Arsenal urged to avoid £60m signing ‘madness’ amid worrying Man Utd comparison | OneFootball

Arsenal have been warned a potential £60million move for Lille starlet Ayyoub Bouaddi could be a mistake, with a pundit noting similarities with a failed Manchester United signing.

Bouaddi is arguably Lille’s most exciting young player, as he is only 18 but is almost a guaranteed starter in central midfield. Bouaddi rejected the opportunity to play for the French national team, and he is currently building on his reputation with Morocco at the World Cup instead.

The teenager has started both of Morocco’s group games, helping them draw 1-1 with Brazil before beating Scotland 1-0.

Arsenal are battling Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid to sign Bouaddi, who was given a £60m valuation by Lille before the World Cup began.

Indeed, it was suggested on Friday that Bouaddi could join Arsenal in a stunning triple deal.

However, former Man Utd right-back is worried about Bouaddi’s development, should he join Mikel Arteta’s side.

Parker thinks such a move could see Bouaddi follow in the footsteps of Old Trafford flop Sofyan Amrabat, even though the youngster has a much higher ceiling.

In an interview with Betarades, the pundit said: “At the moment Arsenal are interested in everybody because they’ve won the league and the players they are interested in, you’re kind of going, ‘Well that doesn’t make sense because you’d have to take too much away from them for them to be Arsenal players.’

“In other words, they express themselves, that’s not an Arsenal player.

“So, you’d look at that young boy Bouaddi, and you’d worry about his career if he was to go to Arsenal.

“If people were looking at him before, fair play. He’s been kept very quiet, he’s come from nowhere as far as I’m concerned.

“He’s been stuck somewhere in France and hasn’t been outstanding, so you’ve got to be careful because fans will be saying the same thing. There are players who pop up in World Cups or Euros or African Nations and they look like world beaters.

“Amrabat was another one who popped up in the World Cup in Qatar when Morocco reached the semi-finals, and all of a sudden everyone’s going, ‘Wow, where’s he been?’ This and that.

“Manchester United sign him and he was ok but he wasn’t the same as what was written on the can.

World Cup signings can be ‘madness’ – Parker

“So you don’t want to get caught up in that kind of World Cup madness because of one performance. Now everyone’s going to be looking at him. I’m sure he knows it.

“He’s going to have to deliver again and show consistency, and you don’t always get that with young players now.

“If he can produce anywhere near that performance [vs Brazil], then obviously there’s a lad there who’s cool, calm and collected, so that’d be very, very interesting.”

Meanwhile, we can reveal an £80m star has been ‘impressed’ by Andrea Berta’s transfer pitch for Arsenal.