Real Madrid playmaker Martin Odegaard has all but confirmed that he will not be returning to Arsenal this summer following a successful six-month loan spell.
The Norway captain may have only notched up two goals and two assists across all competitions, but he truly had the look of a creator-in-chief that Arsenal have been missing since Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla's powers started to wane.
Mikel Arteta is expected to pursue other targets for the number 10 role now that his pursuit of Odegaard has proved unfruitful, and another one of their top targets - Emiliano Buendia - has instead elected to move to Aston Villa.
With that in mind, Sports Mole looks at three possible alternatives to Odegaard for Arsenal.
Julian Brandt
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Borussia Dortmund midfielder Julian Brandt's talent is evident, but he has not had all the opportunities he would have liked to showcase it in the Black and Yellow. After ending the 2018-19 Bundesliga season with 21 goal contributions to his name at Bayer Leverkusen, Dortmund shelled out £22.5m to land the German.
Brandt made an immediate impression with a goal on his Bundesliga debut for Dortmund and set up eight goals throughout the 2019-20 season, all the while he was earning praise for his accurate throughballs and ability to weave in and out of tight spaces.
However, the season just gone was a much more frustrating affair for the 25-year-old, who featured from the first whistle just 17 times in the league and amassed a mere two goals and three assists in that time, leading to suggestions that his days at the Westfalenstadion are numbered.
Brandt still has just under three years left to run on his deal with BVB, but his recent struggles mean that Dortmund are supposedly happy to sanction a sale for just over £20m, which would represent an ideal figure for an athlete who still has years of playmaking ahead of him.
Marcel Sabitzer
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RB Leipzig's Marcel Sabitzer already has a good standing among Arsenal supporters following his impact against Tottenham Hotspur in the 2019-20 Champions League, as the Austrian netted two of his side's three goals in a last-16 second leg victory over the North Londoners.
Sabitzer's stellar performance against the Lilywhites is believed to have ignited an interest from the team then managed by Jose Mourinho, but with the midfielder now in the final year of his Leipzig contract, Arsenal could take advantage of the situation.
Capable of playing in a deeper midfield role as well as in the number 10 position, Sabitzer has never been afraid to have a crack from distance, and he is pretty good at it too. The 27-year-old ended the 2020-21 Bundesliga season with eight goals and four assists from 27 games and is also a competent penalty taker.
Given his contract situation, Arsenal will certainly not be the only side hoping to pressure Leipzig into a sale this summer, but landing a player of Sabitzer's calibre for a cut-price fee - while preparing for a season without European football - would be a statement of intent from Edu and Co.
Emile Smith Rowe
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A graduate of Arsenal's Hale End academy, Emile Smith Rowe surely learned a lot from playing alongside another youthful creator in Odegaard, and the inclusion of the former RB Leipzig loanee was a key factor in turning Arsenal's 2020-21 season around.
However, Smith Rowe would often be shifted out to the left in order to accommodate Odegaard's number 10 role last term. The 20-year-old was certainly not ineffective in that role, but such a move prevented Gabriel Martinelli from earning more starts, and it also became impossible for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette to feature from the off together.
One cannot knock Aston Villa's ambition for trying and trying again to prise Smith Rowe away from North London - which serves as a true indication of his quality - but the Gunners have supposedly already reached a verbal agreement over a new deal for the midfielder.
Enjoying brilliant chemistry with fellow starlet Bukayo Saka and the returning Joe Willock - who could easily have been another candidate for this list - Smith Rowe will undoubtedly spend these pre-season weeks trying to prove to Arteta that he can follow in the footsteps of Cazorla and Ozil if given the right opportunities.
Then again, Arteta will be wary of overworking the tricky and confident youngster, and a bit of healthy competition should not do him any harm whatsoever. It would hardly be a surprise to see Smith Rowe act as Arsenal's first-choice playmaker in the years to come, but do not be surprised to see Edu dip into his war chest to solve his side's creative crisis.
Ben Knapton
