Forget Moise Kean - Arsenal and Spurs can land a striker twice as good who won't cost a penny

Premier League heavyweights Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur are understood to be weighing up a blockbuster move to bring Italian international Moise Kean back to English football. The 24-year-old is enjoying something of a career renaissance in Serie A and boasts an incredible record of 19 goals and two assists in 29 appearances since signing for Fiorentina in the summer.

He is currently the second highest goalscorer in Italian football with 15 Serie A goals, with only Atalanta forward Mateo Retegui (20) scoring more in the Italian top-flight this season.

Kean arrived in Florence just over six months ago for a reported figure of around £13m and already now commands a fee of more than treble that, according to well-renowned Italian journalist Nicolo Schira, who understands that both Arsenal and Tottenham are considering paying the £42m required to activate his release clause.

The 16-time international registered a goal and an assist against former club Juventus and is already making the Old Lady regret giving up on him for a second time. But does Kean have what it takes to now succeed in the Premier League or should the Gunners and Lillywhites be diverting their attention elsewhere?

Moise Kean’s career so far

Moise Kean rose to prominence in the Juventus academy as a teenager and made his professional debut nine years ago when he was just 16 years old. He made his debut during a 3-0 league victory over Pescara. Upon doing so, he became the club's youngest-ever debutant and the first player born in the 2000s to play in one of Europe's four major leagues.

Two months later, he added to the hype surrounding him by achieving the same feat in the Champions League. That same season, he became the club’s youngest ever goalscorer in a 2-1 victory over Bologna as the team wrapped up the Serie A title race.

Juve decided to send him out on a poorly considered loan to Hellas Verona, where the promising youngster struggled for 12 months before returning to Turin. He then made waves back at the Old Lady by scoring six goals in 13 games, but had limited first team opportunities due to competition from the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Paulo Dybala, Mario Mandzukic.

This prompted then-big-spending Everton, under the guidance of Marco Silva, to splash out a reported £27.5m to bring the youngster to Goodison Park. However, the forward scored just twice in 29 matches and struggled to make any real impact at Premier League level. Kean was also reported to be late to training on two occasions during his sole season on Merseyside and made the headlines when he was dropped mid-season during a clash with Southampton for ‘disciplinary reasons’ in November.

The Italian spent time on loan at PSG and Juventus before returning quietly to Turin in 2023 for a slight loss of £25m. He failed to make the grade in any of his three seasons as a regular and didn’t score a single league goal in 19 appearances during his final campaign.

Who Arsenal and Tottenham should look to sign

While Moise Kean has undoubtedly proven himself in Italy this season, his record in England suggests that at £42m he would be a huge risk for either Arsenal or Chelsea to take - and based on seven of his eight seasons as a professional he wouldn’t be on an upgrade on what either team currently has at their disposal.

Kean is just starting to show signs of living up to his potential, but both teams would require a striker that can instantly hit the ground running and one forward with the potential to do just that is likely to be available on a free this summer.

Jonathan David of Lille, is just a year older than Kean, and is expected to depart the Stade Pierre-Mauroy at the end of the current campaign. He is a player with a proven track record in front of goal, bags of pace, the ability to create chances for his team-mates and has already proven himself at both Champions League and international level.

He boasts a record of 20 goals and nine assists in 39 matches this season and is among the top scorers in both the Champions League and Ligue 1. He has always registered at least double figures in every league season he has played since turning professional in 2018 and is Canada’s all-time leading goalscorer with 31 goals in 59 matches.

David has an overall career record of 141 goals and 42 assists in 301 games at club level which is significantly higher than Kean’s overall record of 66 goals and eight assists in 215 career appearances.

Chelsea with Joao Felix, are a recent example of a team that’s brought a player back to the Premier League for a significant fee only to get the same result after just six months. Kean could easily follow a similar pattern at Arsenal or Tottenham while David has consistently proven he can perform at the highest level.