Martin Odegaard enjoyed a tremendous start to his six-month loan spell at Arsenal, quickly establishing himself as an integral part of manager Mikel Arteta's plans.
The Norwegian national team captain even bagged himself a goal in the North London Derby, a sure-fire way to cement your place in the hearts of Arsenal fans everywhere.
His finest hour in a Gunners shirt arguably came away at West Ham, where the attacking midfielder was at the heart of everything positive as Arsenal managed to claw their way back from 3-0 down to salvage a point at the London Stadium.
However, his consistently positive showings may prove to be bittersweet for the Emirates faithful, as with each fantastic performance his price tag will inevitably increase from parent club Real Madrid.
This, in turn, has led to reports suggesting the Gunners may be forced to look elsewhere to permanently bolster their attacking options from midfield.
One name that has been regularly linked with a move to north London is Borussia Dortmund midfielder Julian Brandt, who has struggled to establish a regular place in the starting XI for the German giants.
According to Bild journalist Christian Falk, Brandt has been identified as an ideal cut-price alternative to Odegaard, who will come with a far heftier price tag than Brandt.
Falk claims that Borussia Dortmund would not expect much return for the midfielder they acquired from Bayer Leverkusen for a price of €25million after activating his release clause in 2019. The relatively modest figure of £21m is all that it could take to lure Brandt to the Emirates for next season.
Brandt's stats in terms of goal contributions hardly make for fantastic reading, however, having featured 28 times in the Bundesliga this term, he boasts just two goals and two assists and has only started 16 of those matches.
Remarkably, that would still make Brandt the most lethal of all Arsenal's current midfield players.
The midfield area has arguably been Arsenal's biggest issue this campaign, defensively frail while also proving to be somewhat impotent in attack. Loanee Odegaard has one Premier League goal, and that alone makes him the joint-highest goalscoring midfielder Arsenal have this season, alongside Granit Xhaka's solitary strike against Chelsea on Boxing Day.
Thomas Partey, Mohamed Elneny and Dani Ceballos are all yet to register a league goal so far this season.
