Arsenal needs a huge shakeup with multiple areas to be strengthened, none more so that the centre back positions and according to the latest reports we are making moves on multiple fronts to secure the best defenders that we can afford.
Earlier this week it had been reported that we had tabled an offer for Sampdoria centre half Joachim Andersen and you can add now the name of Djene Dakonam to the list of defenders we are targeting, according to Marca.
A price of £31 Million has been touted for Dakonam while Andersen price is included in the £44 Million offer for the Dane and his Sampdoria teammate Dennis Praet.
That means that it is very likely that we are talking in excess of £50 Million for those two defenders, if not more.
Now that is some serious money and it does show that the club is very serious about sorting out the weakest areas of the team.
It should also be noted that a significant portion of the wage bill has been reduced with four first-team players being officially released yesterday.
It must bring into question the futures of both Shkodran Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny at the Emirates with so many defenders being linked us because it is not just Andersen and Dakonam that we are reportedly interested in acquiring for the defence and you have to think that once we do sign new defenders that means some of the underperforming players will be offloaded.
I do not know how strong the rumours are with regards to Dakonam or for that matter Andersen but I simply cannot see us not signing at least one, probably more central defenders, there is just too much speculation now for nothing to happen.
And even if half the reports are true it indicates we are spending big this summer, far more than the £40 Million that has been widely reported.
This should be another BS, because Dakonam’s contract will only expire in 2023 and he is even smaller than Umtiti/ Pleguezuelo. I know Javier Mascherano is also of small build, but his skills/ vision were excellent at Barcelona and he was accompanied by a world class towering CB like Gerard Pique
Taller CBs like De Ligt/ Upamecano are available and their price tags should be more reasonable than Dakonam, because their contracts will end in 2021
If Arsenal want to save more money, they should have approached Eric Bailly now because he can leave Man United for free next year. He is injury-prone and made some mistakes, but we need a younger CB to replace Koscielny and Monreal
So De ligt can be bought for less than £31 million,try tripling that figure! Your knowledge of payers is as poor as yr grammar my friend
You surely cannot be serious about the injury prone and second rate Bailly. Why on earth would anyone want him? The only safe thing is we all know, save you alone, that this will NEVER happen. You even say he is injury prone and makes some mistakes,(a huge understatement on both counts) and yet still think we should try for him! It makes no sense at all. And yes, you are right in saying youth has an advantage at CB but some proper talent is rather important too,would you not agree!
Arsenal are in talks for Carrasco.If the deal should happen it will be £19 million plus £4 million in addons and he will earn 110k per week before bonuses.
So let’s see if it happens.A decent player though.Nothing more nothing less
The club’s ultimate number one winger get has always been and is still Nicolas Pepe but two UCL clubs being interested in him proves a challenges for us to land him.
The usual suspects are up for sale this time and will be sold for the right price but we may find it difficult to shift Ozil or Mkhitaryan or both due to high wages so do not be deceived by rumours because until concrete bids for these two they will be here next season
I hope Arsenal won’t seal the Carrasco deal, because Carrasco’s stats were not good at Atletico Madrid and in Belgium national football team. Arsenal could repeat the same mistake as what they did with the one season wonder Lucas Perez purchase
If Arsenal are desperate to save money and want to fool their fans again, finished players such Andy Carroll, Samir Nasri and Lucas Perez are available for free
I predict we wouldn’t get a hot winger like Pepe, but an unwanted one like Malcom. However, Kroenke surprised us with Lacazette/ Aubameyang and I hope he does it again in this transfer window
Ok what is the stats of your lost love child Adama and where it has been good, clubs? Country?, yet you want us to buy him It isn’t even as impressive as that of Iwobi and some fans still don’t want him sold. The fact is a player that is deemed bad today can be good tomorrow( Sallah, Debruyne ) and one that is considered good now can be bad in future ( Leon Bailey ). So don’t use stats&past to judge one player and not another.
i once thought £9m but £19m-£23m no, carasco is a squad player at his best… just like ozil,has talent but too lazy,lack physical present too and poor end product, such amount can bring chalov and claude-maurice.. mind you guys if we don’t buy claude-maurice we’ll regret it letter
I am not one who knows much about CARRASCO, so have no idea if he will be right or wrong for us. But I am interested in how you say he is merely “decent”. At the risk of stating the BL….NG obvious, even decent defenders have been as rare as hens teeth at Arsenal these last several years. IF he is even only “decent” he will be a huge improvement on any current outfield defender we have , save only the highly promising and unlucky to be injured Holding. As they say, in the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king. I would kill for a back four of all “only decent” players, given what we have had to suffer these last several years!
Jon, Carrasco is a winger.
Of course he is. How silly of me and thanks for putting me right!
We should not compromise when it comes to defenders. We need two top quality defenders. A young one and an experienced one. It seems many clubs are after De ligt. Arsenal should bid 50m pounds for De ligt. And also Javi Martinez. We don’t need unknown names. We need experienced defenders who have played at the higest level. Offer those two defenders huge salaries and the defense is sorted out. Having De ligt,Javi Martinez, Holding,mavropanus and sokratis. Recall Chambers from loan for the right back/CM role. Play AMN in midfield next season. Go all out for De ligt and Martinez. We need to fix our defence. We need composure, leadership and height in Central Defense.
Have you forgotten how Jefferson Montero and other speedy wingers made Chambers look like a fool on the right side?
Chambers has decent attributes and skills but speed is not one them. Hence he is more suited to be a DM
Krystian Bielik mist be given his chance because he has the talent to be more than just a decent defender and he has impressed very much on loan.It would be disappointing to not see him given his chance because if you look at him his defensive skills and height will help our team a lot.
Reason I mentioned Chambers is I’m afraid, Arsenal won’t address all the key areas this summer. But rather than spending on full backs, we can recall chambers and keep both Kolasinac and Monreal. We must not compromise when it comes to central defense. We need established Central defenders. If we use all our transfer budget to get top top quality CB, that makes sense. 51 goals conceded in the premier league last season, not good enough. Mustafi blunders against Spurs and Crystal Palace. We need to bid for One of Isco, Ryan Fraser and Fakir(Fraser the realistic and cheapest option). And get two Central defenders. Man City and Liverpool did a complete overhaul of their defence. Big teams are linked with De ligt. Barça, Man United and PSG. That is the only worry. But Javi Martinez from Bayern is a beast. Very composed and tall.We need him in that team.if De ligt is a tall order, we can go for Umtiti.We need two Central defenders. On a different note, No European team is going for Omar Abdulrahman. The Asian Messi. This guy is damn good. we should go for him.
Isco would not be a major success in the premier league.
His movement is too lazy and that would make him just below top quality despite his brilliant skills. Unless he plays for a team with not one but 2 very defensively minded midfielders to protect him. And no, Xhaka would not do.
He might work out for Chelsea, though, with Kante helping him defensively.
De ligt what a baller. Who won’t love to have him. But 50m won’t do it, between 70-100m might.
Emery said that we need to find our very own VVD, what he meant by that I’m not sure, if he was just talking about a quality player or if he meant a big splurge to get him.
Wenger would never have said that while in a season and with us in a tight race, he’d have talked well about his own defenders and put the blame on something else. Many fans hated that he done that and said he was all sorts of devious or daft, but their were confidence concerns and the fact that he doesn’t know what sort of budget or players will be gettable come summer, or even if he’ll still be here no matter how confident he was that he would be.
He probably meant we need to find our own VVD, pre-Southampton of course.
I have looked at some videos of Anderson and think he is well worth a punt. I can see why emery is interested as he seems very good at distributing to the wide areas whether fullback wingback or wingers. That would give us a good option for either a 433 a 442 or the 532.
Although not as good preat does like to bring in other players well so could easily sit in a midfield 3 with torrera and granit (hopefully somebody better if we sell).
I would love to see klasanic go also anywhere. As strong as he is at getting forward there seems very little point in my opinion if he cannot deliver at the other end.
Fraser still a good option.
Many fans will be screaming that these show no ambition but we have to be realistic. If we can keep Abu and laca strengthen the defence we can stabalise. Move some of the dead wood this summer and add more strength next summer.
Torreira-Xhaka-Praet is a shamboloic midfield.Weve already seen what the Xhaka-Torreira midfield can do and no need to add Praet to a midfield which lacks forward drive
Xhaka won’t be here when the season starts.
Rumours everyday and everywhere. I am getting bored by this. I want to hear Arsenal has sign this or that.
The international transfer window doesn’t open until the 11th
@dotash, in that case you should come back only in September when the transfer window is closed
did i see same praet as many people see or sampdoria got tow praets? praet i knows is not an attacking mid fielder as reports addressing him, he receives ball from the back and supply to either wide players or front mid fielders not to main striker.. he most prefers to play in deep lying mid fielder so is that called an attacking mid fielder?
I would describe Xhaka with the sane words, looks like it is his replacement.
Dakonam for me looks no different to Mustafi, aggressive, even shorter, with less experience and older age, playing in a mid-table team in la liga that leaked many goals.
Andersen and Manolas look interesting.