As always, whether it be under Arsène Wenger, Unai Emery or even Mikel Arteta, the scouting net at Arsenal is thrust wide across the world, with Eastern Europe being no different.
Romania has always been known as a country capable of producing good footballing talent, as the likes of Gheorghe Hagi, his son Ianis or even Catalin Cirjan, currently in the Gunners’ youth teams, all originate from the country, and there’s another one on the Premier League club’s radar.
That man is reportedly Ianis Stoica, a young forward, who currently plays for FCSB, and there have been reports swirling around that the Premier League club have been monitoring him for some time.
These reports eventually reached Romania, where the club’s outspoken owner, Gigi Becali, decided to weigh in on the situation, but this is where it gets a bit tricky.
We say this because one of the quotes circling around in the English media is that Gigi Becali said: “It is good that Arsenal are monitoring Ianis, but there is no point as he is not for sale.”
Heading over to Romania, we found out that Becali didn’t actually say that, and while there are two versions of his quotes floating around on Romanian websites, his stance is rather clear in both.
For example, the version from ProSport claims he says: “I don’t know, but there’s no point in Arsenal monitoring him. It’s good like this…”
Meanwhile, over at Digisport, their quote is: “I don’t know if he’s being monitored by Arsenal, but it’s good.”
Either way, it’s very clear that if there’s one thing Becali knows about Arsenal monitoring Stoica, it’s that he doesn’t know if they are.
One point that all versions of the quote do however agree on is that the youngster isn’t currently available because ‘Ianis is not for sale’ right now, but that he could be ‘maybe in a year or two’.
That means Arsenal might have to wait to get the player if they are monitoring him, but Becali never confirmed they are.
