Oh dear.

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.

Papa can yoooou heeeeear meeee?

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.

http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/724852/artikel_preis-poker-um-delaney.html

Kicker claims that the fee has been agreed at £15m

Honestly, £15m for an experienced defender is barely a dent in the budget. Chambers cost more a few seasons back.

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.

Yeah, don't get me wrong, there was a lot more to Per than ability on the ball. I don't think Chambers has the same organising mind for one thing. But if you put him next to someone who's capable to lead he should be fine.

Yeah, Mertesacker is still so underrated here. He is the only defender that made Koscielny play at his highest level. Mert + Kos partnership is one of the best under Wenger, probably only behind Adams/Keown and Campbell/Toure.

Chambers was just played in the wrong position at the start. Even in the first season whenever he played CB he looked great. There's a good defender there in the making, I would say 16m for him will look like a bargain in the near future.

Gabriel for 10m was a really smart buy too. He was fantastic in a few big matches he played for us, and is underrated in many others due to his "messy" image. 10m is really nothing for a defender of his age and we made a profit shortly after. Now he is one of the best defenders in La Liga again and indispensable for Valencia. We should have sold Mustafi, not him.

Clrnc wrote:

Gabriel for 10m was a really smart buy too. He was fantastic in a few big matches he played for us, and is underrated in many others due to his "messy" image. 10m is really nothing for a defender of his age and we made a profit shortly after. Now he is one of the best defenders in La Liga again and indispensable for Valencia. We should have sold Mustafi, not him.

Well Mustafi was fantastic for Valencia too, a lot more fantastic than Gabriel in fact. It's clearly the system and not the players, we need someone to hold our centre backs' hands but I'd wait and see how Emery does with our current bunch before spending big.

Yeah, I rated Gabriel more highly than Mustafi, that's for sure. The former is actually physically impressive, whereas the latter has absolutely no attributes of note.

jones wrote:

Clrnc wrote:

Gabriel for 10m was a really smart buy too. He was fantastic in a few big matches he played for us, and is underrated in many others due to his "messy" image. 10m is really nothing for a defender of his age and we made a profit shortly after. Now he is one of the best defenders in La Liga again and indispensable for Valencia. We should have sold Mustafi, not him.

Well Mustafi was fantastic for Valencia too, a lot more fantastic than Gabriel in fact. It's clearly the system and not the players, we need someone to hold our centre backs' hands but I'd wait and see how Emery does with our current bunch before spending big.

I don't agree at all to be honest. Mustafi was good for Valencia for 3/4 of his first season, total and utter crap in his 2nd. His problems is not with the system, but mainly individual errors and lack of intelligence in defensive situations and positioning.

That's selling him well short in my opinion. I was ecstatic when we signed him because he was beyond just 'good' in his first season there, him and Otamendi were the best centre back pairing in La Liga, arguably in Europe that season. Valencia were a complete shambles in his second season what with firing four managers in nine months but I thought he was one of the few to come out of that season with some credit.

I guess we'll see soon enough what Emery can get out of him, he's definitely young enough to still turn it around. Quite a few defensive talents popping up everywhere at the moment though so if he doesn't work out there are plenty guys around if Mislintat manages to nab one.

I think Mustafi's ceiling is much much higher than what he's shown, and I also think his attitude and competitiveness are important attributes to have around. I really hope he can turn it around.

His paps confirmed Sokratis is in London and will undergo a medical with us tomorrow

Hmm it’s an improvement I guess but not what I wanted

His Dad also confirmed he rejected United to come here.

What position does his Dad play then?

Daz wrote:

What position does his Dad play then?

(hopefully goalkeeper?)

can't say i've been overly impressed with sokratis over the years, but i'm glad we're addressing a problem area quickly, given we're in an abbreviated window with a WC smack in the middle

jones wrote:

That's selling him well short in my opinion. I was ecstatic when we signed him because he was beyond just 'good' in his first season there, him and Otamendi were the best centre back pairing in La Liga, arguably in Europe that season. Valencia were a complete shambles in his second season what with firing four managers in nine months but I thought he was one of the few to come out of that season with some credit.

I guess we'll see soon enough what Emery can get out of him, he's definitely young enough to still turn it around. Quite a few defensive talents popping up everywhere at the moment though so if he doesn't work out there are plenty guys around if Mislintat manages to nab one.

Otamendi also was awful for city at first, for quite a while too, but it was obvious there was huge ability there as well.

Sokratis is a steal for EUR 17m.

Gurgen wrote:

Sokratis is a steal for EUR 17m.

Seems a fair deal given his age. He has no residual value. 

Well the defence sorely needed an experienced leader so hopefully Sokratis can raise the levels of Bellerin, Chambers and Mustafi and add some stability in his own position.

I know all defenders have their bad moments, but I saw this and

Edit: That's weird. The [youtube] tag embeds the video when I preview the post but not in the actual post itself. Not sure why.

Fixed it for you. [youtube] isn't the tag, its

Thanks Qwiss.