The Arsenal captain and centre back Per Mertesacker is still out of action with the knee injury he picked up in pre-season. The chances are that Arsene Wenger was going to use the summer transfer market to boost our defence anyway but the long term absence of the World Cup winning German made it even more imperative.
The problem for Mertesacker now though, is that his replacement Shkodran Mustafi has formed a brilliant central defensive pairing with Laurent Koscielny, and I think our BFG is well aware how hard it will be to break back into the first team in January, which is when the injury website physioroom.com says he is due back.
The club captain has already spoken about his future with the Gunners and the possibility of moving on and there is apparently interest from some Bundesliga clubs back in his homeland. The tall but not very mobile defender has been a good servant for the Gunners but I don’t think too many fans would be that upset to see him go, as long as Arsenal have strong cover.
We do have Gabriel and Rob Holding as cover and there is also Calum Chambers who is at Middlesborough on loan for the season but if Arsenal are to have a serious go at winning the Premier League title, some more experience and quality at the back would be a big help and according to a report in The Mirror we could be set to make a January transfer swoop for the Roma and Greece star Kostas Manolas.
Rated at around £30 million and currently contracted for a few more years with his Italian club, Manolas is said to have rejected a new deal. This has alerted a few big clubs around Europe and Arsenal have been linked with the talented defender before, so is Manolas being lined up to replace our BFG?
Bob.
No need for defenders we have already two good backup Gabriel and Rob Holding … We need a forward, someone like Sanchez, because I feel our attack is all about Sanchez (last game for example) …
Off point: I read an arsenal blog in which the writer was praising pogba after their match against fenerbahce and how our players should replicate that. Arsenal fans have a way of chronically underappreciate their players.
We have a very good squad…let’s hope our coach will utilize them well
I seem to prefer Van Dyke of Southampton.
get Van Dijk of Soton that guy is the perfect defender…. I wonder why none of these big clubs have gone for him yet.