Signs Valencia are ready to sell Mustafi to Arsenal?

I could be wrong about all of this, but it does strike me as a little strange for La Liga’s Valencia to come to England for a couple of pre-season games and bring their German international centre back with them if he really had no chance of featuring in the matches.

The fact that Shkodran Mustafi is also the subject of an ever increasing number of Arsenal transfer rumours certainly increases the amount of scrutiny on the defender, so you would think that we would have heard before if there was anything wrong with him.

That is why the story reported by the Evening Standard about the reason for the 25-year old sitting out the friendly game between his club and Premier League Bournemouth does not sit quite right in my opinion. The people from Valencia have said something about Mustafi needing a specialist training regime and the need to get him right after Euro 2016, with some vague mention of a foot problem thrown in.

Earlier reports suggested that the Spanish club were ready to sell the defender in order to balance the books though, and if they were about to do this then I could understand them not wanting to risk the deal by playing him in a pointless match. With Per Mertesacker out with a long term injury Arsene Wenger hasd made it clear that Arsenal need another experienced defender and he seemed confident of getting one, so do you think the transfer is already arranged?

Bob.

Tags Mertesacker Wenger

24 Comments

  1. I am not British so maybe some of you can help me understand. Why was there a “Wayne Rooney Testimonial?”

    Did he announce his retirement? Did he rescue a small village? Is he moving on from ManU? He certainly did not lead the club to CL glory last season.

    Or is this just an excuse to pretend ManU and Rooney are somehow “special” like their egotistical manager? Seems like ManU are trying to find some excuse to honor themselves.

  2. Oh look, Arsenal trying to buy a central defender, apparently for £25m. Weird, because there was a world class central defender that completed a transfer for £30m this summer who’s come out and said he’d have been open to joining Arsenal if we’d bothered to approach him. But we didn’t, and he went to Bayern Munich instead.

    Poor management.

    I don’t care if Mertesacker wasn’t injured back then. We’ve needed a top centre back for ages. If there’s someone on the market that improves your starting 11 for a reasonable price, you buy them. It isn’t rocket science.

    1. I doubt Hummels would have joined us even if we did bid for him. You have to remember Hummels is a Bayern academy player and will be a definite starter for them. So even if we did bid for him it would be a very straight forward choice for him between us and Bayern. I mean why would he want to move to a different country when he is a guaranteed starter at the best club in his country(one of the best in europe). League titles are already guaranteed if you are playing for Bayern,Juventus,PSG. Moreover he is too injury prone for the kind of transfer fee he warranted.

      1. You emphasize that Hummels will be a starter for Bayern. Hummels would be a starter for any club in the world. There is no issue of starting or not.

        The only questions are……..

        1. Would Hummels want to come to London? That is something we cannot know.
        2. Would Arsenal out-bid Bayern for his services? This is the real issue is it not? No way Arsenal would ever out-bid Bayern for a top German that Bayern want. With Wenger the issue ALWAYS boils down to money.

  3. Arsenal are not in for Draxler/ mahrez and are only showing interest in mustafi (no bids yet) + chelski are keen….

    This is a tweet coming from David Ornstein (BBC correspondent) & popular Arsenal mouthpiece

    If this piece of info is anything to go by….. Brace urselves for a very frustrating season!

    #OohToBeA…Moaner#
    #FickleManagerFickleBoard#
    #HardTimeToBeA..Gooner#

    1. I do hope we sign a CB this window so we can allow Chambers to go on loan to get some game time. He is not going to improve sitting on the bench or playing the odd cup game. He has to get some games under his belt. Maybe Swansea will take him if they sell Ashley Williams ??

    2. I don’t know how much Wenger is wanting to sign an attacker. But you make a good point that Wenger certainly seems to be putting a priority on the CB signing first.

  4. To answer you Mr Mohawk.
    In England it has been a tradition to award a testimonial to a player serving 10 years at a club. In the past when wages were a lot lower than the ridicules levels they are now the player kept the gate receipts and other sponsorship monies as a reward for his long loyal service to the club. These days the player usually donates the money to charity and Rooney was hoping to raise £ 5 million for good causes so your comments are a bit harsh but as you did not understand the concept are understandable.

  5. It takes ages for Arsenal to get these rumoured transfers
    Some exceptions ie Cech, Alexis, Xhaka

    Most clubs have got their business done (not including younglings)
    Spurs-Janssen, Wanyama
    Chelsea-Batshuayi, Nante
    United-Ibrahimovic, Mktharyan, Pogba
    City- Gundogan, Nolito, Sane, Jesus
    Arsenal- Xhaka

    We have missed out on many forwards and the pool of available forwards is very small now

    I suppose Wenger may want a last minute signing like Ozil, Welbeck, Arteta, Benayoun, Santos, Mertsacker all signed on the last day

    Plenty of Defenders out there but its just a case of signing one
    Wenger has had plenty of time for both defenders and forwards

  6. Getting so frustrated with this transfer window… its like being a poor kid at christmas, all my mates are getting shiny new toys and all we get is rumours of a half fit alexis playing the lone striker role (not very shiny at all). seriously tempted to put that old fudger in a headlock!

      1. We should be used to it by now but every year we get sucked in again. It stated off so well with the Xhaka signing, iys just been a massive bump back to reality since…

  7. Really do not want Mustafi any one of the EPL CB scouted would do a great job. Evans/Dann/Williams/Fonte would give better value for money. Especial in terms of playing in the league.

    A little off topic Gnarby was great today for germany scoring one and caused the corner that led to the second goal, that is why i have said if it was not for injuries he would be way ahead of OX, it should be interesting to see if he remains with arsenal or goes out on loan

    1. They are identikit players, I haven’t seen enough of Serge but what from what i’ve seen Ox has the edge in terms of size if nothing else, It would be nice if they were different enough to keep both but unfortunetly I see Gnabry being surplus to requirements before long

    2. So Jonny Evans is gunna push us to EPL title? Doubt that. Maybe people don’t remember Mustafi from 2014 WC… he’s miles better than Mertesacker who should be phased out at this point anyways, and would be great with Koscielny. If he had name recognition like Hummels then you wouldn’t say that. Not to mention he has a great reputation in Spain as well.

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