If the Arsenal transfer rumours of this week are to be trusted, the Gunners were beaten to one of our main defensive transfer targets by the Italian Serie A club Roma. The player in question was the Greece international centre back Kostas Manolas and then we were linked with his international colleague Sokratis.
But having been drawn against his current club Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League group stage, that transfer looks pretty unlikely to me. So Arsenal still need a centre back, even though young Calum Chambers’ first few games as a Gunner suggest that the 19-year old could become a real rock at the heart of our defence in the future.
Now, according to a Daily Star report, Arsene Wenger may have found his man north of the border, in the shape of the Dutch centre back Virgil van Dijk.
The 23-year old has reaaly flourished since joining Celtic last summer and the Scottish champions’ failure to make it into the UCL draw has caused van Dijk to want to move on to bigger and better things. And the paper thinks that a bid of around £10 million would be enough to bring the Dutchman to north London.
At 6ft 4in, van Dijk certainly has plenty of physical presence, but he is quick and talented as well and is still learning his trade, so would not baulk at having to sit on the bench while Mertesacker and Koscielny started most of our games.
I like the idea of this transfer, how about you guys?