Jurrien Timber is set to be out for the next few months after picking up an injury shortly after half-time in the 2-1 win over Forest.
Not finding a replacement for Timber would mean Arsenal losing their defensive depth, so there’s speculation that another defender could be signed, and Manchester City’s Aymeric Laporte has been mentioned previously as the player Arteta is looking at, although it has been claimed that Man City have accepted a bid from Al Nassr.
Laporte didn’t play much at Manchester City last season; he only managed eight starts.
Coming into this transfer window, he was heavily linked with a move away from the Etihad. That move hasn’t happened yet, but it seems Mikel Arteta could still give him an escape route. If approached about a move to the Emirates, I bet he will give Arsenal a big ‘yes’. His ‘yes’ wouldn’t be simply because he saw how Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus rejuvenated their careers last season.
He rates Arteta highly, as he admitted a couple of years ago ahead of an Arsenal fixture: “Mikel is a great coach, and, for me, he has been one of the best people I have met in Manchester,” said Laporte as per MEN.
“He tries to help players all the time; he had a really good relationship with everyone and with me especially.”
With a lot at stake for the Gunners this season, Mikel Arteta needs a strong squad he can rely on. So be it if that means getting Timber’s replacement in while he can, and why not an accomplished player that he knows well?
Daniel O
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Too late, he’s going to Saudi.
Too late
It would make more sense to being Cancelo who can operate both fullback flanks than Laporte who’s primarily a CB
Yes, I think the writer never paid attention to how Timber played for Arsenal and how Laporte played for Man City. Or maybe he deliberately did it to attract attention
Nonetheless, we’ve got enough defenders for the inverted-fullback roles on both sides of the pitch
I think JTimber will be out throughout the season so why bring in another defender? Kiwior, Tomiyasu and even Zichenko are all available other players deserve to be happy. It a dynamic CF Arsenal need at the moment or someone who can compete with BSaka if need be
#I mean “I think JTimber wont be out throughout the season”
No need to bring a new player, we have our Meghales, Tomyasu…..
#I mean”I think JTimber wont be out throughout the season”
He’s agud player with pace so I don’t expect him to be out for months….
If Saka gets a long-term injury, we would only have Vieira as inverted-RW. Hopefully Marquinhos’ loan can be terminated if we need him
We could play odegaard at rw if we needed a lefty and the other options aren’t convincing – he’s played that role before, and we could simply shift havertz across
I think Odegaard is too slow for the RW role, but good to hear he’s done it before. I forgot about Havertz
Looks like its now too late anyway but even wer it not, it could cause a problem in having too manay full backs whenTimber recovers.
Best to wait to see if, as right now is only rumoured but not confirmed , he has an ACL or something less serious. HASTY DECISIONS CARRY RISK. Only of academic debate anyway IMO, SINCE IT WONT HAPPEN.
Because the seriousness of Timber injury is not confirm, am keeping my fingers crossed.
Timber absence shows another reason why Arsenal has to go back in the market, be it Tapsoba or Barella we are short of quality players.
Kiwor looked good to me
Strength in depth there already
Romano recently tweeted that Arsenal were interested in Laporte. However City do not want to sell more players to Arsenal!!
We still have Tierney, so why spend at all?
RB White and Tomiyasu
LB. Zinchenko and Tierney
We are fine in Timber’s absence, how about Arteta use the players at his disposal instead of people always calling for the checkbook?
Part of Arteta’s hiring was getting the best out of players like at City, not freezing out and checkbook spending.
Why did he come out for the second half? It was glaringly obvious when he first went down that he’d done something bad! I was sweating the way he got up when he first went down. It was reckless to let him come out for the second half, even if he said he was ok
It sems very odd and not at all desirable that some four days after Timbers serious looking injury , we STILL have no confirmation if it is an ACL or somethingless serious
Surely, IF it IS an ACL, he should already be operated on? Why the delay and are we not serious in having an up to date and dynamic medical team at our club? Seems to me , we are not serious!
None of us know what the gaffer and Gaspar are planning – but in my humble opinion we don’t need to buy a replacement since there are enough players who can play in both positions. I include Walters and Sousa to the usual suspects.
I truly hope Timber recovers fully and is not put back in the team until then. However, the players move on – as what happened to him could happen to any of them. Here’s to Arsenal winning on Saturday!
Aymeric Jean Louis Gérard Alphonse Laporte will not be joining Arsenal. He’s 29 and injury prone. Furthermore, he’s left footed and similar in attribute in Kiwior. The media is setting us up for another fans meltdown as usual.