John Stones is supposedly considering his future at present, having endured a tough season with Manchester City this year.
The England international suffered with injuries for much of the campaign, as well as team-mate defender Aymeric Laporte, but even when fit Stones has mostly found himself out of Pep Guardiola’s first-team plans.
The Spanish manager will more than likely be investing in another top centre-half this summer in order to battle their weaknesses from this campaign, and Stones and Nicolas Otamendi may well find themselves pushed further down the pecking order.
Manchester City haven’t shied away from investing heavily to combat their weaknesses in previous seasons, although they do currently have a European football ban in place, which could well see them look to be more stringent on their spending if they must meet FFP regulations in order to regain entry to the Champions League, and they may have to sell some of their talent.
Arsenal are thoroughly linked with a number of defenders at present, despite the incoming William Saliba having already signed from St Etienne.
Stones is a ball-playing defender, who should still have his best years ahead of him at the age of 25. He could well be the long-term successor to David Luiz, who whilst being one of the best distributors of the ball from the back, is into the latter years of his career, and only has a limited amount of time at the top of the game.
Personally you couldn’t overlook the opportunity to sign Stones should a realistic fee be possible, but a long-term decision would need to be made on Rob Holding, while only allowing Sokratis or Mustafi to stay on if they agree to be back-up options as opposed to regulars in the first-team.
Could Stones possible availability dent Pablo Mari’s chances of securing an Arsenal deal? Who would be the better long-term partner for Saliba?
Patrick
No,likewise Lovren !
We have 2 defenders basically the same profile Holding and Chambers. If i was to make a decision i would say Chambers is better than Holding and Stones.
However a decision like this would be decided by the manager and his preference in players
Interesting one this!
Pepe and Mikel worked together with this guy and ifone is prepared to let him leave, would the other have seen something better in him?
Somehow I doubt this and see it as more media BS…if pep doesn’t rate him, why would MA?
Stones is just average. I think someone already said chambers and holding are at a similar level and age. I think we need to get rid of luiz, sokratis, mustafi, Mari and pay for a quality CB. Our spine is currently weak and we have seems the defence needs fixing. We are doing a job since arteta has come in but we really need some long term quality. Holding and chambers both have the potential but we have seen neither hit and stay at top form for extended period of time hence I would keep then in reserve