Vinicius Junior and Alvarez were two of the biggest names that Arsenal tried to sign.

Arsenal had held talks with Vinicius Junior’s agents and were ready to go big for the Brazil international winger.

However, Vinicius Junior eventually signed a new contract with Real Madrid and extended his stay at Estadio Bernabeu.

Arsenal also made several attempts to convince Alvarez to move to the Emirates Stadium.

As with Vinicius Junior, the Premier League champions were ready to splash the cash and secure the services of the Atletico Madrid and Argentina international striker.

However, Alvarez always made it clear that he wanted to move to Barcelona in the summer of 2026.

Atletico, though, refused to sell Alvarez to Barcelona, who eventually signed Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus from Arsenal.

Former Manchester City star Micah Richards has said that should Arsenal have signed Alvarez, then they would have won the Champions League this season.

Arsenal made Julian Alvarez transfer mistake

Richards said on The Rest Is Football: “There’s been a talk about should Arsenal have signed more players or not.

“Obviously, they went for Vini Junior.

“It didn’t happen.

“I think for them to be the real force in the Premier League and in Europe, I think Alvarez would have been perfect.

“Yes, there’s reports that he only wanted to go to Barcelona, but if you look at the way he plays for Argentina, in terms of the way he works for the team.

“And when Arsenal break, Havertz is fantastic, but there are times when if he was a little bit faster or just a different option, this is not replace Havertz, this is Gyokeres has not quite worked out.

“Yes, he won the Premier League, but when you play against the top teams, I still feel, though, if you look across Europe, with Lamine the dream, even the way Barcelona want to play with Gordon, with pace, and then you have got the likes of Pedri behind them.

“And then you look at PSG when they have got Kvaratskhelia on one side and the way they play with their full-backs, Nuno Mendes and Hakimi, and then you have got Joao Neves and Vitinha,

“The way they, well, obviously, they won it twice in a row, they are a top team.

“I just feel at times for Arsenal to take their game to the next level, if they would have bought that superstar striker, I think they would have been almost complete.”