Prefer Benatia tbh.

Ray wrote:

Prefer Benatia tbh.

we should sign both, sell mustafi, and loan out mavrarodffopapanos. use chambers/holding as the backup pair.

i think id actually be moderately excited about a sokratis/benatia CB pairing. two strong, physical, experienced centerbacks. and relatively speaking, both are also pretty quick.

sokratis for £10m, benatia for £25m, sell mustafi to...inter? for £20m. net spend of £15m and our CB situation is sorted out for the foreseeable future. then buy oblak or some other top shelf keeper.

Agreed a Benatia/Sokratis partnership to start the season would fill me with a lot of confidence. If that sees us through the next couple of years then we'd only need one of Mavro/Chambers/Holding to come good to fill in when one of them fades away and sign the flavour of the month to replace the other.

Our scouting has been so poor for CB's Gabriel, Chambers, Mustafi.

Ray wrote:

Our scouting has been so poor for CB's Gabriel, Chambers, Mustafi.

£60m+ worth of CBs there and none of them have been good enough.

I think you can make allowances for Chambers because he was so young when we brought him in and was never intended to replace anyone, but the rest of them are disgraceful. Even Mertesacker was a full tier below what we needed back when we signed him. It's been a consistent theme with Arsenal. Koscielny is the only outstanding centreback we've had since Touré was at his peak 12 years ago.

In fairness City spent like 300m on their defensive line over the last 5 years and it's still slightly above average. United haven't done much better and there's not a single one I'd want from Chelsea either. Liverpool finally got someone decent by splashing out 75m.

goon wrote:

In fairness City spent like 300m on their defensive line over the last 5 years and it's still slightly above average. United haven't done much better and there's not a single one I'd want from Chelsea either. Liverpool finally got someone decent by splashing out 75m.

Rüdiger?

Cup final aside he's looked like a clown every time I've seen him.

Ive only seen him a couple of times this season, he look ace both times. HAd Salah in is pocked the whole game, intercepted most the balls into him. and got in quick to out muscle him the other times. Haven't seen much of him to be fair thats why i asked.

He's been poor most of the season. Couple decent games where he was man marking aside.

I'm not a huge fan either, but for £15m he's a solid signing.

Klaus wrote:

I think you can make allowances for Chambers because he was so young when we brought him in and was never intended to replace anyone, but the rest of them are disgraceful. Even Mertesacker was a full tier below what we needed back when we signed him. It's been a consistent theme with Arsenal. Koscielny is the only outstanding centreback we've had since Touré was at his peak 12 years ago.

True but Chambers was bought for a lot of money at the time, nearly £18m? Then you consider that Alderweireld was sold a year later for £12m it does make you wonder!

The style of play doesn't help but either we don't have a clue when it comes to scouting CBs or at a coaching level they've been let down. But then again Koscielny became a monster under us so I am more inclined to think it was just bad purchases.

The hype around Chambers was ridiculous though.

Chambers was and is fine. He came in, played well enough to get an England call up. Got played at right back, struggled. Went out on loan, did very well, enough to warrant a £20m offer. Has done ok on his return too and is still only 23. He has his issues but I think there's a good defender in there.

Yeah, Chambers didn't fail because he was overhyped. Rather he was mismanaged.

I don't remember Chambers being hyped up. He wasn't even a regular at Southampton and their fans goaded us for spending so much on their backup rightback, which Wenger admitted was the position we had in mind for him too at the time.

He's a decent player at any rate. Possibly not someone who will ever be a starter here, but it's not like there's an ocean of quality between him and guys like Per in the past.