Aston Villa have secured the signature of Calum Chambers from Arsenal on a permanent deal.
The defender was into the final six months of his current contract, and had fallen down the pecking order this term.
Despite working his way into Mikel Arteta’s first-team plans last term, the arrival of Takehiro Tomiyasu has meant that he hasn’t featured in the Premier League since August 28, with him sitting as an unused substitute on four occasions.
Chambers has now departed to sign for Villa until the summer of 2025, as reported by Sky Sports where he will play under Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard.
It remains to be seen where he will line-up in their plans, being able to play at right-back, defensive midfield or his favoured central defender role.
Calum has been a loyal servant for Arsenal, but his progress was severely hampered by a number of injuries over the years, and while he made his debut for England back in 2014, he has been limited to just three senior appearances for his country after all of his setbacks.
It is hard to complain about his departure having seen our team progress so well this season, but I always liked Chambers. He always seemed to be one to just get on with things, but for some reason his place in the team has become non-existent this term.
I wish him all the best for the future, and he could potentially earn a place in the England squad again depending on where he plays for Villa, assuming he can remain free from injuries of course.
Patrick
Do we now have 3 center backs? Arteta and Edu had better have something up their sleeves. The team is getting thinner and thinner with all the outgoings.
It’s a bit strange given we loaned out Mari earlier in the window. Maybe this confirms saliba’s is part of the plans next season.
Mari Chambers in a week.
No incoming
Realise we only have league games left but we are awfully short.
Tomi out for a month.
We are blowing our top 4 chance.
Furious
Chambers was a square peg for a round hole from day one. The real beneficiary was Southampton who hoodwinked the “greatest AFC manager in the history of the universe” to part 16M in 2014 as quoted by the media, and today fans complain for 24M Aaron Ramsdale in 2021 and that too for the next best GK after Jens Lehman. Different yardsticks for the senile one and the honest hardworking one. Pathetic!
We actually sold someone????? I’m sure with the poor contract management (yet again) and only having 6 months left we got peanuts but I’m shocked we actually sold someone!
I wish Chambers all the best, hope he shows what he can do there.
We gave him for free!!
Really? Knew it was too good to be true.
it wasn’t disclosed and that was from the Arsenal website.
Various sites saying it was a free transfer as his contract ends this season.
Declan,
I had to check again, and the Arsenal website still says the fee was undisclosed. Whether that means we got a fee, or just got him off the wage bill, I don’t know. Would they just not say it was a free?
I also can’t find any solid info, had a look now.
Reality is even if we got something for him it would have probably been a few million max due to his contract being allowed to run down and him being low on the pecking order.
Sounds right to me👍
It was a free transfer, we just saved his 6 months of wages. Bit Risky to go through the rest of the season with 3 CBs, but whether that 1.5, 1.6Mil Eur that we will save in salary is worth it, only time will tell.
I’m surprised we managed to give away at all. I envisaged a huge box of cereal being sent to another club with a free Calum Chambers inside !
Good luck chambers.
I have the feeling that Stevie G is going to play him as a DM.
Good luck Calum! Was definitely underused during his time here but was also unlucky with injuries especially when he eventually got into the team.
Agree on every point 03 gooner
Honest player that always gave his lot, possibly fitting that his last game for us was a battling display to get the draw an Anfield, and he picked up another injury in that game as well
Slowly painfully we are rebuilding the squad. The biggest problem in the rebuild has been dislodging those who want to stay on their big salaries. We only get rid of them in the last minutes of their contract. Ozil Socitis Mustafi Willian Kolasinac all ran their contracts into the ground untill the last 4 months. At one stage we had 5 right backs Tomi Cedric Bellerin Chambers and AMN. Absurd. AMN has been persuaded to go on loan while Bellerin is on loan at Bettis. Now Chambers off to Villa one hopes connected to the Douglas Luiz signing. Mari on loan some place Torreirra at Fiorentina Mavro at Stuttgart Saliba and Guendouzie at Marseilles. Aubameyang Lacazette Nketiah Elneny Xhaka all still have to be prised out kicking and screaming. The process of rebuilding remains the real challenge for the club. 2023/24 will be the season we finally see the real Arsenal. Will Arteta be given till then to complete the job?
Chambers was a model pro who was never fully trusted by any one. 7 years in the wilderness. The Arsenal way unfortunately.
I never really understood why no manager fully trusted Chambers and why he was never given a run ouy at DM, at least in a cup game.
But it is what it is and reality is that even Cedric was favoured over him. So the odds of him getting meaningful game time this season was slim to none.
Hope he is a success at Villa. Like you said Fairfan, he was a model pro for us.
The speed and surprise of it gives me hope that someone of substance may still come in before the window closes.
Yes he was a model pro. Good luck to him and I hope Edu and Arteta have something good up their collective sleeves
We OUGHT to be able to expect ALL players to be model pros and not think that worthy of particular comment! This OUGHT to be how each and every player behaves, all of whom are vastly overpaid by a factor of at least ten times whay they get
The ludicrous and obscenely greedy salaries that ALL players get, is the overriding and prime cause of all the ills and problems in top level football.
The fact that with CERTAIN players(excluding Chambers of course) we have not been able to do that, is a major part of WHY MA has rightly been trying to shift such as Guendouzi, Auba and others, thankfully already gone.
Those fans who are able, in unbiased fashion, to deeply consider the ROOT CAUSE of most of all top clubs problems, will easily see that a complete sea change salary levels will need to be instigated IF we are EVER TO SOLVE the corruption and ills in our elite level game. All other solutions are merely tinkering around the edges, but by themselves will not CURE the problem
Elite level football has sold its soul to greed and that massively increased back in 1992 when the Prem came into being, though it was stil there even before then but in a lesser amount.
Fairfan – Yeah, sell Partey and Lokonga as well, best you buy the Brazilian National Team or Man City. The only thing painful are the commentators on this blog –
@tk. You are not a painful commentator tk. You are doing your best. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
Fabrizio tweeted deal close for Matt Turner he who will join us in the summer
The Athletic reported it,his club has agreed to let him join us.
Very risky move to let Chambers go now!
Kolasinac, Mari and AMN I understood and thought it made sense but Chambers is a bit of a Swiss knife, he can play several positions and could have been a really helpful this season.
How much did the club get for his last 5 months of contract? 16 days of Auba’s wages? 😂😂
I may start thinking Dan Smith is right about wage bill cuts this January!
Anyway, good luck to Chambers in his new club
I guess it is pretty clear now what the club plan is,same as last season,shipping out as many players as possible,one signing this window and hopefully this summer,buying another 4/5 players.
Now Arsenal can surely afford the wages of a brand new midfielder!!😂
Interesting!!! The squad is getting smaller….
Arsenal!! The only club that sells a player before getting it’s replacement. Tomi and Cedric are injured, yet he sold chambers.
We only have 3 centre backs which will all be playing at the moment since White is playing RB, an injury to any of the center back will be a big crisis at the defense.
🤦🤦🤦🤦
And what are we getting in return for Chambers? Cash? Another player? Something must really be wrong with our business model if the only criterion used to asses an outgoing player deal is… wages to be saved.
If you were expecting better, then you’ve been living in wonderland with Alice. Welcome to Arsenal
It seems Kroenke has asked the Teta to downsize wages to make the club more attractive to potential buyers. Just sayin…
Good thing to get rid of another fringe player. My only disappointment is that most of them should have left since in the summer transfer window last year, when some cash return could have been received. Reducing the wage bill and making space for better quality players is essential for the rebuild. Please sign a striker now. If not, Arsenal should play Pepe or Smith-Rowe as the striker. Arsenal should seriously consider buying Dominik Szoboszlai now as his release clause is around 60m euros. He scores goals and provides assist and will add quality to the squad’s depth.
So Wayne, when we have sold our “fringe players” can you tell me who will make up the first team squad for match days, bearing in mind that Aubameyang, Lacazette, Nketiah are also going to leave this summer?
Good player, misused by Arteta. He was unlucky in Arsenal too. Good luck to him.
With Tom out, shortage in midfield and loaning Mari, selling him seems risky.
another bang-up job when it comes to asset management, especially considering he hardly even saw the pitch since the start of the season…maybe this was done to free up some space on the wage bill so that tweedle dee & tweedle dum could secure the services of the underwhelming Melo for the next 18 months
Interestingly, Elneny just been awarded MOM at the African cup – I guess we’ll let this piece of “deadwood dross” leave for nothing as well… at this rate, MA will have to registered himself and Edu as players.
Trust the process 😂😂😂
Even Xhaka won the MoM during the Euros? So what is your point? On yeah I get it, just as 2 assists and 2 goals in some 18+ games is an outstanding stat for someone on 350K/Week, so 1 MoM at the African tournament means we have another outstanding player and the new KDB on our roster!
The problem is that at this rate, you will have no roster other than the u23 players and bunch few others.
We are not a championship club, we need a squad, a mature one.
Where did the mature ones lead us to?20th at the start of season? 8th for 2 consecutive years? Cannot score a sitter against Burnley? Slapped by CFC at Baku? Get over the rubbish of Wenger, we need to move forward with the right players. And we will get them only if there is space for them which Mikel is creating. Playing Wengers rubbish is like playing for no reason, just to complete the 90 minutes thrust upon them by the FA/EPL/UEFA
Wenger’s rubbish you said but your over the top best manager in the world used that to win FA cup. How much have MA used in a couple of transfer windows compared to what AW used in his later years at arsenal?
I can see him doing very well, should have kept him hes better than holding and cedric
Chambers always did his best for us. Not sure it makes sense to let him go before the end of the season. It’s clear that means William Saliba is coming back which is good. Boy do we need Matteo Guendouzi at the moment. He’s been playing really well and whatever people feel about his character he is a very good player. Granit Xhaka has something wrong in his character wise and is way more crazy than Guendouzi. We desperately need to sign a midfielder in the next few days. I don’t know why we don’t loan Luka Jovic as a striker, he is a great technical player and has amazing timing, his goals are better quality than Dusan Vlahovic.
All the best Chambers. Hope your move will be a successful one for you.
Always liked him, a good, honest professional with a great attitude. I’ll bet SG gets the best out of him at Villa.
I wish him well!!
Everyone is running away because of Arteta garbage style of play
No one wants to come in
Exactly my point Nugent. Nobody wants to come here anymore because of our genius manager. There was Arsenal FC 😭😭😭😭
Same as what happened with our greatest manager.
Players like Vieira, Henry, Adebayor, Cesc, Nasri, Sanchez, RVP, etc all wanted out under him.
There has to be at least 2 confirmed signings if we are letting go of this amount of player???I’m sure Edu/MA know.
If we don’t sign anyone and get 1 or 2 injuries that will be us ending 8th or below.
Its a bit surprising unless MA and Edu have something up their sleeves which we fans dont know. With Mari and AMN already gone, we are very short in defence atleast till summer. We desperately need a DM now because White will be needed in defence and Tomi and Cedric are both injured so White will have to play RB, unless MA plans to use Tavares as RB. I think Douglas Louis would be a good fit for us and I would also like Jovic to be signed as striker. We have got to move fast as time is very short.
We desperately need to loan Jovic. He is a true striker and technically proficient. He has good timing and can score from forward positions or even with late runs. All he needs is game time. If we don’t get a striker and rely on Nketiah then 4th place will have been surrendered with a big fat whimper. Big club Edu/Arteta or a lazy, negligent club???? Check your job descriptions!
Philippe Coutinho, Lucas Digne and Robin Olsen, Calum Chambers…..signed by Aston Villa
0000000000 nothing…….signed by Arsenal! Who means business? The word is NEGLIGENCE.
4th place, Champions league…ha, ha, ha.