It is being reported in the British media that Arsenal and Manchester United are to battle it out for the services of Bayern Munich defender Jerome Boateng.
The reasoning behind this is that both us and United need strengthening in our respective defences and therefore we are interested in the German world cup winner.
Boateng will definitely be available in the summer because the Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has announced that he is surplus to requirements and should find a new club in the summer.
So, Bayern is offloading a defender, we need one so we must be interested, right?
Well, I have seen nothing to suggest that we are keen on signing the 30-year-old other than speculation and assumption from the press, however, that is not what I am actually interested in, gossip comes and goes, what I am interested in discussing is, would Boateng be an upgrade on Shkodran Mustafi?
It all depends on the player’s motivation, he certainly has the talent to be an upgrade, he did fail at Manchester City years ago but he has come on so much since then, he has huge experience at the highest levels of the game and on his day is a great player.
He can be volatile but is generally consistent and could easily be the leader in the defence that we have been lacking and in fact, could revitalise his career with us.
Boateng’s contract expires in 2021 but because Bayern are keen sellers there is every chance we could land him for a very reasonable price and while no fee has actually been mentioned other than speculation I would suggest he could be available for as little as £20 Milion, though that is purely a guess and like others in the media is just speculation on my part.
All things considered, I am of the opinion that Boateng would be a good buy at the right price.
We just have to see if we are genuinely interested in him.
My grandmother could replace mustafi.
The bigger challenge is who replaces koscielny and Monreal who are ending this season as two thirds of our back 3 and both are clearly showing signs of age, wear and tear. I believe that in holding mavropanos, bielik and chambers, we have the talent to not have to waste money on replacing mustafi and elneny. But the 2 elder statesmen need replacing, we should not be carrying 2 players that are so injury ridden
Lets hope we can convince bielik to resign for us, he has around 13months left and is a key player/fan favourite at the newly promoted Charlton.
I think 20 plus million would be a big gamble for a player of his age. As an Arsenal fan we must now realize the true picture of the club’s transfer policy. We have to find an Andy Robertson type signing not Van Dyke type. Need to raid PL club like Watford or NewCastle who have conceded less than us.
We also need to look to include Holding, Chambers, Mavraponas and Belik …They all have reasonably better season than Mustafi had
Sunny
We have to sign a top quality defender and a winger in the summer.One of Koulibaly/De ligt/Umtiti. Also, to recall Chambers and Ospina from loan, move AMN to midfield. Sign one of Nabil Fekir, Isco, and we are good to go. Just two signings we need in the summer. Out: Mustafi, Elneny, Welbeck,Ramsey.
No thanks, no need to replace a donkey with another. While I concede with our without C’League we dont have a chance in the market to get an elite defender in (even if we get a top defender, we need other areas strengthened and we dont have resources), I dont want to see us picking rejected commodities either. It would be better if we spend 20m each on 3/4 young players considering we have low transfer budget and many of our players dont have a resell value, at least it covers what we need and gives us a platform to build a team for future, growing and playing together with the likes of Torreira, Guendouzi, Bellerin, Holding, Chambers, AMN, Mavro etc and building a core for future .