"They’ve invested somewhere else" - Rio Ferdinand questions Arsenal's transfer decision to ignore main issue and spend on substitute

Former player Rio Ferdinand has questioned Arsenal's decision to spend £42 million on Riccardo Calafiori. The Manchester United legend believes the money could have been spent on a striker as they needed someone to score the goals.

Speaking on his YouTube channel 'Rio Ferdinand Presents,' the 46-year-old claimed that Calafiori did not start for the Gunners but they still signed him in the summer. He believes the side is in dire need of a striker as they need goals and said:

"What are [Arsenal] going to do in this [January transfer] window? Everyone is talking about a striker. In the summer, they went and bought Riccardo Calafiori. £42m they spent on him and he doesn't even start. If you're going to spend that much, he should be going straight into the Arsenal team. Especially when there's a big shout that they need a centre-forward and they've invested somewhere else."

Riccardo Calafiori has missed over 10 matches for Arsenal this season due to injuries. He was out with a knee issue earlier this season and has just returned this month from a Muscle injury after missing three matches.

Arsenal urged to splash the cash on Alexander Isak by former player

Alan Smith was in conversation with AceOdds earlier this week and claimed that Arsenal needed to go all out to sign Alexander Isak. He believes that the move would make the Gunners Premier League title contenders again and said (via Metro):

"Alexander Isak would [still] probably be the number one target because he's succeeded in the Premier League. There wouldn't be any settling down period where you're getting used to the league. You look at the goals scored last season by Arsenal. It wasn't deficient, it was only a few behind Man City, the title winners, without a centre forward."

He believes that they can fund the move by selling 'fringe players' like Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus and said:

"Some of the fringe players [should be sold]. Gabriel Jesus got injured again after that spell of scoring goals. He'll know better than me but we probably need to sell in order to free up money to buy and Arteta's got to decide who he could get out of the door to get more money. Zinchenko, doesn't get a game these days. The two lads from Man City. When Man City are allowing title rivals to have a couple of players you wonder why they are allowing that. We've probably seen the reason over the last two years."

The Gunners are 2nd in the Premier League table this season – six points behind Liverpool, who have a game in hand. They are in the market for a striker and are interested in Isak as per reports.