Scouting Report: Could Kim Kallstrom Favour Help Arsenal Sign Majeed Waris?

Perhaps Arsenal signed Kim Kallstrom on loan from Spartak Moscow as an act of goodwill should the Gunners want to pursue Spartak's Majeed Waris, on loan at Valenciennes, in the summer transfer window. 

Kallstrom Deal Stranger Than Fiction

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger signing an injured Kallstrom as a temporary backup player makes no sense, so you have to assume there is an ulterior motive. 

Wenger has re-established a dialogue with Spartak by taking on Kallstrom.

Spartak desperately do not want Kallstrom at the club and are paying his salary in full "for the first six weeks" of his loan stint at Arsenal, per Dominic Fifield at the Guardian. 

"Re-established?" Has Wenger done business before with Spartak? Yep. 

He offloaded then 19-year-old prospect Quincy Owusu-Abeyie to Spartak in 2006. 

Why didn't Arsenal target Waris in the January transfer window?

By Jan. 4, he was already announced as a Valenciennes player, and his aim was to make Ghana's 2014 FIFA World Cup squad. 

"I want to play in my first World Cup with Ghana," Waris said, per Oluwashina Okeleji at BBC Sport. "To achieve that I know I have to keep playing and competing like others."

The key phrase being: "I know I have to keep playing," since Waris was more likely to start week in, week out for a struggling Valenciennes team (18th in Ligue 1) than Premier League contending Arsenal.

When Wenger made the unusual decision to sign Kallstrom, it could be possible that Waris factored into the equation. 

The presence of Yura Movsisyan at Spartak, who has scored 12 league goals, and former Borussia Dortmund centre-forward Lucas Barrios means Waris' future at the Russian club is unclear. 

Waris' time with Spartak was always going to be complicated.

• He does not speak fluent Russian.
• Unai Emery, who "moved to sign" Waris from Hacken, per UEFA.com, was sacked a few weeks after the deal was concluded. 
• Last season, Waris' campaign was ruined by a knee injury, per Spartak's official website (h/t en.rsport.ru).

Great Talent 

Waris had one shot on target this season for Spartak Moscow, and he scored from that shot in a 1-0 win over Rostov.

The defining attribute of Waris' season on loan at Valenciennes so far is his finishing.

His shooting accuracy percentage (70), per Squawka, is world class, and you can see why he has been so effective when you watch his emphatic first-time side-foot volley in a 2-2 draw against Sochaux.

Source: Ligue1.com

He can get past players as shown in a 2-1 win over Nice.

He sidestepped centre-back Mathieu Bodmer and laced a shot past goalkeeper David Ospina just before central midfielder Fabrice Abriel's last-ditched tackle.

Source: Ligue1.com

Waris can play out wide having spent portions of the game as an inverted left winger against Sochaux.

On the right wing against Nice, he delivered an accurate cross for teammate Tongo Doumbia, on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers, to head home.

Source: Ligue1.com

Are Arsenal Targeting A Forward?

Yes.  

In an exclusive to Bleacher Report, Spanish football expert Guillem Balague revealed that Real Madrid's 21-year-old backup centre-forward Alvaro Morata has agreed to join the Gunners in the summer transfer window. 

But, Balague also said, "There's still some way to go before he [Morata] dons an Arsenal shirt."

Should the proposed Morata-to-Arsenal move collapse, maybe Waris could become a realistic possibility—given that Wenger will be talking to Spartak anyway regarding Kallstrom. 

In the hypothetical situation of Waris moving to Arsenal, there would be no language barrier because Ghana's official language is English.

Acclimatisation will not be a problem because he spent a period of time in England's schooling system and scored 36 goals in 21 games for Hartpury College, per Hartpury.ac.uk. 

He was not a prodigious talent like Nii Lamptey or a FIFA U-20 World Cup hero like Dominic Adiyiah.

Waris is only 22 years of age, but his footballing experiences are akin to a journeyman. 

He had attended the Right to Dream, he had an invaluable experience at Hartpury, he was a member of the Nike Academy and he used Swedish team Hacken as a stepping-stone into professional football—all before making a financially life-changing decision to join Russian club Spartak. 

Now he is a Ligue 1 revelation for Valenciennes, a club contemplating about life in Ligue 2.

Waris' superlative technique, his explosiveness and natural goalscoring (once scored five goals in Hacken's 6-0 win over Norrkoping) are tangible characteristics.

Yet he should have been another kid whose school friends would ask at a house party: "Wonder what ever happened to Waris? He was good enough to make it in the pros."

What do his goals against Rostov, Nice and Sochaux have in common? They all occurred in the last five minutes of the game. 

It is Waris' fighting attitude that stands out.

You cannot put a value on intangibles, and no wonder he is setting himself the bold goal of scoring 11 Ligue 1 goals, per Ghanasoccernet (h/t Kent Mensah at Goal.com). 

To put things into perspective for you:

• Only five players in Ligue 1 have scored 11 goals or more after 26 games. 
• Valenciennes are in the relegation zone with 22 points from 26 games.
• No player at Valenciennes has five league assists or more thus far. 
• Waris, the No. 9, is the club's second-best creator, averaging 1.3 key passes per game (a pass that leads to a shot). 

If Waris wills Valenciennes to Ligue 1 safety, Wenger should try and sign the Ghanaian international from Spartak when Arsenal give the Russian club a debriefing on Kallstrom's loan spell with the Gunners.

@allanjianga

+allanjiang

Statistics via WhoScored