Is this Dutchman Arsenal’s new defender in January

Every Arsenal fan was left bamboozled this summer when Arsene Wenger allowed Thomas Vermaelen to leave (and Carl Jenkinson to go out on loan) but failed to bring in adequate replacements. The Frenchman admitted that he had made a mistake when he told fans at the annual AGM: ‘I agree we could have bought one more player but we didn’t find one.

‘But we will try in January to rectify that because we are a bit short because of the injuries we’ve had.’

It has since been revealed that Arsenal made a last-minute bid to buy Virgil Van Dijk on deadline day, but Celtic refused to let the Dutchman leave as they had no time to find a replacement. Now they have had more time to source said defender it is highly likely that the Scottish giants will be happy to take Arsenal’s money in the winter transfer window.

Van Dijk has also now made it clear that he would have no qualms about moving to the Emirates if Celtic accept our offer. He said in the Telegraph: “Arsenal are an amazing club,”

“It’s a big club with a great history but so are Celtic and I’m very happy here just now. I just want to play well and we will see what happens in the future. There are stories but until there are bids I can’t say anything.

“I have ambitions but Celtic is an amazing club with a lot of history. There is no rush to leave but you never know in the future.”

He may not be in a rush to leave but Arsenal are definitely desperate to bring him in, with Laurent Koscielny the latest player to move into the Gunners overcrowded treatment room. I would not be in the least surprised if Van Dijk joins us on the very first day of the transfer window.

Is he good enough to play for Arsenal?

Tags Celtic van dijk

48 Comments

      1. Happy “50th injury at Arsenal” – day for Abou Diaby when obtaining a “small calf problem” while doing absolutely nothing!

        “We couldn’t find the right player” – Arsene Wenger.
        Made a bid for Van Dijk in the closing hours of the deadline day and obviously they were not going to sell because they have no replacement. Wow, just incredible how incompetetent AW is when buying the players the team absolutely requires. It’s not like he had WEEKS to bid for Van Dijk.. wait, he did have..

  1. would be a good signing he can play cdm as well + hope we get antonio rudiger who is an arsenal fan prefer either of these 2 to mertasacker

    1. Funny thing is I was just looking up his videos just before I got to this site to find this article. He’s a physically well-built lad, can do a few Yaya Touré runs into a sleepy defense, and has a little finesse to go with his touch & tackling… Can make a decent signing!

      1. He is a very good free kick taker, he would have to curve his runs forward whilst playing in England as the quality here is a massive step up. He is tall quick, aggressive, strong lad making him the perfect physical hybrid you would get if u combined per n kosc

    2. Funny thing is statistics shows mertesacker has been the best arsenal player in the prem this season (squawka) he is isn’t nowhere as bad as stupid fans try to make him out to be.

      Rudiger is a quality affordable cb even Man U wanted him over rojo who they end up with.this lad is got the potential to be better than kosc and has stated his love for arsenal he would also be joining a former Stuttgart Man in gnabry

  2. If Chelsea beat Man Utd today, it will become a one horse race for the EPL. Which team can realistically stop them???

    1. Stoke, Any team with Fat Sam/Pulis, Arsenal (no kidding), City.

      There is no stopping them. It’s just to whom whom they can lose.

      1. the annoying thing was…they just bought players they needed-
        its not rocket science- a dm buy matic, a cf buy costa ,a cb buy zouma.

        now there strolling the league- its not like there doing anything revolutionary-

        1. Zouma is still untested and how good is ivanovic at cb if the starters are injured? Ivanovic hasn’t played there for a long time.

      1. Arteta,flamini,coqulan

        Were would we have space for 2?
        Arteta is getting a new deal and coqulan would have been sold in the summer if wenger wanted him out.

        That leaves a replacement for flamini who is likely to go marsielle in the summer.(if diaby n coqulan are also departing this would then leave space to add another quality dm)

    1. we should have taken Song back to the Emirates, gave 100% every time he played for us and set up Van Persie on a regular basis to score goals.

    1. why? Title race is basically over for us. Even at this early stage we are too far behind. Draw or Chelsea win. Our target is once again 4th place, and United will be competing for it as well. Time to lower expectations once again guys.

      1. hey, only the truth. realistically, how many points are Chelsea going to drop this season? We’re 11 points behind and looks like we’re only going to drop more, while Chelsea are only getting better. Sorry I’m not deluded…

  3. Van Dijk really looks more like a DM then a CB, but would be a wonderful addition, if wenger is actually interested, i would personally go for Dijk and Rudiger,, Kos will need surgery and i fear mert will also be breaking down soon

    1. Exactly he would cover 2 positions DM and CDM. He is huge in length and weight. He can also score goals.

  4. we need 2 DMs and not 1

    if our DM get injured theres always a backup…..

    at this stage we have zero quality DM….

  5. Don’t get your hopes up. I’m just saying for the benefit of your minds. Keep your expectations low then you won’t be disappointed.

    I’m expecting Wenger to re-sign Sol Campbell or Silvestre

  6. Wenger will buy nobody in January it’s the usual bullsh#t to keep the fans hopefull! at best we may get either an ageing CB or a young unproven CB.
    That’s why under Wenger we will never win the premier league again and stand a chance to win the champions league which is wrong seeing all the wealth we have.

  7. @leo. Aurrier was an arsenal fan see what happened there. We’ll sign dor £2.50 a 15 year old french player who’s 9 stone 2, 6foot9 and runs in treacle. Wenger will say he is ‘quality’ 🙁 I despair abd expect nothing but hope for hummeks abd kondogbia.

  8. Im hoping for a draw or chelsea win this afternoon. We won’t win the pl so are competing with man u. And I despise mu, (and rvp, van gall, their money, arrogance) nore than Chelsea. I cant stand mourinho but cant fault him hes done exactly what our nanager should have done in the window and is tactically a genius, also look how his players play for him, a little fear mixed in with respect I suggest. Do our players still respect or fear wenger?

  9. Although I’ll be slated for this but I think shawcross will be a very good signing……at least he’ll kill diego costa next time we meet chelsea

    1. Solid premier leaug player with no scope for improvement I’ll give it a pass.football is changing and centre backs need to be quick(somthing he is not)

  10. As an Arsenal fan, I would absolutely love to see Van Djik move to Arsenal. The Celtic fan inside me cries about it though. He impressed me last season, and has only gotten better. As people have mentioned, he can slot in as a DM or CB, and is fast, tall, strong and technically gifted. He is very much like David Luiz, without anywhere near the number of errors.

    My January transfer list is Van Djik and Hummels. Signing Reus would be amazing, although that isn’t going to happen unless we move both Campbell and Podolski. The problem however is that the EPL has limitations for homegrown players, foreigners and squad size, and I believe that we are extremely close, if not right at, our maximum number of foreign players. This could be one reason for us being unable to buy a CB or DM this summer. They must be considered homegrown players. I admit, I don’t know much about these transfer restrictions so I may be completely off as well.

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