Cedric Soares is set to join Arsenal before the end of this transfer window.
The Southampton man has just six months left on his current deal and he has been struggling to play for the Saints this season.
He played the second half of last season on loan at Inter Milan but failed to secure a permanent move to the Italian giants.
Sky Sports is claiming that Arteta is set to complete a surprising move for the Portuguese defender, who won Euro 2016 with his country.
Soares has been seen as a reliable defender since he joined Southampton, however, he has struggled to force his way into the Saints’ manager’s plan this season.
The club is unwilling to extend his stay at Saint Mary’s and they will be more than happy to sell him to Arsenal claims the same report.
Arsenal who have just completed the signing of Pablo Mari wants Soares to add to their defence.
Hector Bellerin is Arsenal’s only recognizable right full-back and the Spaniard has struggled for form and with injuries for much of this season.
Arteta believes that Soares will provide adequate cover for the Spaniard and provide competition for Maitland Niles who has been deputizing in the absence of Bellerin.
This does look like it is going to happen and I have to say, it is a little underwhelming. That said, he may well turn out to be a decent acquisition once he is surrounded by better players and a progressive manager.
It is expected that the deal will be announced at some point tomorrow.
Will he be better than lichtsteiner as an understudy in the RB role? We shall see
Are you kidding? All day
He will be helpful back up when if needed… We miss one on LB, Kurzawa still available for 4M!
Damn Arteta has money indeed, look players Man U or Spurs get, even Everton.
Arteta got that he is on his ownas Wenger!
Decent option to be honest hes pretty tidy player just not stand out in any one area but from what I’ve seen hes pretty solid, 28 is a good age and his wages will be small so fine with me 👌
I don’t see it as underwhelming in any way.
We’ve always needed a proper RB for rotation. He’s one.
Plus it’s only a loan deal. If he turns up pretty poor, he’ll end up somewhere else at the ending of the season.
It’s a fair gamble
Fair point but I cannot help feeling underwhelmed by this whole transfer window from Arsenal. I don’t know what I was expecting really but for a club Arsenals size, we should be spending like Tottenham and Man Utd who are our direct rivals in terms of top four on top quality. We really do need it.
I think you and some fans expected too much, both clubs you mentioned keep spending money poorly, especially Tottenham who keeps spending on players that hardly improves their team.
United? We all know how wasteful they are, they have the money to burn.
I think it’s a pretty fair Jan for Arsenal.
I mean what coach have you seen accepted a job halfway into the season then spend massively bringing in players during the winter?
Even Klopp after getting the job, in his first winter didn’t spend up to 10 million pounds.
He brought two cheap players in and got one on loan.
I think you guys should expect the summer to be busier and we’ll probably chase Arteta’s choice of players then. For now he just needs to know the full strength and evaluation of his team
Again, some fair points, though I do disagree with some of what you said but whether you are right or not I cannot shake this feeling of being underwhelmed.
I think our worst department that Mikel is trying to patch first is the defence. Let’s be patient and see what he sees.
I just hope that Arteta is supported in the transfer market for players HE WANTS, to play his style and phylosophy.
Expecting the head coach to just coach players scouted and recruited by others, with no input from Arteta will not bring success.
I remember how underwhelming most fans were when we signed Martinelli and Guendhozi. It is not just a matter of top quality. It is about planning how you want to play and recruiting players with the needed skill set to execute your plan. Many that have been classified as top quality but ended up in the gutters. Man City and for that matter Pep, buys good players. And going by his time at Flamengo, I believe Mari has come of age.
Coaches can cause a good player or team to play poorly due to bad choices. Arteta gives me the belief that he is the opposite.
It’s low-risk enough. He’ll never really be a starter. But this also means Arteta is satisfied with Bellerin as our starting RB… I’m not as sold on him even at this stage in his career. He’s yet to find solid consistency and be injury free. We still dont have a single defender that would even be considered by our top 6 opposition.
I dunno, I would not consider any of the Tottenham defence quality, I reckon ours is better in some areas, the wing backs as an example.
Tierney? Perhaps, if he ever manages 40 games in a season.
Kola, Bellerin, and AMN – no.
And would you really rather have Luiz, Sokratis, and Chambers/Holding over Alderweireld, Vertonghen and Davinson Sanchez?
He is going to be better than all of Ppl think
*a lot
Was a decent player but no longer is according to my Southampton mole.If he is not good enough for Southampton is he good enough for Arsenal whether used as a back up or not?Interesting to see how Arteta uses AMN if this deal goes through.
Maybe Maitland-Niles will FINALLY get a chance to return to the midfield where he belongs and continue his progress in his favoured position? 🙂
A sensible move from arteta … he knows that niles is no fullback and bellerin is undeRwhelming … if Mari is decent then it’s a decent window which addresses obvious weaknesses if not tremendous … clear out in summer and arteta can start rebuilding
I’m not writing him off as he hasn’t even kicked a ball for us yet!!
My god how frustrating is Sterling?? 😖 I can’t believe City are losing! And as for the car jackers.. a penalty 🙄
At least our women are winning 👍
It seems that we might, at least, have a player that can cover, as a minimum, Bellerin.
This is the one position where we didn’t have a natural cover, so well done to the club…if he is signed on.
Why not go for a really promising young right back like Nathan Ferguson of WBA rather than waste 5m on someone who is not well regarded by the fans and Management of Southampton?
Lols… Grandad! Nobody feel so discomfort regarding this deal more than you as it stands going.. Straight up.!
Grandad is on the money, regarding Nathan Ferguson.
The question though is whether he is any better than Jenko? The point is this is quite underwhelming as he is, as mentioned by another poster, not good enough for Southampton!
Underwhelming is right…. BUT, it could be that Mikel has bigger things in mind for AMN and doesn’t want to waste him at LB. In that case, a different understudy to Bellerin is probably not a bad idea. However, the aforesaid not being the case, this transaction does not make much sense.
And as someone mentioned in a different post, how come the Arsenal Academy is not producing defenders? With the BFG there, one would expect someone to pop out sooner rather than later.
Make that RB
it’s so shameful to a club like Arsenal to sign a player who cannot make first eleven at ordinary club like Southampton. he is not coming to arsenal club to add any thing but come and make money. plis don’t buy for buying sake
OT: Nicholas Otamendi has another moment of madness at the edge of the box in the 88th, KDB goes berserk, sound familiar?
The only plus is he is a right back. Is he good enough? Maybe maybe not but he is in the shop window and we can do a deal with him in the summer if he proves capable. We will have to sell players in the summer, is Bellerin an option to bring money in as well as one or both our strikers?
Just a poor standard make weight who will hardly play when all are fit. He will be gone at latest by summer 2021 IMO, if he comes at all, which, sadly, does now look likely! Another ELNENY IN STANDARD FROM WHAT I HAVE SEEN OF HIM. We do need cover but not HIM! And were Kroenke not such a tight a..e, he would not be coming, as surely all realise. A last resort buy as we are very short of numbers in defence but I EXPECT ONLY MEDIOCRITY FROM HIM.
Why is everyone ignoring the real issue here? Isnt it weird that Arsenal’s scraping for Saints’ cast outs when we have a ‘vibrant academy’? Arsenal should be having a well rounded academy by now. Who TH is incharge of this white elephant of an academy? If our under 23s aren’t good enough to be stands-in then why on earth is the club spending tens of millions trying to keep this piece of inessential s alive when everyone sees it’s in HDU? Dismantle the damn thing, start from scratch with a competent team of scouts and coaches. If it means raiding lower teams for talent then be it. This is so effed up, someone HAS to be held accountable.
Well, James, that we have an academy and that it is doibg quite well, actually, is evidenced by the fact that players such as Saka, AMN, Nelson, Willock, John-Jules, Nketiah, Smith-Rowe ….. need I carry on? What IS a bit surprising is that no defenders seem to pop out of there. Bit there is no doubt that the academy is functioning well.
Do we really need a RB? we have bellerin, maitlan niles and Chambers(yes heres injured but) do we really need 4 rbs?
Well done Arsenal more poundshop shite. I think Mari might turn out to be a reasonable player but all this loan shite shows our ambition. I feel for Arteta. Kroenke and his old girl are probably one of the the richest husband and wife teams in the world. Multi billions and we have taken two cheapo loans to do what exactly???? Win the league or stave off relegation? It’s pathetic. We have brought in sticking plasters…. if the truth is told. How exciting.
👍 Cheaper to keep churning through head coaches, than address the real issues of lack of player quality and squad depth, to allow Arsenal to compete at the top level.
Remind me again why The Arsenal left Highbury and built the Emirates?
United spent £130 million on two defenders, one of which is a right back. How has that stopped them leaking goals?
Trent Alexander Anold has had the most assists for Liverpool for two consecutive seasons. Remind me again, how much he cost? His partner Robertson was bought from Hull who were not even in the premiership cos they had just been relegated. How many left backs are better than him?
Come back and moan after the player has had his chance to play and flopped, not before.
To make Kroenke even richer.
Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
All of you moaning about a Southamptom ‘backup’ probably never watched him play and are just joining the Arsenal bashing band wagon.
Hector may not be a world class right back but he is definitely a damn good one in addition to being homegrown.His best is still in front of him and you want us to throw him away and buy a ? World class right back from where? Most defenders peak around the age of 27. Look at Azpilicueta, He couldn’t even hold down a first team shirt and had to be shunted to LB for most of his Chelsea career. Can you currently fault his ability at RB now?
You all allude to the fact that we need backup at RB and we’ve got a terrific backup who fell out with his manager and that is why he is not playing. Nothing to do with his ability.
All those against his acquisition should kindly point out a better ‘backup RB’ available in this window.
I bet you’d be blaming Arteta and the board for not getting a backup to Bellerin if he gets injured again during the season and Niles gets comfortable again and returns to his early season form.
@Abel.Very good post.Good reasoning,clear thinking,logic,and cool head.I also think Arteta with this move is planing something different for M-Niles.
Yep .. out the door hopefully … championship level player at best
Lol, Rkw.
That is really harsh on Niles. He does have it in him to play better, just hasn’t got the mentality to grab his future by the balls just yet.
Thanks Georgy
Arsenal is not an try and error club, so let us try to be excalt with almost all of our transaction on and off the market.
People thinking that money can buy success are off track. United spent millions for their defender and full back. Are they top of the league or at least in the top 4? Alexander Arnold and Robertson were not great money signings but see where they have taken Liverpool. I have confidence in MA and am sure he is making the right choices. Cedric Soares is certainly a good player and has won the Euros with Portugal. Give the man a chance and than start complaining. Also I think Pablo Mari was also a good signing. Up the Gunners!
I thought cedric was injured and out for at least three weeks,sounds like a bit of a gamble but i am sure Mikel knows what he is doing…I hope.
Always Kroenke gets the blame for Arsenal not splashing out millions and millions recklessly. Get used to it, people, our club is just a bit more pragmatic about throwing money down the tube (how is Neymar working for PSG, or Pogba for ManUtd?). Business is run a bit differently here than at clubs with Arab billionare owners. Having a dig at one of the Kroenkes every time someone gets bought or doesn’t get bought is a waste of time and space and energy. Suppprt someone else.