The Arsenal boss Raul Sanllehi has already told us that he is not keen on the January transfer window except in emergencies, but it looks like that may be the case at the moment since Rob Holding’s season-ending injury occurred last week.
The new boss Unai Emery has said as much in yesterday’s pre-match conference, when he was quoted by the Express as saying: “If we can take one player to help us at centre-back, I think it’s a good option.
“A transfer is not easy and the possibility with Calum is maybe one option, but I don’t know if we can do that.
“Koscielny is coming back and for the team it’s very important he is coming back.
“Then we are going to wait and see how Mavropanos is improving with his injuries, because he is also a centre back who can help us.
“Nacho Monreal and Lichtsteiner can play in this position. But I prefer to use, if we can, a specific centre-back.”
This makes it even more important that Laurent Koscielny can prove that he is back to his best in the next few games to give Emery some breathing space in the search for Holding’s replacement. We are all well aware that if you go into the January market looking for an urgent defender, then other clubs will be demanding crazy transfer fees as they know we are desperate. It would be so much better if we could get Koscielny and Mavropanos back on track and get the rest back to fitness!
Then again, I wouldn’t say no to Gary Cahill either if Chelsea will let us have him on loan….
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