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.